The Gangster in Hispanic American Cinema

Abstract

Migration is an important underlying theme in Los debutantes and other Latin American films about crime and violence. Migration from the countryside or the interior to the city or the capital is a defining phenomenon in twentieth‐century Latin American modernity. However, the struggle of rural immigrants in the subcontinent is matched in the depiction of the experiences of migrant communities and their descendants in the Hispanic United States, the most fertile source of material for Hispanic gangster movies. The 1990s continued to emphasize the dark side of the Hispanic gangster experience but at least attempted more of a sympathetic or insider point of view. The story of Santana foreshadows the content of Brian De Palma's 1993 film Carlito's Way, one of the greatest Hispanic‐themed gangster movies from the United States.