Latinx Realisms: The Cinematic Borderworlds of Josefina López, David Riker, and Alex Rivera

La Ciudad (The City) opens with an aerial shot of the city, the only movement coming from a freight train slowly cutting through the haze of gray buildings. The camera cuts to a vacant single sidewalk, angled obliquely on a photo store, advertising one-hour photos for “loteria de visa & aplicaciones.” Our gaze, as the camera eye, enters the photo shop and sees portraits being taken of individual people: the Latinx men and women pose against cliché panoramas of pretty nature scenes, photographs decidedly not for visas or applications. A young man combs his hair carefully and appears excited. This artistically