Editing El Norte (film) (section)

=== ''Coyote'' ===
During the second part of the film, the two teenagers flee Guatemala, travel through Mexico, and meet a Mexican [[Coyotaje|coyote]] who guides them across the border. This section includes various comic scenes relating to mutual stereotyping among different ethnic groups; the two attempt to pass themselves off as indigenous Mexicans, failing to convince one Mexican truck driver after naming the wrong destination, but later succeeding in convincing a U.S. Border Patrol officer by copiously peppering their responses with the Mexican word for "fuck", which a neighbor had suggested was how all Mexicans speak.<ref name="popmatters" />

Thus, Enrique and Rosa are only deported to a border town in Mexico and not to Guatemala, giving them a base for a second attempt to cross the border. After their first failed attempt to cross the ''"frontera"'', in which a man posing as a coyote deceives and attempts to rob them, they have a horrific experience when they finally cross the U.S.-Mexico border through a sewer pipe laden with rats; critic Roger Ebert noted:

{{blockquote|The scene is horrifying, not least because it's pretty clear these are real rats. Disease-free rats purchased from a laboratory, yes, but real rats all the same, and although Gutierrez was phobic about rats, she insisted on doing her own scenes, and her panic is real.<ref name="ebert2004">[http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-el-norte-1983 Ebert, Roger]. Great Movies: ''El Norte'', film review, August 1, 2004. Accessed: July 27, 2013.</ref>}}