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\u201cThis film was never made for people who don\u2019t get it,\u201d says Jazmin Garcia<\/a>, the director behind \u201cTrokas Duras,\u201d<\/a> a love letter to L.A.\u2019s jornalero community and the trucks that serve as containers for their survival, dreams and desires. The winner of the Short Film Jury Award for U.S. Fiction at Sundance<\/a> this year, \u201cTrokas Duras\u201d is a lush depiction of a day in the life of a day laborer, or jornalero, in L.A. It\u2019s about the humor, surrealism, pride, beauty, camaraderie and, ultimately, celebration that awaits a jornalero in their journey.<\/p>\n For Garcia, an L.A. native, a jornalero\u2019s truck is an inextricable part of the visual and cultural identity of L.A. The trucks are easily identified by their vivid colors, the special kind of patina that is only acquired from endless miles on the 10 or the 405 under the beating sun; the customized decals stretching the length of a windshield that rep the driver\u2019s home state or the name of the vehicle; truck beds accessorized with fruit tree branches, pieces of lumber, tools. Every time Garcia saw one of these trucks on the freeway, she couldn\u2019t separate it from who the person driving it may be, or what their story was. <\/p>\n \u201cI wanted to almost proclaim the beauty that is inherent in the really hard labor that mostly migrant workers do,\u201d says Garcia. The trucks serve as a kind of blessed vessel, a protection, a marker of identity and durability. \u201cTo me, beauty in Los Angeles is the way people survive it.\u201d<\/p>\n The six actors in the film, including El Barrio as El Barrio and Nancy as Juanita, were all cast from the jornalero or film community in L.A.<\/p>\n \u201cTrokas Duras\u201d is told through lyrical vignettes representing different parts of the larger jornalero\u2019s story connected through a cast of characters. It explores themes that include fighting back against wage theft, knowing one\u2019s worth or understanding how a truck can be a universe unto itself. The film opens with a poem written and recited by one of the actors, Benjamin Moreno, who plays Don Zapata: \u201cMa\u00f1anitas 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 \u2026\u201d There\u2019s an undercurrent of magical realism charging through the dreamlike imagery of \u201cTrokas Duras,\u201d with a victorious score that signals to us that we are on our way to some place important, that the journey is just as vital as the destination.<\/p>\n Garcia wrote the film in 2020 during the pandemic, filmed it in 2024 and released it in 2025 in collaboration with the National Day Laborer Organizing Network<\/a>, known as NDLON, an organization that\u2019s been protecting the rights of day laborers, low-wage and migrant workers since 2001. NDLON funded the film and helped with casting. Garcia had been connected with NDLON and the jornalero community for years before making the film \u2014 befriending one of the stars of the film early on, Luis Valentan, an activist and founder of a radio show for day laborers called Radio Jornalera<\/a>. He and Garcia had a text chain where they would send each other photos of trucks they would see on freeways around L.A. \u2014 each more fantastical than the last.<\/p>\n Nancy wears a top and jewelry from her own closet.<\/p>\n El Barrio wears all vintage from Palace Costume.<\/p>\n The six actors in the film, Valentan as El \u00d1ero, El Barrio as El Barrio, Nancy as Juanita, Moreno as Don Zapata, Elmer Mayorga as Mi Barrio and Tricia Sarmiento as Paloma, were all cast from the jornalero or film community. \u201cI want to make sure that this makes them feel so orgullosos of their performance of who they are, and to see themselves in this beautiful light,\u201d Garcia says. \u201cI wanted to give them that as a gift.\u201d<\/p>\n At the photoshoot for this story, two of the actors from \u201cTrokas Duras,\u201d Nancy and El Barrio, shared what it was like acting in a film for the first time and how deeply they connected to their characters.<\/p>\n In both real life and in the film, El Barrio is charismatic and considered, a man who contains multitudes. A day laborer, an organizer, a serenader, a skilled cumbia dancer and, now, an actor. As he sat on set, waiting for Nancy to get her hair braided in long plaits before they got their photograph taken in front of the kind of truck that is so symbolic in \u201cTrokas Duras,\u201d he began casually strumming his guitar, then belted out a full-bodied rendition of \u201cLa Rubia y La Morena,\u201d<\/a> the classic from Los Din\u00e1micos Del Norte. There were nearly 10 people on set and we were all enraptured, each of us stopping what we were doing to be in this moment with El Barrio. He has a similarly commanding presence in the film, where a different kind of serenade is a key plot point for his character.<\/p>\n The first time we see El Barrio in the film, he\u2019s painting a plywood sign propped on the side of a truck bed with care and precision as Radio Jornalera plays in the background. \u201cTu envidia es mi bendici\u00f3n,\u201d the sign reads in wavy blue script. Your envy is my blessing. He\u2019s recounting a moment that was inspired by jornalero lore, when decades ago, a group of day laborers protested a wage-stealing contractor by gathering outside of his house and singing, \u201cEse wey no paga.\u201d That fool doesn\u2019t pay. (The legendary chant would later be turned into a song by NDLON\u2019s in-house musical group, Los Jornaleros Del Norte<\/a>.) El Barrio was there when the protests happened, he tells me. It was in the San Fernando Valley and he was the one to call Telemundo. \u201cMe identifico bastante con el personaje que yo hice,\u201d he says. \u201cSi ha pasado esos puntos, esas palabras. Yo lo he vivido.\u201d I identify a lot with my character. I\u2019ve lived those moments, those words.<\/p>\n The film drew from real-life experiences and intentionally features non-actors. Garcia worked closely with the cast on the script to understand how they wanted to tell certain stories through their roles. But it was not a documentary \u2014 the actors rehearsed, did the internal work it takes to get comfortable in front of the camera and transformed themselves into their characters. Still, there was a level of sensitivity and protection that felt crucial for Garcia to create on set. <\/p>\n \u201c[As a director], I\u2019m not here to tell you what to do and to demand things from you,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m here to help you feel open and have a good time and participate and sometimes share vulnerable aspects of yourself in a way that feels being held.\u201d For Garcia, a natural empath, filmmaking is another form of caregiving.<\/p>\n Nancy has the rare distinction of being someone with the kind of wisdom and warmth that only comes from living many lives, with the curiosity and openness of someone who is still hungry for more experiences. Acting in this film was that for her \u2014 an opportunity to do something different. \u201cDije, \u2018Ser\u00e1 que lo podr\u00eda hacer?\u2019 Pero algo me dijo, \u2018S\u00ed.\u2019 Si he hecho tantas cosas dif\u00edciles,\u201d she says. \u201cCould I do this?\u201d she thought. Something in her said yes \u2014 she\u2019d done many difficult things before. On set, she\u2019s talking to me about her work, which like her character, Juanita, is cleaning houses. For Nancy it\u2019s a kind of sorcery \u2014 to transform something with your bare hands, to will and work a space into being more beautiful than it was before. \u201cEs una magia que yo hago,\u201d she says. It\u2019s a magic that I do. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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