As
the film begins, we are informed that 73,000 persons are under
the care of Child and Family Services, a County of Los Angeles
agency. As the film proceeds, we see some of the 73,000 as
well as a few social workers who coordinate the care. The
film focuses on three years in the life of Alicia Montalvo
(played by Jade Herrera), a Salvadoran refugee. Although film
credits say that the story is fictional, a publicity blurb
indicates that the film is based on a true story. When the
film begins, Alicia is in El Salvador, where sleep is interrupted
by gunfire due to the ongoing civil war. Orphaned by the war,
Alicia's aunt brings fifteen-year-old Alicia to Los Angeles
with her eight-year-old brother as refugees. Alicia attends
school and works in a sweatshop, where payment for work is
irregular. When school officials see repeated marks on Alicia's
body, they infer that she is a victim of child abuse and notify
the social welfare agency. Since police suspect her aunt of
possessing crack, a social worker and a police officer suddenly
show up at Alicia's home to remove her without a warrant or
visible legal process. Alicia and her brother then go to the
welfare office. As the social worker made no advance arrangements
for foster care, she next telephones to locate a foster home
for both, but brother and sister are split up, going to two
different homes. Despite promises from the social worker that
the siblings can see each other, they are kept apart. Upon
arriving at the foster home, Alicia's foster mother tells
her about rules of conduct, but her other foster child encourages
her to "have fun" by going to a party instead, even though
this means violating the foster parents's curfew rule. Alicia
then meets a Latino boyfriend and falls in love; she then
stops going to school and continues violating curfew to develop
a relationship with her boyfriend. One night, however, her
foster father discovers that she is violating curfew and,
threatening to send her to juvenile hall, rapes her. One night,
while Alicia and her boyfriend and another couple are driving
around, police stop the car, which is stolen, and all are
arrested. While being processed at the jail, medical tests
reveal that she is pregnant. During arraignment on the charge
of grand theft, the judge orders Alicia to a house for pregnant
teens, and she is shipped to Houston House on Boyle Heights
(east of Hope Street) , administered by a Caucasian female
who is more interested in her personal appearance and in payoffs
to contractors than in quality of care issues, though she
is later fired after a routine investigation. After a scuffle
with a disagreeable Caucasian roommate, she is reassigned
to share a room with another Latina, and both decide to have
their babies. The two go shopping one day on Hope Street and
try to hitchhike back before curfew, but the men who offer
a ride home have rape in mind, her friend is killed, and Alicia
luckily escapes but is hospitalized. Fortunately, Alicia is
guided by Casey, a sympathetic African American coordinator
(played by Tim Russ), at Houston House; she graduates from
high school with employable computer skills, has her baby,
and expects to move into an apartment of her own with her
younger brother. However, her former Caucasian roommate reports
her to immigration authorities, and she is led to a detention
cell until a deportation hearing. At the hearing, she makes
an impassioned plea and is awarded a green card. Directed
by Tim Russ and Nate Thomas, who also wrote the script, the
film's title is reminiscent of East of Eden
(1955), a classic tale of despair ending in hope. As a window
into the misfortunes of Salvadorans, who have many of the
same problems as Vietnamese refugees, and into the way social
workers wield extraordinary power over minors with little
accountability, East of Hope Street has been
nominated by the Political Film Society for an award as the
best film exposé of 1999 and the best film promoting consciousness
of the need for greater democracy. MH
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