Nosotros los Pobres

Nosotros los pobres ("We, the Poor") is a 1948 Mexican drama film directed by Ismael Rodríguez. It was originally titled Topillos y Planillas (named after two of the characters in the film and before the main character Jose "Pepe el Toro" was created), but later changed after its author Pedro de Urdimalas heard Abel Cureño (who's also in the film and at that time was playing a street vendor selling oranges in the radio show La Banda de Huipanguillo) commenting (in character) about the unfair treatment of the poor people in the city exclaimed: "Nosotros los pobres somos despreciados por la gente; Nosotros los pobres no tenemos nada" ("We the poor are outcast by society; We the poor own nothing".) "Although it won no prizes, it remained for many years Mexico's all-time leader in box-office receipts and is often shown on television". [1]

Nosotros los pobres
Film poster
Directed byIsmael Rodríguez
Produced byIsmael Rodríguez
Written byCarlos González Dueñas
Ismael Rodríguez
Pedro de Urdimalas
StarringPedro Infante
Evita Muñoz
Music byManuel Esperón
CinematographyJosé Ortiz Ramos
Edited byFernando Martínez
Release date
25 March 1948
Running time
128 minutes
CountryMexico
LanguageSpanish

Plot

The film starts with two children taking a book from a trash can. The book is titled "We the Poor". The children read it.

It tells the story of a poor neighbourhood in Mexico City. Pepe el Toro, a carpenter and a womanizer, lives with his adoptive child Chachita, who is curious to know how her mother looked since Pepe told her that she died in labour. In front of them lives the pretty Celia, better known as La Chorreada. Pepe, secretly from Chachita, tries to woo Celia, but her abusive stepfather Don Pilar disapproves of this. Around them is a cast of characters, such as two drunk women known as La Tostada (Toasted) and La Guayaba (Guava); the beautiful yet sleepy woman known as La que se levanta tarde (The one who wakes up late) and a mysterious prostitute named Yolanda or La Tisica (The Tuberculosis, the disease she suffers from) who constantly tries to talk with Pepe, but he rejects her. At this point, what happened between them is never mentioned.

As the Day of the Dead arrives, Chachita and Celia go to visit Chachita's mother's tomb at the cemetery, but a woman reveals to them that the tomb belongs to her daughter. Chachita, heart broken, goes back with Pepe to confront him, but he refuses to reveal her mother's whereabouts. While Celia tries to convince him, Chachita finds out about their affair, which worsens the situation.

A few days later, a rich lawyer, Montes, arrives to the neighbourhood asking Pepe for a table. When Montes sees Celia, he becomes infatuated. He constantly comes back to seduce her, but Celia always rejects him, Montes gives her a card with his address and phone number.

On Chachita's birthday, Yolanda appears and tries to get to Chachita, but Pepe prevents it, she begs him to forgive her, and as Chachita and Celia try to reconcile, both see them, Chachita runs away and Celia gets extremely jealous and confronts Pepe, finally he tells her that Yolanda is in fact his sister. After this, Pepe no longer trusts Celia, breaking her heart.

At the party, Pepe's friends are arrested for accidentally stealing the food. Montes comes back and gives Pepe $400 so he can buy the wood for the table, Pepe gives the money to Chachita so she can hide it until he comes back with the wood, unfortunately as Chachita was hiding the cash, Don Pilar saw her. A few minutes later, Don Pilar enters and steals the money, but Pepe's paraplegic mom sees him, he notices this but ignores her.

After Pepe believes that Chachita lost the money, he begins to work for Doña Merneciana, a rich woman, in order to recover the money, meanwhile a gang led by Ledo, offer him to cooperate on a robbery at Merenciana's house but he refuses the offer, at night, Pepe finds Merenciana's dead body and he is blamed for the murder. Montes manages to send him to jail since he is unable to recover his money.

For a few days, Chachita and Celia unsuccessfully try to visit Pepe in jail, because he constantly gets in trouble fighting the other inmates. Celia decides to break with Pepe and stay with Montes so she can earn some money in order to get Pepe out of jail. After Montes and Celia have sex, she feels guilty and runs away to never see Montes again.

Chachita and Pepe's mom are kicked from the house and the carpentry is closed. Don Pilar and Celia let them stay at their home. However Don Pilar turns mad since he begins to feel guilty of his actions, and brutally beats Pepe's mother. At jail Pepe hears that his mom is sent to the hospital and breaks out, while at the hospital Chachita begs to the doctor to attend her grandma, but finds out that he is attending a dying Yolanda, she pleads to the Doctor to kill Yolanda and save her grandma instead. Pepe arrives and tells Chachita that Yolanda is her biological mother, both Chachita and Yolanda break in tears and bid their farewells. Pepe does the same with his mom before turning into the authorities.

Back in jail, Pepe encounters Ledo and his gang, he manages to take them to a closed cell, where Pepe kills the gang and cuts Ledo's eye out, instead of killing him, he makes Ledo confess that he killed Doña Merenciana.

A few months later, Pepe reunites with Chachita and Celia, with whom he has married and had a baby boy called "El Torito". They go to the cemetery to visit the graves of Pepe's mom and sister, there Chachita encounters again with the woman and asks her "did you mistake the tomb again?" to which Chachita replies: "No, now I have a tomb to cry for".

The two kids, stop reading the book when they find a page that says: End of Chaper One. They close the book and throw it back to the trash can.

Cast

Trilogy

The film was followed by two sequels, Ustedes los ricos (You the Rich) in 1948 and Pepe the Bull (Pepe el toro) in 1953. Rodríguez directed all three films, with Infante and Muñóz returning for both sequels, while Pavón only reprised her character in Ustedes los ricos, as she died in a plane crash in 1949.

Notes
  1. Mora, Carl J. (2005). Mexican Cinema: Reflections of a Society, 1896-2004. McFarland. p. 81. ISBN 978-0786469253.
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