...And the Earth Did Not Swallow Him (1994)

Marcos is a lad in Texas, the second son of a migrant farmworker family, his brother is missing in the Korean war. We travel with the family into Minnesota, following the crops. The housing... See full summary »

Director:

Severo Perez

Writers:

Tomás Rivera (novel), Severo Perez

Stars:

Jose Alcala, Rose Portillo, Art Bonilla

5 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Jose Alcala	...	Marcos
Rose Portillo	...	Florentina
Art Bonilla	...	Lalo
Marco Rodríguez	...	Joaquin
Lupe Ontiveros	...	Doña Rosa
Daniel Valdez	...	Bartolo
Evelyn Guerrero	...	Lupita
Sam Vlahos	...	Don Cleto
Sal Lopez	...	El Mohado
Miguel Rodríguez	...	Narrator
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Francisco Aragon	...	Julian (as Frank Aragon)
James Jude Courtney	...	Carpenter
Gregory Gifford Giles	...	Father Josef (as Gregory Giles)
Sara Harris	...	Nun
Halbert Hernandez	...	(as Halbert Bernal)

Storyline

Marcos is a lad in Texas, the second son of a migrant farmworker family, his brother is missing in the Korean war. We travel with the family into Minnesota, following the crops. The housing is awful, sometimes the boss furnishes no water as the hands labor, and TB goes untreated. In good times the pay is $15 a day for adults, half that for children. For a few sordid weeks, his parents leave him in the care of a corrupt couple, he's expelled from school for hitting back, and he finds solace in a graveyard. As his parents long for their missing son, as folks gather around a local troubadour for songs of romance, comedy, and heartbreak, Marcos observes and remembers.

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Plot Keywords:

texas | song | school | minnesota | migrant | 

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Taglines:

a haunting remembrance of Chicano family life in the 1950s

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Spanish

Release Date:

5 May 1995 (USA)

Also Known As:

...y no se lo tragó la tierra

Filming Locations:

Minnesota, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

American Playhouse, KPBS, Kino International

Technical Specs

Runtime:

99 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

User Reviews

Good companion piece to book

After reading Y no se lo trago la tierra, I was very curious to see how it's unique writing style of flashbacks and memories would be transferred into film. The book, even though confusing at times, brought very vivid images into my imagination and even caused chills down my arms on occasion. The film, though brilliantly shot doesn't do the book justice.

I don't know how the film-makers decided which parts of the book actually made it into the film, but one of the saddest stories in the book, "The Night Before Christmas," about the children at Christmas time not getting anything but fruit as presents and the mother who was prone to panic attacks, was completely left out of the film. To me, this was one of the stories, that gave me chills and even made me teary eyed. I really wish the film-makers would have included this story.

I was also not pleased with some of the unnecessary changes to some of the details in the book. In the book, Marcos wants to be a telephone operator and in the film, a radio operator. Why dishonor the author's choice of words? The film does has wonderful moments, like the mother praying for her son's safe return home. It was sad in the book but heartbreaking on film. All in all, I think the film should be shown as a companion piece to the book but no movie could have captured the visuals I saw in my mind while reading this book.