Adiós New York, Adiós* [Damián Rosa Film Prods.-Jorge Camargo, 1977?) Exec Prod: Frankie Hernández; Prod/Dir: Damián Rosa; Co-Prod: Jorge Camargo; Scr: Ulises Petit de Murat; Orig. Idea: Damián Rosa; Photo: Douglas Sandoval; Asst Photo: Jim Hubbard; Music: Ernesto Cortázar [Jr.]; Theme Song: Alberto Alonso; Assoc Prod: Julio Delgado; Prod Mgr: Wilfredo Rosa; Film Ed: Sigfrido García; Sound: Carlos A. Montalvo; Sound Asst: Héctor Alvarez
* aka Los emigrados (video release title on the "Brooklyn Electronics" label)
Cast: Andrés García (Felipe), Blanca Sánchez (Rebeca), Velda González (Velda), Frank Moro (Henry), Alba Nydia Díaz (Gilda), Enrique Puldom, Elia Enid Cadilla (Mercedes), Raúl Dávila (Guillermo), Perla Faith (Gladys), Olga Agostoni [sic] (Sonia), René Valdivia, Frank Robles (?Carlos), Burt Bertz, Julio Delgado, Isaac Cuevas, Jorge A. Santiago, Fabiola Solórzano, Vicente Colón, Minerva Rivera, Gilberto Vargas, Marta de la Cruz, Larry Ramos, Magda Torres, Gloria Martínez, Gladys Enchaustegui, Marina Vázquez, Manuel Egozcue, Wilfredo Rosa (?moving company employee), Dolores Kuilan, Mario Figueroa, Olga Endara, María Tai, María del Carmen, Radames López, Manolo Martínez, Héctor Alvarez (man in store), Víctor del Corral, Pitty Martínez
Notes: this film is listed in most sources (where it appears at all) as a 1973 production, but this must be incorrect--in one scene, Andrés García and Frank Moro walk down a New York City street where movie theatres are showing Jaws of Death, Blast, Three Days of the Condor, and Thieves, all made after 1973 (some as late as 1977, hence the tentative date I have assigned to this picture). Curiously, the movie received a theatrical release in Mexico in 1989!
The lives of various Latin residents of New York City are depicted. The central character is the Puerto Rican widow Velda, who owns a mom-and-pop grocery store (without pop), with the aid of her daughters Gilda and Gladys. Her son Henry quits his job in a factory to become a show biz impresario; Henry's best friend is Felipe, a Mexican who works in a photography studio. Felipe is teaching Argentine anthropology student Mercedes the rudiments of photography; they both work for a local newspaper on the side. One of their assignments is to interview the owner of the Flor de Mayo moving company (not so coincidentally, this real-life company was owned by the film's executive producer): Felipe falls in love with Rebeca, a Venezuelan secretary there. Rebeca later tells Felipe she was the mistress of a middle-aged gringo but got fed up with him and decided to change her life; Felipe takes it hard, but his love for Rebeca is strong enough to overcome this blow.
Other sub-plots: Mercedes quits her job after Guillermo, the newspaper publisher, hits on her. Gladys has a loser boyfriend Carlos, who is drunk most of the time and complains he can't get a break in New York due to discrimination. Gilda has an affair with the womanizing Rolando and becomes pregnant; he wants her to have an abortion, and runs around with other women (including Mercedes, until she learns what a cad he is). Carlos, driving Henry's car while drunk, hits and kills a man. Henry is blamed and arrested for the crime; Velda has to sell her store to pay his lawyers. He's acquitted, but Velda, Gladys, and the pregnant Gilda move back to Puerto Rico. Felipe has a violent "discussion" with Rolando, and they show up in Puerto Rico, where Rolando apologizes to Gilda and offers to marry her.
Adiós New York, Adiós is a mildly interesting film, shot on location in New York City. The only non-Latins with significant speaking roles (one scene each) are Rebeca's gringo boyfriend and an Italian judge (who speaks perfect Spanish). In an amusing flashback scene (mostly in English), Rebeca tells the gringo she isn't going to live off his money any more, and in fact she hates him! He calls her a "whore," which suggests he is a little confused: she was taking his money and sleeping with him, but when she stops, that's when she becomes a whore?
Although we never see any evidence of it, a frequent topic of conversation among the characters is how Latins are discriminated against in New York. [The screenwriter, Ulíses Petit de Murat, was Argentine but he may have either imported this attitude from Mexico--where he had worked since the 1950s--or it may have originated in Damián Rosa's "original idea" for the film.] Carlos blames his failure to find decent work on discrimination (oh, so the fact that he's an unshaven drunk is probably irrelevant?)--Velda urges him to go back to Puerto Rico and make something of himself. Henry says he wants to become a famous Puerto Rican like Roberto Clemente, José Ferrer, and Rafael Hernández, and refuses to return to Puerto Rico with his mother and sisters at the end of the movie, so apparently he doesn't hold a grudge against the USA. The customers of Velda's shop are always complaining about the high price of things in New York, how cold and unfeeling people are, and so forth--she urges them to work harder to get ahead, pointing our her own situation (a widow with three children) as an example. Velda's interview with the judge after Henry's acquittal is also instructive. She spent all of her savings on lawyers for her son, distrustful of the American justice system; the judge says her best "lawyers" were her witnesses, her character, her son's character, and so forth. He admits discrimination still exists but says it is decreasing, and points to his own Italian heritage as an example of how immigrant groups can assimilate and progress over time.
Although probably made very cheaply, Adiós New York, Adiós is professional and well-acted. In addition to familiar faces García, Sánchez, Moro, González and Faith, performers like Olga Agostini, Radames López, María Tai, and Héctor Alvarez are familiar from other Nuyorican films, and Raúl Dávila, Frank Robles, Alba Nydia Díaz, and Elia Enid Cadilla would go on to have substantial acting careers. The García and Sánchez sub-plot is somewhat separated from the other stories, although both characters do interact with the rest of the cast, so it's not like their scenes were shot at a different time and then spliced in. Perla Faith, who plays Gladys, has a show-nothing nude scene in bed with the scruffy Carlos, and later does a solo dance at a party in which her disdain for a bra is clearly evident (this scene is made even more amusing by the proud looks her mother bestows on her!). Rosa's direction is adequate but not really stylish, and the production values are satisfactory--unlike many Nuyorican movies, Adiós New York, Adiós features a number of Mexican technicians in the crew, adding a greater polish than usual. This does remove a little of the gritty feel of other films and makes it seem more like a telenovela, but there are still plenty of evocative New York location shots and the picture is generally an entertaining melodrama.
