¡Que viva México! is a satirical comedy that follows Pancho Reyes, a middle-class Mexican who returns to his small town home when his grandfather dies, only to face his greedy relatives. The film is streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
Pancho Reyes lives in Mexico City with his wife Mari, his son and daughter, and their domestic help, Lupita. He works at a factory as a floor manager and has to deal with an insensitive, misogynistic boss who keeps promising to promote him.
Mari is comfortable with the high life they are living but the truth is that they have a mortgage and multiple loans and owe their life to the bank. When Pancho’s father, Rosendo, calls to inform him that his grandfather has died, Pancho must go back home to La Prosperidad.
His grandfather’s final wish was that his entire family would be present for the reading of his will. As soon as he arrives, he is hounded by his parents and siblings for every little expense as they assume that he’s rolling in money.
Also part of the family are Rosendo’s identical brothers, Father Ambrosio, and Regino, who is the mayor of the town. They bury Pancho’s grandfather and gather to find out the question of his inheritance.
It is announced that his house, his land that includes their ancestral mine, and his personal safe, are all left to Pancho since Pancho was his favorite member of the family. Everyone else curses him while Pancho just tries to figure out what to do with his inheritance.
He assures his family that he will not kick them off the land and then visits his uncle Regino, to settle the issue of the land. Regino has been negotiating with some foreigners about selling the Reyes land and tells Pancho that there are quite a few dues attached to the land.
He tells Pancho that either he can make the principal payment all at once and the interest and fines will be waived, or he can sell the land to Regino outright. Pancho says he needs some time to make a decision.
While he’s in town, Mari is back home having to deal with her in-laws. She’s been drinking non-stop since she arrived to deal with the impoverished conditions they’re living in and the ladies of the house try to steal her stuff while she’s passed out on the bed.
Pancho and Mari get fed up with their parasitic relatives and ask the notary to settle their affairs so they can leave. The notary brings his grandfather’s safe and warns him about his family.
When Pancho opens the safe, he finds tons of gold bars and coins hidden in it, and even though he tries to keep it a secret, the rest of the family finds out anyway.
He chooses not to tell them himself and lets them know that he’ll be leaving the next day so the family burns his car down. He and Mari hide the gold somewhere on their land and then go back to sleep with Pancho keeping his grandfather’s revolver by his side.
When his family sneaks in to steal the safe, he wakes up and fires a couple of shots. He kills his brother-in-law in the process and is taken to jail by his cousin, Regino’s son.
¡Que viva México! ending explained in detail:
How long is Pancho in jail?
Pancho tries to make a deal with Regino to get him out of jail and promises to give him the treasure in exchange for his freedom. He tells Mari to go dig out just one bag and bring it back.
However, Mari doesn’t find the exact spot and soon the entire family begins digging the land but has no luck. Pancho is stuck there for weeks and he tells Mari to go back to Mexico City with the kids.
His family continues to dig but Pancho is finally forced to sign over the land and everything else to Regino so that he can be set free.
Does Pancho find the gold?
Pancho goes back home in a disheveled state and immediately gets to work trying to find the treasure. He spends days and nights digging for it and asks his family not to help.
After 20 days of digging, he passes out from exhaustion and spends another 10 days in bed before getting up and deciding he’s had enough. He tells his family that he’s going back to Mexico City and says one final goodbye to all of them.
What happens to the rest of the Reyes family?
As soon as Pancho leaves, Regino heads over to the house and evicts Rosendo and the rest of the family. When they try to resist, he has them all sent to jail.
Rosendo has the foreigners digging his land for the treasure and they find it in no time. They also find a vein of gold in the mine which Rosendo was always adamant exists.
However, Regino signed a contract selling the land to the foreigners and they inform him that the treasure and the gold mine belongs to them. Regino has a heart attack and is hospitalized and Rosendo and his family are finally released after a month.
When they return to their home, it has been closed off as private land belonging to a US-Canadian mining company.
What happens to Pancho and his family?
Pancho goes back to the factory but loses his old job. He now works as a sweeper but begs his boss if he can get his old job back but with no success.
His home in the suburbs is now dilapidated but he continues to stay there with Mari who is pregnant, and his children. One day he returns home to find that his family has moved in with him and while he thinks it is all a nightmare, he wakes up the next day to find that it’s actually true.
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