In “Trokas Duras,” an L.A. jornalero’s truck is a vessel for magnificence, pleasure and survival

“This movie was by no means made for individuals who don’t get it,” says Jazmin Garcia, the director behind “Trokas Duras,” a love letter to L.A.’s jornalero neighborhood and the vans that function containers for his or her survival, goals and wishes. The winner of the Brief Movie Jury Award for U.S. Fiction at Sundance this 12 months, “Trokas Duras” is a lush depiction of a day within the lifetime of a day laborer, or jornalero, in L.A. It’s concerning the humor, surrealism, satisfaction, magnificence, camaraderie and, finally, celebration that awaits a jornalero of their journey.

For Garcia, an L.A. native, a jornalero’s truck is an inextricable a part of the visible and cultural id of L.A. The vans are simply recognized by their vivid colours, the particular form of patina that’s solely acquired from limitless miles on the ten or the 405 beneath the beating solar; the custom-made decals stretching the size of a windshield that rep the driving force’s dwelling state or the title of the automobile; truck beds accessorized with fruit tree branches, items of lumber, instruments. Each time Garcia noticed considered one of these vans on the freeway, she couldn’t separate it from who the individual driving it might be, or what their story was.

“I wished to nearly proclaim the sweetness that’s inherent within the actually exhausting labor that largely migrant employees do,” says Garcia. The vans function a form of blessed vessel, a safety, a marker of id and sturdiness. “To me, magnificence in Los Angeles is the best way individuals survive it.”

The six actors within the movie, together with El Barrio as El Barrio and Nancy as Juanita, had been all solid from the jornalero or movie neighborhood in L.A.

“Trokas Duras” is instructed by means of lyrical vignettes representing completely different components of the bigger jornalero’s story linked by means of a solid of characters. It explores themes that embrace combating again in opposition to wage theft, realizing one’s price or understanding how a truck is usually a universe unto itself. The movie opens with a poem written and recited by one of many actors, Benjamin Moreno, who performs Don Zapata: “Mañanitas tranquilas, tibias y perfumadas / Jornalero bendito, de caminar seguro / tu figura refleja a quien ha de triunfar / Hombre de gran estima que buscas trabajo en las esquinas …” There’s an undercurrent of magical realism charging by means of the dreamlike imagery of “Trokas Duras,” with a victorious rating that alerts to us that we’re on our method to some place necessary, that the journey is simply as important because the vacation spot.

Garcia wrote the movie in 2020 through the pandemic, filmed it in 2024 and launched it in 2025 in collaboration with the Nationwide Day Laborer Organizing Community, often known as NDLON, a company that’s been defending the rights of day laborers, low-wage and migrant employees since 2001. NDLON funded the movie and helped with casting. Garcia had been linked with NDLON and the jornalero neighborhood for years earlier than making the movie — befriending one of many stars of the movie early on, Luis Valentan, an activist and founding father of a radio present for day laborers referred to as Radio Jornalera. He and Garcia had a textual content chain the place they might ship one another images of vans they might see on freeways round L.A. — every extra fantastical than the final.

Nancy wears a prime and jewellery from her personal closet.

El Barrio wears all classic from Palace Costume.

The six actors within the movie, Valentan as El Ñero, El Barrio as El Barrio, Nancy as Juanita, Moreno as Don Zapata, Elmer Mayorga as Mi Barrio and Tricia Sarmiento as Paloma, had been all solid from the jornalero or movie neighborhood. “I need to ensure that this makes them really feel so orgullosos of their efficiency of who they’re, and to see themselves in this lovely gentle,” Garcia says. “I wished to offer them that as a present.”

On the photoshoot for this story, two of the actors from “Trokas Duras,” Nancy and El Barrio, shared what it was like appearing in a movie for the primary time and the way deeply they linked to their characters.

In each actual life and within the movie, El Barrio is charismatic and regarded, a person who incorporates multitudes. A day laborer, an organizer, a serenader, a talented cumbia dancer and, now, an actor. As he sat on set, ready for Nancy to get her hair braided in lengthy plaits earlier than they acquired their {photograph} taken in entrance of the form of truck that’s so symbolic in “Trokas Duras,” he started casually strumming his guitar, then belted out a full-bodied rendition of “La Rubia y La Morena,” the basic from Los Dinámicos Del Norte. There have been practically 10 individuals on set and we had been all enraptured, every of us stopping what we had been doing to be on this second with El Barrio. He has a equally commanding presence within the movie, the place a distinct form of serenade is a key plot level for his character.

The primary time we see El Barrio within the movie, he’s portray a plywood signal propped on the aspect of a truck mattress with care and precision as Radio Jornalera performs within the background. “Tu envidia es mi bendición,” the signal reads in wavy blue script. Your envy is my blessing. He’s recounting a second that was impressed by jornalero lore, when many years in the past, a gaggle of day laborers protested a wage-stealing contractor by gathering exterior of his home and singing, “Ese wey no paga.” That idiot doesn’t pay. (The legendary chant would later be become a music by NDLON’s in-house musical group, Los Jornaleros Del Norte.) El Barrio was there when the protests occurred, he tells me. It was within the San Fernando Valley and he was the one to name Telemundo. “Me identifico bastante con el personaje que yo hice,” he says. “Si ha pasado esos puntos, esas palabras. Yo lo he vivido.” I establish rather a lot with my character. I’ve lived these moments, these phrases.

The movie drew from real-life experiences and deliberately options non-actors. Garcia labored intently with the solid on the script to know how they wished to inform sure tales by means of their roles. Nevertheless it was not a documentary — the actors rehearsed, did the inner work it takes to get comfy in entrance of the digicam and reworked themselves into their characters. Nonetheless, there was a degree of sensitivity and safety that felt essential for Garcia to create on set.

“[As a director], I’m not right here to inform you what to do and to demand issues from you,” she says. “I’m right here that can assist you really feel open and have a great time and take part and typically share susceptible elements of your self in a manner that feels being held.” For Garcia, a pure empath, filmmaking is one other type of caregiving.

Nancy has the uncommon distinction of being somebody with the form of knowledge and heat that solely comes from residing many lives, with the curiosity and openness of somebody who continues to be hungry for extra experiences. Appearing on this movie was that for her — a chance to do one thing completely different. “Dije, ‘Será que lo podría hacer?’ Pero algo me dijo, ‘Sí.’ Si he hecho tantas cosas difíciles,” she says. “Might I do that?” she thought. One thing in her mentioned sure — she’d completed many tough issues earlier than. On set, she’s speaking to me about her work, which like her character, Juanita, is cleansing homes. For Nancy it’s a form of sorcery — to remodel one thing together with your naked palms, to will and work an area into being extra lovely than it was earlier than. “Es una magia que yo hago,” she says. It’s a magic that I do.

Within the movie, Juanita enters the scene being rushed right into a truck by her buddy and fellow jornalera Paloma, who’s selecting her up from work. (Paloma is performed by trainer Tricia Sarmiento, the mom of movie director-model-multidisciplinary artist Pablo Simental, who assisted Garcia all through the event of the movie, particularly with organizing casting.) Juanita and Paloma have someplace to get to, and on the best way, Juanita is venting about her boss asking her to do extra work than was agreed upon and the way she demanded a elevate. “Yo no me voy a dejar de nadien,” Juanita says, matter-of-factly. Nobody messes with me. “Eso, chingona,” Paloma responds. In speaking about this scene with Nancy, she says the appearing regarded actual as a result of it got here from her personal experiences. “Normalmente los actores actúan haciendo papeles, pero yo pienso que lo mejor es vivirlo.” Usually actors work with scripts, however I believe it’s higher to reside it.

In one other scene, Juanita, with wistful eyes, stares out of the truck’s window as she talks about how tough it was to maintain her boss’ kids whereas being away from her personal, how she nonetheless discovered a method to elevate her children from a distance. “I believe that’s the second that feels essentially the most pure — it’s so tender and honest as a result of she’s speaking concerning the love of her kids,” Garcia says about this scene. On set, Nancy shares how proud her kids are of her for appearing in a movie, the way it was unbelievable to them at first — the way it nonetheless typically is unbelievable to her. “A veces, lo miro y digo, ‘Wow,’” she says. Typically I see the movie and say, Wow.

The day on set for this photoshoot is crammed with the form of pleasure that you just keep in mind for a very long time after. On set for “Trokas Duras,” the vibe was related — an expertise that’s nonetheless palpable for El Barrio, Nancy and Garcia. The movie doesn’t draw back from the difficulties within the lifetime of a jornalero — the struggles are weaved into the conversations between the characters, inherent of their shared experiences — that’s simply not the place the story ends. As we attain the ultimate moments of the movie, we start to know what occurs after a tough day’s work. The vans arrive to a clearing within the brush, a stacked DIY sound system is ready up like an altar, orange gentle streams by means of the branches within the bushes shadowing the evening sky. “La Cumbia Jornalera,” carried out by Los Jornaleros Del Norte, is booming. The jornaleros are dancing, spinning, stepping. They’re right here. They’re free.

“The tragedy is inevitable, however I didn’t need to give attention to that,” Garcia says about jornalero life. “I wished to give attention to: What would it not be like if all these employees, what they’re wanting ahead to on the finish of the day, is gathering beneath a tree to have a bit of cumbia? And the way can I get to this occasion?”