With the title being a great play on the words of Bruce Springsteen's hit Born In The USA, the humor of Cheech Marin's Born In East LA has in many ways become more grimly ironical in the age of Trump. It could be grim for some even back in 1987.

Poor Cheech, by some bad luck he's caught in an INS raid on a sweatshop garment factory and happens to have no ID on him. He protests in vain to redneck INS officer Jan Michael Vincent that he was Born In East LA. No matter, he's put in the bus and carted back to Mexico. Where he has to survive not even speaking a word of Spanish, his family has been in America for that long.

But as we see Marin is a resourceful guy and he finds ways to survive.

In some situations this turns deadly serious when the woman who is short by a few dollars is thrown off his truck by the coyote smuggler. Marin gives up some of the money he's saved up with his hustling.

The finale with that "charge" is a classic.

You can bet that Born In East LA doesn't get White House showings these days.

Rudy Robles (Cheech Marin) is a mechanic born and raised in east L.A. He lives with his mother and sister's family. They leave for Fresno while he's told to pick up cousin Javier (Paul Rodriguez) at a factory. Rudy is picked up in an immigration sweep and deported to Mexico. He left his wallet at home. With no money, no documentation and limited Spanish, he struggles to get back home. He starts working for pool hall owner Jimmy (Daniel Stern) and befriends waitress Dolores (Kamala Lopez-Dawson).

I don't really like this Cheech without Chong. He's a bit too normal. He's not goofy enough. He complains too much especially at the beginning. I would like him dumber and more lovable. I imagine pot humor would go really great with this movie. As for the premise, it's a great way to satire the issue of the border. However, Rudy always seem to be a phone connection away from going back home. It's too easy and the movie struggles to create ways to screw it up. This premise has lots of potential and this could be great.

With East L.A. his Kansas and Tijuana his land of Oz, Mexican American Cheech Marin is a victim of assumption as he is arrested in an immigration raid and wrongfully deported. His journey home has him trying several times to sneak back across the border, meeting up with assorted weirdos and finding a bit of romance. He's a good guy just trying to get home, so it's easy to root for him, and obviously as he helps out others in need and befriends a young lady from El Salvador, a sweetness takes over the film that really wallops the impact.

Then there's his cousin Paul Rodriguez, visiting from Mexico, who doesn't speak a lick of English, getting to the spot where Marin was to meet him, stuck in the house by himself while Marin's mother is away as well. every time the phone rings and he hears the answering machine, he thinks it's the picture of Jesus on the wall speaking to him and at one point even brings him a can of beer. Irreverent for sure, but very funny.

The film takes serious issues (illegal immigration and xenophobia) and makes them entertaining because it presents them in a way that is entertaining yet filled with heart. You get to see the various American hopefuls in a more positive light, yet the film isn't beating you over the head with liberal propaganda. Marin teaching some Chinese men some Spanglish slang is very funny, as is the neighborhood reactions to the sexy lady in the green dress in the opening sequence. Quite an uplifting surprise, one that Cheech can truly be proud of as a modern classic comedy.