MOVIES - April 25, 1988

Cheech Marin, whose “Born in East L.A.” movie is about to open in Mexico City, isn’t worried that locals might not get the joke. The film--which Marin wrote, directed and starred in--tells the story of a third-generation Mexican-American caught up in an immigration dragnet and deported to Mexico. It will be released there under the Spanish title “Un Picaro de Los Angeles,” or “A Rascal From Los Angeles.” The subtitle is “The Craziest of Them All.” Mexicans, Marin said, have a notoriously thin-skinned view of foreign humor about them, and that easily could be true for jokes coming from Mexican-Americans as well. But Marin said that the only screening so far in Mexico was at a Guadalajara festival and that the film went over well.