# Nosotros los Pobres
**Nosotros los Pobres** (released in English as *We the Poor*) is a 1947 Mexican feature film directed and produced by Ismael Rodríguez, starring [Pedro Infante](https://www.edgepedia.org/pedro-infante) as the neighborhood carpenter Pepe "El Toro".[14](https://web.uwm.edu/clacs-media/media/1778) It reached Mexican cinemas on 25 March 1948 and is counted among the defining works of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema.[1](https://sic.cultura.gob.mx/ficha.php?table=produccion_cine&table_id=4463) • [2](https://www.sensacine.com.mx/peliculas/pelicula-20706/) The film is the first installment of a trilogy about Pepe El Toro, followed by *Ustedes los ricos* (1948) and *Pepe el toro* (1953).[3](https://www.ssoar.info/ssoar/bitstream/document/81776/1/ssoar-2022-paul_et_al-Lexicon_of_Global_Melodrama.pdf)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Production year / release | Produced 1947; in cinemas 25 March 1948[1](https://sic.cultura.gob.mx/ficha.php?table=produccion_cine&table_id=4463) • [2](https://www.sensacine.com.mx/peliculas/pelicula-20706/) |
| Director and producer | Ismael Rodríguez, for Producciones Rodríguez Hermanos[1](https://sic.cultura.gob.mx/ficha.php?table=produccion_cine&table_id=4463) • [4](https://www.filmaffinity.com/es/film619566.html) |
| Screenplay | Ismael Rodríguez and Pedro de Urdimalas[1](https://sic.cultura.gob.mx/ficha.php?table=produccion_cine&table_id=4463) |
| Principal cast | Pedro Infante (Pepe El Toro), Evita Muñoz "Chachita", Carmen Montejo, Blanca Estela Pavón (Celia), Miguel Inclán (Don Pilar), Katy Jurado (La que se levanta tarde), Rafael Alcayde (Lic. Montes)[5](https://tv.apple.com/mx/movie/nosotros-los-pobres/umc.cmc.6mj10p1adyurykv3clzft98a) |
| Key crew | Cinematography José Ortiz Ramos (black and white); music Manuel Esperón; editing Fernando Martínez; art direction Carlos Toussaint[1](https://sic.cultura.gob.mx/ficha.php?table=produccion_cine&table_id=4463) |
| Sequels | *Ustedes los ricos* (1948) and *Pepe el toro* (1953) complete the trilogy[3](https://www.ssoar.info/ssoar/bitstream/document/81776/1/ssoar-2022-paul_et_al-Lexicon_of_Global_Melodrama.pdf) |
| Standing | For many years Mexico's leader in box office earnings and a mainstay of television broadcasting[3](https://www.ssoar.info/ssoar/bitstream/document/81776/1/ssoar-2022-paul_et_al-Lexicon_of_Global_Melodrama.pdf) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
The story is set in a poor neighborhood (vecindad) of Mexico City. Pepe El Toro is a carpenter who supports his paralyzed and mute mother and his daughter Chachita, and is the boyfriend of his neighbor Celia "La Chorreada", the stepdaughter of the marijuana user Pilar.[1](https://sic.cultura.gob.mx/ficha.php?table=produccion_cine&table_id=4463) • [6](https://www.moreliafilmfest.com/peliculas/nosotros-los-pobres-0) Chachita grows jealous of "La que se levanta tarde" (the one who gets up late), a neighbor who flirts with her father, and of a prostitute whom Pepe embraces.[1](https://sic.cultura.gob.mx/ficha.php?table=produccion_cine&table_id=4463)
The drama turns on a theft and a murder. Pilar steals 400 pesos from Pepe, and the paralyzed mother sees him do it; because of the lost money Pepe cannot fulfill a commission for a lawyer and must borrow from a moneylender, repaying her with labor.[1](https://sic.cultura.gob.mx/ficha.php?table=produccion_cine&table_id=4463) When the moneylender is murdered, Pepe is unjustly accused of the killing. In the Apple TV synopsis the jealous rich rival Lic. Montes, who covets Celia, is the one who accuses him, and Pepe is sent to prison.[5](https://tv.apple.com/mx/movie/nosotros-los-pobres/umc.cmc.6mj10p1adyurykv3clzft98a) While Pepe is held in the Lecumberri prison, his mother and daughter are evicted from their home, forcing the young woman to work as a maid, and Chachita unintentionally learns the true story of her deceased mother.[2](https://www.sensacine.com.mx/peliculas/pelicula-20706/) • [6](https://www.moreliafilmfest.com/peliculas/nosotros-los-pobres-0)
### Interpretation: an idealized image of poverty
Scholars treat the film as a key document in how Mexican cinema represented the urban poor. Bush situates it within the [Golden Age](https://www.edgepedia.org/golden-age) traits described by Monsiváis: an idealization of rural life and a moralistic taming of characters in urban tales, a celebration of machismo and noble poverty, state censorship and public morality ordained by the [Catholic Church](https://www.edgepedia.org/catholic-church), and stereotypical characterization in the service of a national imaginary.[3](https://www.ssoar.info/ssoar/bitstream/document/81776/1/ssoar-2022-paul_et_al-Lexicon_of_Global_Melodrama.pdf) Research cited by UNAM holds that *Nosotros los pobres* and *Ustedes los ricos* helped consolidate a representation of the Mexican based on honest work, sacrifice, and solidarity, an image that coexisted with an idealized view of poverty in which misfortune seemed to confirm the moral strength of those with few resources.[8](https://www.sensacine.com.mx/noticias/noticia-1000228570/)
The contrast with [Luis Buñuel](https://www.edgepedia.org/luis-bunuel)'s *Los olvidados* (1950) is a standard reference point in this scholarship. While Rodríguez's films presented a melodramatic and stylized image of the vecindad and its inhabitants, Buñuel took the camera into popular neighborhoods and showed poverty, violence, and marginalization, breaking with the idealized representation of the popular classes.[9](https://unamglobal.unam.mx/global_revista/cine-mexicano-identidad-nacional/) Buñuel's antipathy toward the style and nationalist rhetoric of classical Mexican cinema was directed in part at folkloric and romanticized depictions of the country's impoverished lower classes, with *Nosotros los pobres* given as an example.[10](https://uplopen.com/en/books/2091/files/dd84dec9-05ca-44d1-a099-bb0900ebae16.pdf) Later Mexican films that explored the cultural determinations of inequality have been described as heirs to Buñuel's approach rather than to the sentimental line of *Nosotros los pobres*.[11](https://www.scielo.org.mx/scielo.php?pid=S2007-81102011000200007&script=sci_arttext)
## Production
Ismael Rodríguez directed and produced the film through Producciones Rodríguez Hermanos, working from a screenplay written with Pedro de Urdimalas, who also appears in the cast.[1](https://sic.cultura.gob.mx/ficha.php?table=produccion_cine&table_id=4463) • [4](https://www.filmaffinity.com/es/film619566.html) José Ortiz Ramos photographed it in black and white, Manuel Esperón wrote the music, Fernando Martínez edited, and Carlos Toussaint designed the production.[1](https://sic.cultura.gob.mx/ficha.php?table=produccion_cine&table_id=4463)
Listed running times differ among catalogs: 115 minutes in the melodrama lexicon, 125 minutes in the Culture Ministry catalog, 128 minutes on FilmAffinity, and 124 minutes in the Morelia festival listing.[3](https://www.ssoar.info/ssoar/bitstream/document/81776/1/ssoar-2022-paul_et_al-Lexicon_of_Global_Melodrama.pdf) • [1](https://sic.cultura.gob.mx/ficha.php?table=produccion_cine&table_id=4463) • [4](https://www.filmaffinity.com/es/film619566.html) • [6](https://www.moreliafilmfest.com/peliculas/nosotros-los-pobres-0)
Rodríguez and Infante were a frequent pairing: they also made *Los tres García* (1947), *Vuelven los García* (1947), *Los tres huastecos* (1948), and *Pepe 'El Toro'* (1953), among other productions.[2](https://www.sensacine.com.mx/peliculas/pelicula-20706/)
## Reception and legacy
The film was a major commercial success and has remained continuously visible. The melodrama scholar [Matthew Bush](https://www.edgepedia.org/matthew-bush) writes that there may be no other film more closely associated with Mexico's long history of cinematic melodrama, that it was for many years Mexico's leader in box office earnings, and that it remains a mainstay of television broadcasting.[3](https://www.ssoar.info/ssoar/bitstream/document/81776/1/ssoar-2022-paul_et_al-Lexicon_of_Global_Melodrama.pdf) Carlos Monsiváis, described by Bush as Mexico's most prescient and prolific commentator on Mexican melodrama, called *Nosotros los pobres* the height of Mexican melodramatic cinema.[3](https://www.ssoar.info/ssoar/bitstream/document/81776/1/ssoar-2022-paul_et_al-Lexicon_of_Global_Melodrama.pdf) FilmAffinity's ranking of the best Mexican films of all time places it at number 45.[4](https://www.filmaffinity.com/es/film619566.html)
The Los Angeles Times lists it among the classics of the industry's golden age, from the 1930s to the mid-1950s, when stars such as Pedro Infante, Cantinflas, María Félix, and [Dolores del Río](https://www.edgepedia.org/dolores-del-rio) spread tales of machismo, glamour, and rustic innocence across the Latino world.[7](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-01-08-mn-22325-story.html)
## Availability
The Pedro Infante catalog, including *Nosotros los Pobres*, *[Ustedes los Ricos](https://www.edgepedia.org/ustedes-los-ricos)*, and *Los Tres García*, is now controlled by [América Móvil](https://www.edgepedia.org/america-movil), the telecommunications group owned by [Carlos Slim](https://www.edgepedia.org/carlos-slim), and the films have stopped airing on open television, limiting free access to them; at the Morelia International Film Festival, Ismael Rodríguez's children asked the magnate to allow broadcast on open TV.[12](https://www.infobae.com/mexico/2024/10/29/donde-ver-las-peliculas-de-pedro-infante-cuyo-catalogo-ahora-es-propiedad-de-carlos-slim/) The film has circulated on streaming platforms, including Netflix and Apple TV.[13](https://www.netflix.com/us-es/title/70062888) • [5](https://tv.apple.com/mx/movie/nosotros-los-pobres/umc.cmc.6mj10p1adyurykv3clzft98a)
## References
1. [Nosotros los pobres / The Noble Family, Sistema de Información Cultural, Secretaría de Cultura (México)](https://sic.cultura.gob.mx/ficha.php?table=produccion_cine&table_id=4463)
2. [Nosotros los pobres (1947), SensaCine México](https://www.sensacine.com.mx/peliculas/pelicula-20706/)
3. [Matthew Bush, "Nosotros los pobres (1948)", in *Lexicon of Global Melodrama* (ssoar, 2022)](https://www.ssoar.info/ssoar/bitstream/document/81776/1/ssoar-2022-paul_et_al-Lexicon_of_Global_Melodrama.pdf)
4. [Nosotros los pobres (1948), FilmAffinity](https://www.filmaffinity.com/es/film619566.html)
5. [Nosotros los Pobres, Apple TV](https://tv.apple.com/mx/movie/nosotros-los-pobres/umc.cmc.6mj10p1adyurykv3clzft98a)
6. [Nosotros los pobres, Morelia Film Festival](https://www.moreliafilmfest.com/peliculas/nosotros-los-pobres-0)
7. [Chris Kraul and Shasta Darlington, "Mexican Cinema Is Fading Out", Los Angeles Times, 8 January 1996](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-01-08-mn-22325-story.html)
8. ["Una película de Pedro Infante ayudó a construir la imagen del mexicano", SensaCine México](https://www.sensacine.com.mx/noticias/noticia-1000228570/)
9. [Michel Olguín Lacunza, "¿Aprendimos a ser mexicanos a través del cine?", UNAM Global](https://unamglobal.unam.mx/global_revista/cine-mexicano-identidad-nacional/)
10. [Neorealist Narratives (UWP), chapter on Buñuel and classical Mexican cinema](https://uplopen.com/en/books/2091/files/dd84dec9-05ca-44d1-a099-bb0900ebae16.pdf)
11. ["La construcción del imaginario sobre la pobreza en el cine mexicano", SciELO](https://www.scielo.org.mx/scielo.php?pid=S2007-81102011000200007&script=sci_arttext)
12. ["Dónde ver las películas de Pedro Infante, cuyo catálogo ahora es propiedad de Carlos Slim", Infobae, 29 October 2024](https://www.infobae.com/mexico/2024/10/29/donde-ver-las-peliculas-de-pedro-infante-cuyo-catalogo-ahora-es-propiedad-de-carlos-slim/)
13. [Coleccion Pedro Infante: Nosotros Los Pobres, Netflix](https://www.netflix.com/us-es/title/70062888)
14. [| CLACS Media Collection](https://web.uwm.edu/clacs-media/media/1778)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 1940s*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license