I'd like to start with a positive note: I liked the performance of Elpidia Carrillo.<br /><br />I did not care much for the rest of the movie.<br /><br />It has been shown, again and again, that trade unions are bad for the American economy. The UAW union has been "successfully" destroying the American automobile industry; the teachers' union has been no less successfully destroying the American schools; et cetera, et cetera. But these minor details shouldn't matter, should they, when we watch "Bread and Roses"? <br /><br />This movie, if you take it seriously, wants you to believe that without a union, the only way for a woman to get a job for herself or for her sister is to sleep with the boss; otherwise she can only support her family by becoming a prostitute.<br /><br />The cute female lead, an illegal Mexican immigrant, robs a gas station, but we are supposed to sympathize with her because this is "for a good cause".<br /><br />The male lead, a union organizer, steals the food from a table in a restaurant, and we are supposed to admire him for that and other examples of outrageous anti-social behavior.<br /><br />The demonstrators, when asked for their names by the police, give the names of Mexican revolutionary figures, and we are supposed to laugh at the stupidity of the American policemen.<br /><br />The illegals, oops, the undocumented workers, struggle to improve their lot in this country, instead of doing the same in their own country, or waiting in line to come here legally. We of course are expected to fully support them, to embrace them, to learn their language, to sing their songs. It shouldn't cross our mind that they have already broken the law of this country by crossing the border illegally and just for that alone should be treated as criminals.<br /><br />And that's both funny and outrageously shameful.