Carlitos (very good acting by Adrián Alonso) has lost his mother (Kate del Castillo). She's not dead, no. She left him when he was five to work as an illegal housekeeper in Los Angeles. Though everyday she deals with major problems (two jobs, one of them with a bad employer, running away from the "migra") she has managed to have a decent living in order to send money to his impoverished family back in Mexico. However, when his grandmother dies, Carlitos decides to cross the US/Mexican border with the help of two young Chicanos (America Ferrara and Jesse García), since doña Carmen, la coyote (Carmen Salinas), refuses to help him, due to a promise made to Rosario, Carlito's mother, even though she handles an illegal crossing business. However, things for him will get complicated right from the beginning, starting a dangerous, but beautiful and rich travel from his impoverished Mexico to the modern L.A., meeting a lot of people that, somehow, try to help him on his way to his mother, though things won't be easy at all.<br /><br />This is not just a simple movie. It tries to tell a simple story, but is in this simple story that lies a major problem: the illegal immigration in the U.S. Beautifully directed by Patricia Riggen and with a great script by Ligiah Villalobos, the film is a touching, completely different road movie, and a totally worth watching cinematographic experience. It's not perfect, being a little "too Mexican" (it's a little kind of a Mexican telenovela), but it is a major, major film.