Filmographies - films at UST by Country: United States/ Hispanic

El Negro gets hired to smuggle a group of undocumented migrants into the United States. When he claims this will be his last trip because he wants out of the business, his superiors become suspicious and send a younger smuggler to keep an eye on him. The two fight during the troubled crossing, and eventually lose part of their human cargo. El Negro now finds himself on the run from his former associates and the law.

Carlos Galindo always dreamed of a better life for his wife and newborn son when he crossed the border into the U.S. But when his wife left him, Carlos's only goal became to make sure that his son Luis was given the opportunities he never had. Carlos embarks on a physical and spiritual journey in order to reconnect with his teenage son and keep him from getting pulled into the local gang life.

In New Mexico in the time of WWII, a young man goes to an aged medicine woman and forms a relationship which helps him challenge the fight amid the good and the evil that storms through his village.

Maya is an illegal alien who has crossed the U.S. border from Mexico to search for her sister Rosa, and to begin a new life. After being reunited, Rosa gets Maya a job with a janitorial service in a large office building. While working, Maya happens upon Sam Shapiro, a muckraking lawyer and union agitator whom the service-workers' union has assigned to bring its "justice for janitors" campaign to the building. Appalled at the work conditions and unfair labor practices, Maya and Sam team up to fight her employer.

Jorge is a morbidly shy Ecuadorian dishwasher working in a Queens diner. He quietly attempts to forge a bond with Amy, the newly hired Chinese waitress, but the gulf that separates them may be too large. On the job he is continually tormented by a coworker, and at home, he battles his inner demons.

Since 1993 the bodies of hundreds of women who were brutally murdered in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico have been discovered. Most of the victims were women between the ages of 12 and 25. Erika, a young journalist for the cultural column in a city newspaper, is up for a promotion that will take her to New York City. Erika's nanny's only daughter, Rosa María, moves to Ciudad Juárez searching for a better way of life. After her mysterious disapperance, Erika's nanny decides to look for her. Still expecting an answer from New York, Erika goes along to Ciudad Juarez without realizing the horror she is about to confront. Four murder cases of hundreds of women pass before her eyes. Little by little, Erika and her boyfriend David, begin to realize the magnitude of the problem. Finally, Erika receives the call expected from New York, but she cannot bear the idea of walking out on the families she has met or the women who continue to suffer because of the emptiness of losing their loved ones. As a result of their investigations, Erika and David start receiving anonymous threats. Nonetheless, having repeatedly comforted indifference and impunity, they decide to take on their battle to unmask the killers in this story based on true events.

California awakens one day to discover that one third of its population has vanished. A peculiar pink fog surrounds the state and communication outside its boundaries has completely shut down. As the day progresses, it becomes apparent the sole characteristic linking the missing 14 million is their Hispanic heritage.

Mariana brings her two children from Colombia to New York City to reunite with her husband, only to be abandoned by him. Desperate and alone, Mariana must rely on her own imagination and courage and that of her kids to survive insurmountable odds during their first summer in the United States.

When Alejandro, a Chicano Studies professor from Los Angeles, finds himself stranded in the unpredictable border town [of Tijuana] on New Year's Eve, a surprise encounter with a former student unleashes a roller coaster of emotions in Alejandro that brings his inner conflicts of love, belief, and identity bubbling to the surface.

Tells four stories about recent immigrants to New York City: a group of day-laborers scavenging for bricks; two teenagers from the same hometown who meet and fall in love; a homeless father who tries to enroll his daughter in school; and a garment worker who seeks justice in the sweatshops.

A promising young boxer, a barren midwife, and a fat kid with a bike: three intersecting stories focus around the pursuit of happiness and its unanticipated consequences during the economic collapse of the island of Puerto Rico

Drawing on interviews with more than fifty major personalities from a broad cross-section of disciplines, this film analyzes and celebrates the growing influence of Latino culture in the U.S. Guests share their personal and professional experiences of being of Latino descent in America today.

A Mexican peasant finds himself drawn uncontrollably to thoughts of crossing the border to find work and a more dignified life for his wife. The struggles get harder and he decides to set out on this dangerous journey, guided by faith and determination.

Presents the three-generation saga of the Sanchez family as told by the eldest son. From the beginnings of his father's journey from Mexico to California in the 1920s, to his brother, Chucho's, tragic rebellion of the 1950s, to the realities of modern day, the struggle to live the American dream is sometimes darkened but never diminished for Paco Sanchez and his family.

A rafter flees from Cuban dreams gone wrong and lands in a Miami of no return, where desperation to change his life leads him to commit despicable acts. This film explores generational and class divides within the Cuban exile community seldom addressed in cinema.

Determined to find the father he has never met, a young man flees the slums of Mexico and heads to the gritty backstreets of New York City. But when a shrewd thief steals his identity- and schemes to rob the father he has so desperately been seeking- both men unexpectedly find themselves launched on a riveting journey to the dark side of the American dream.

Story of Jaime Escalante, a math teacher at East Los Angeles' Garfield High School, who pushes and inspires 18 inner-city Hispanic students who were struggling with math to become math whizzes.

After his daughter's birth, Roberto leaves his town in Michoacan to make money in the United States. He's "an illegal," crossing into California and taking work wherever he can: picking strawberries, grapes, lettuce, and cucumbers. He hitchhikes, rides freight trains, and depends on the kindness of strangers. Near Stockton, things look up when a sympathetic waitress gives him a place to live, and he gets a better job at a crop-dusting company. But immigration raids are a constant possibility that can end stability. Can Roberto hold onto his equilibrium in this foreign land where hard work is not enough?

A young Latina filmmaker documented the emotional journey of her uncle, a military veteran deported to Mexico, and uncovered the secrets of her family's past. Against the backdrop of increased attention to the U.S.-Mexican border, the national identity and its ties are explored along with the lives of the immigrants. Also followed is what happens after deportees are sent to a homeland they don't consider home.

Antonia Pantoja (1922-2002), visionary Puerto Rican educator, activist, and early proponent of bilingual education, inspired multiple generations of young people and fought for many of the rights that people take for granted today. Unbowed by obstacles she encountered as a black, Puerto Rican woman, she founded ASPIRA to empower Puerto Rican youth, and created other enduring leadership and advocacy organizations in New York and California, across the United States, and in Puerto Rico. An eloquent tribute to a remarkable woman, the film sheds light on the Puerto Rican community's far-reaching triumphs.

Henry Louis Gates Jr. travels to Haiti, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Brazil, Mexico and Peru to discover the African influence on Latin America. He examines the shared legacy of colonialism and slavery in a region that imported ten times as many slaves as the United States, and kept them in bondage far longer. Gates finds that the influence of people of African descent has had a massive influence on the history and culture of Latin America and the Caribbean, despite sometimes being forgotten or ignored.

This program looks at the "Three houses of Latino culture" -Cuban, Puerto Rican, and Mexican-American - and their widespread influence from entertainment to politics and to economics.

The director gamely attacks both the right-wing factions that encourage illegal Hispanic immigration for the sake of fueling big business, and the left-wing factions that want to leave the borders open to push multiculturalism and swing democratic votes from non-citizens. As a visual expose, Burgard carries his cameras to the no-man's land surrounding the southern U.S. boundary, for a terrifying glimpse of land strewn with dead Mexican bodies, the panties of female rape victims hanging from trees, and all manner of other horrors too numerous to mention. The filmmaker also explores and corroborates illegal immigration's bankruptcy of the California health care system and paints President George W. Bush (in the second half of his sophomore term) as a man at serious risk of losing two conflicts - not only the one centered in Baghdad, but one in the southern reaches of the very homeland he claims to support and love but did little to protect.

The Bronze screen honors the past, illuminates the present, and opens a window to the future of Latinos in motion pictures. From silent movies to urban gang films, stereotypes of the Greaser, the Lazy Mexican, the Latin Lover and the Dark Lady are examined. Rare and extensive footage traces the progression of this distorted screen image to the increased prominence of today's Latino actors, writers and directors.

Casa Libre/Freedom House is a documentary about the Los Angeles-based organization Casa Libre/Freedom House and its efforts to assist unaccompanied and undocumented immigrant minors in Los Angeles. Many of these youth leave their countries of origin for desperate reasons, including abuse, abandonment, and severe poverty. Arriving in Los Angeles alone, they remain invisible. This film presents the remarkable life stories of several young immigrants who find shelter and community at Casa Libre. Casa Libre is a model program that gives them the opportunity to learn valuable skills, pursue their education, and obtain legal protection.

A documentary film about the private sacrifice and spiritual conviction behind Cesar Chavez's struggle for the humane treatment of America's farm workers, and the impact Chavez's legacy has on today's generation of organizers fighting for farm worker rights. The film is built around never-before-seen footage of Chavez's 1988 "Fast for Life," a 36-day act of penance for not having done enough to stop growers from spraying pesticides on farm workers.

Part 1: Quest for a Homeland, examines the beginnings of the movement by profiling Reies Lopez Tijerina and the land grant movement in New Mexico in 1966 and 1967. It shows how Tijerina's fight to convince the federal government to honor the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) galvanized Mexicans and Mexican Americans across the Southwest. It then moves on to discuss Rodolfo (Corky) Gonzales and his founding of the Crusade for Justice in Denver in 1966. Focusing on the importance of his poem I am Joaquin, it highlights how Gonzales reached out to Chicano youth. This segment is useful for its discussion of the roots of Chicano nationalism through its affirmation of cultural identity grounded in Aztec myths such as that of Aztlán, the mythical Chicano homeland. Part 2: The Struggle in the Fields, examines the importance of César Chávez and his efforts to organize farm workers in the central valley of California. It delineates the various components of Chávez's strategy for farm worker self determination strikes, boycotts, pilgrimages, fasts and emphasizes his commitment to nonviolence and the importance of faith and prayer in achieving his goal. Part 3: Taking Back the Schools, covers the Los Angeles high school blow outs of 1968 thoroughly. Part 4: Fighting for Political Power, discusses the creation of La Raza Unida Party as a third party force for political power and the importance of political rights. It culminates in the 1972 election and the Raza Unida convention, and the fragmentation of the party at the height of its membership and recognition.

People who immigrate to the U.S. do so because they are looking for a better quality of life--risking their own lives, paying any price to survive--even if this means leaving behind their loved ones. Each year there are an estimated 100,000 unaccompanied minors entering the United States, crossing the US/Mexico border alone to reunite with their mothers. These children's journeys illustrate a problem--presented by the mass media as a security crisis--which is really a question about how social policy, the legal system, and economic pressures conspire against men, women, and children trying to create a life with greater opportunities. A strong tool to help people desirous of finding peaceful and fair solutions to the "problem" of undocumented immigration, this film captures a piece of American history as it unfolds amidst misconceptions, confusion, and ultimately, transition.

This program features the story of a Mexican American field hand who killed a local farmer in 1951 Edna, Texas, and the ensuing case, Hernandez v. Texas, which was brought all the way to the Supreme Court by a group of Mexican American lawyers. These lawyers challenged Jim Crow-style discrimination and argued that Mexican Americans were “a class apart,” not recognized by blacks and whites. The film follows the lives of the activists and lawyers, ordinary citizens, and the murderer and victim which all culminated in the broader issues of Latino civil rights in America.

Examines the border crisis as seen through the eyes of Arizona ranchers, border patrol agents, politicians, farmers, humanitarians, and Mexican migrants. With heightened U.S. security along the California, Texas, and New Mexico borders, each day thousands of migrants attempting to enter the United States are being diverted into the terrain of Arizona's brutal desert. The journey has caused a dramatic rise in the number of migrant deaths. Those who make it through--the undocumented immigrants who live and work in the U.S.--invoke a wide range of impassioned responses over human rights, culture, race, class, and national security.

An account of the United States' war with Spain beginning in 1898 which eventually led to U.S. control of Cuba and the Philippines, and later resulted in the independence of those two countries. Using reenactments, interviews with noted authors and historians, and more than a dozen newly arranged popular songs from the period. The film looks at the influence of race, economics, new technologies and the news media on America's decision to go to war. Filmed in Cuba and the Philippines.

Sylvia Morales' sequel to her groundbreaking history of Chicana women, Chicana (1979), honors the achievements of five activit Latinas--labor organizaer/farm worker leader Dolores Huerta, author/producer Elizabeth 'Betita' Martinez, writer/plawright/educator Cherrie Moraga, civil rights advocate Alicia Escalante, and historian/writer Martha Cotera--and considers how these single mothers manage to simultaneously be parents and effect broad-based social change. Both the activits and filmmaker, along with their grown children, thoughtfully explore the challenges, adaptations, rewards, and missteps involved in juggling these dual roles.

Tells the story of farm labor organizer Larry Itliong and a group of Filipino farm workers who instigated the Delano Grape Strike of 1965 that brought about the creation of the United Farm Worker's Union (UFW).

The dangerous journey of poor Central Americans though Mexico as they attempt to sneak into America in search of a better life is brought to the screen in this documentary. The majority of Central Americans live below the poverty line and most are in a constant struggle for survival; desperate to improve their circumstances, many try to leave their home behind and attempt to improve their circumstances by joining the underground economy in America. However, the path through Mexico to America is not a safe or simple one to follow, and each year an estimated 145,000 Central Americans are captured by Mexican police and sent back home. Many suffer brutal treatment at the hands of Mexican authorities, and hunger, disease, and exposure also claims the lives of many undocumented immigrants. Filmmaker Tin Dirdamal interviews a number of Central Americans trying to make their way through Mexico, as well as others who were unsuccessful in their efforts, and a handful of Mexicans sympathetic to the plight of the immigrants.

In 2011, journalist Jose Antonio Vargas outed himself as an undocumented immigrant in an essay published in the "New York times magazine." The film chronicles his journey to America from the Philippines as a child; his journey through America as an immigration reform activist; and his journey inward as he re-connects with his mother, whom he hasn't seen in person in over 20 years.

Mexican citizens working in the United States and Canada can face difficult conditions, even when they are employed legally. Filmed over an entire growing season, El Contrato documents the experiences of a group of laborers contracted to work in a sprawling tomato greenhouse. Tensions between workers, growers, and government officials reveal disturbing aspects of the hugely profitable greenhouse industry, including the abuse of employees whom even the local Mexican consul seems to view as expended.

The film offers a look at Fidel Castro through interviews with Castro himself, historians, public figures and close friends, with footage from the Cuban State archives. Alice Walker, Harry Belafonte, and Sydney Pollack discuss the personality of the man. Former and current US government figures including Arthur Schlesinger, Ramsey Clark, Wayne Smith,Congressman Charles Rangel and a former CIA agent offer political and historical perspectives on Castro and the long-standing US embargo against Cuba. Family members and close friends, including Noel Prize-winning author Gabriel Garcia Marquez, offer a window into the personal life of Fidel. We see Fidel swimming with bodyguards, visiting his childhood home and school, joking with Nelson Mandela, Ted Turner and Muhammad Ali, meeting Elian Gonzalez, and celebrating his birthday with members of the Buena Vista Social Club.

Mexico, crimes at the border: In a joint project with the New York Times, Frontline/World correspondent Lowell Bergman investigates the business of human smuggling across the busy ports of entry between Mexico and the United States. In Tijuana, masses of people attempt to cross illegally every day with the help of increasingly organized and expensive smugglers.

The documentary that looks at the nature of U.S. policy in Latin American through the prism of the School of the Americas, the controversial military school that trains Latin American soldiers in the USA. The film presents different points of view on the School, US policy, and US involvement in Latin America. It includes interviews with a variety of scholars, legislators and activists as well as victims of the violence and repression in Latin America.

In this program, several prominent Latina women, including author Isabel Allende and actress Jennifer Lopez, discuss their changing role within the context of Hispanic family values, male machismo, and the traditional role of females as the center of family and community life. Also examines the issue from the male perspective.

This eight-part series examines 500 years of Hispanic history in America. The series highlights the many contributions of Hispanic Americans that have influenced and shaped the history of the United States. Hispanics have contributed to advancements in medicine, science, politics, sports, entertainment, journalism, education, and civil rights, becoming a defining role in the growth of America. Vol. 1: This program discusses Spain's arrival to the New World and Spanish American explorations from 1492 - 1711. Christopher Columbus arrives in the New World in 1492. Bartolome de las Casas establishes Anti-Racism policy in Spanish Colonies. Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles founds Florida's St. Augustine in 1565. Santa Fe, New Mexico is established by Juan De Onate in 1606. Vol. 2: This program focuses on Spanish Americans independence and the forming of Hispanic identity from 1720 - 1836. San Antonio, Texas is founded by Father Antonio Margil de Jesus. Bernardo de Galvez leads Spanish forces against Britain in America's fight for freedom. In 1819 Luis de Onis prevents a war between Spain and the United States. The Texas Republic is founded by Jose Antonio Navarro and Lorenzo de Zavala. San Francisco is established by Juana Briones in 1836. Vol. 3: This program discusses Hispanics transition to becoming U.S. citizens from 1848 - 1949. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo between Mexico and the United States ends the Mexican War. Francisco Ramirez founds the first Spanish language newspaper in Los Angeles. Spanish-American War is fought between April and August of 1898. The U.S. begins its Mexican American repatriation campaign. Dennis Chavez becomes the first Hispanic elected to the U.S. Senate. Vol. 4: This program focuses on the emergence of Hispanic culture and Hispanic American icons from 1959 - 2001. Ritchie Valens initiates Hispanic/Latin renaissance in American culture. Poet William Carlos Williams wins the Pulitzer Prize in 1963. Joan Baez sings at Civil Rights March on Washington D.C. in 1963. The United Farm Workers of America is founded by Cesar Chavez. Judy Baca brings the Hispanic Muralist Movement to the U.S. Franklin Chang-Diaz becomes the first Hispanic American in Space.

Documents the inspirational life of Inocente Izucar, a homeless, undocumented fifteen-year-old girl in San Diego, a burgeoning artist, and the extraordinary challenges she must contend with on a daily basis. This film is a story about the transformative power of art, the challenges facing undocumented immigrants in this country, and the new face of homeless in America: children.

This program takes a detailed look at the fastest-growing minority in the U.S. and what it means to be Latino and American.

Fed up with the mass migration of their community, the small Mexican town of Alberto creates a one-of-a-kind tourist attraction they call La Caminata, a simulated nighttime border crossing, complete with fake border patrol chasing balaclava-clad coyotes. The experience is a cross between adventure tourism and a way for participants, largely middle class Mexican tourists, to experience firsthand the hardships of the border crossing. La Caminata details the story of this unlikely attempt to save a small community, offering a powerful look at the effect of migration in home communities, and opening a view to the immigration debate on the other side.

Shows both the changes in and the endurance of traditional Latino families. This video follows the paths of three generations of one Mexican-American family, tracing their patterns of migration and cultural change. It also examines how the traditional roles of the elderly are being altered by their families' needs, and how the traditional pleasures of "la familia" are celebrated on a Sunday in the park.

Hispanics and Catholicism are no longer synonymous. This program explores the recent trend among Latinos to leave the Catholic Church for Evangelical or Protestant religions; the rediscovery by Chicanos in California of native spiritual and religious rituals that predate the arrival of Columbus; and the traditional Good Friday pilgrimage to the sanctuary at Chimayo, New Mexico, which shows that traditional spirituality is alive and well in modern times.

After fourteen years of living undocumented in the United States, Vanessa Torrez crossed into Mexico when visiting her dying mother, and as the only family member without U.S. citizenship, was not allowed to return to her family in the U.S. So the Torrez family left everything behind and moved to Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, committed to remaining together. Now, while the family lives in a public housing compound at a dangerous border crossing, her daughter must cross the border daily on foot to go to school in the U.S. Meanwhile, her father, Rick, finds himself unemployed, stricken with Hepatitis C, and in dire need of a liver transplant. Vanessa travels to Juarez to obtain the visa that will allow her to live in the U.S. with her children if her husband dies. Told through the eyes of adolescent Kimberly over the year in which her family is forced to straddle two countries, "Life on the line" illuminates the changing face of America and the impact of our immigration policies through the story of one girl and her family.

Private Felix Longoria died fighting the Japanese during World War II. But when his body was sent home to Three Rivers, Texas, the town's only funeral parlor refused to allow the family to use the chapel because 'the whites wouldn't like it.' The incident sparked national outrage and brought together two stubborn and savvy leaders, Senator Lyndon Johnson and activist Dr. Hector Garcia. Their complex, sometimes contentious relationship would help Latinos become a national political force for the first time in American history, propelling John F. Kennedy to the White House, and ultimately lead to Johnson's signature on the most important civil rights legislation of the 20th century.

During the 1980's, the CIA backed the Guatemalan government's efforts to destroy the resistance movement that was growing among the indigenous Maya peoples. Human rights organizations around the world condemned the army's "scorch and burn" policy, whereby teh government backed militia razed over indigenous 200 villages along the Mexican/Guatemalan border in their attempts to crush the guerillas. Thousands of Maya fled across the border into Mexico seeking refuge and ti save their lives. This is a story of Ricardo who fled his village in Guatemala to seek refuge with his family in Mexico. After spending years in a refugee camp, he and his family crossed into the United States illegally seeking to join other family members in Kansas. With the help of the "sanctuary movement," members of a church and synagogue helped the family settle in Chicago where they could tell their story and help to make changes in Guatemala.

We build the buildings, we do the hardest jobs, and still they don't want us.' These are the words of Juan Ignacio Gutierrez, a Nicaraguan profiled in the film Los Trabajadores/The Workers, winner of the International Documentary Association David Wolper Student Award. Los Trabajadores tells the story of immigrant day laborers, placing their struggles and contributions in the context of the economic development of Austin, Texas. Through the stories of Juan from Nicaragua and Ramon from Mexico, and through the controversy surrounding the relocation of a day labor site from downtown to a residential neighborhood, the film examines the misconceptions and contradictions inherent in America's dependence on and discrimination against immigrant labor. As Juan says, 'they say Austin is growing, but thanks to whom?

Journalist Laura Checkoway spent more than six years following Lucky ... . Lucky Torres masks a lifetime of abuse and abandonment behind an angry, tattooed exterior. Growing up in foster care, Lucky and her sister Fantasy have struggled with stability all their lives. While her sister has settled down, Lucky still hasn't found her way. The film accompanies Lucky as she tries to make her way through the rough and unforgiving streets of New York City, hustling the system to keep afloat. Moving from shelter to shelter, Lucky struggles to provide for herself and her son. With no safety net, Lucky has managed to survive a generation lost to drugs, AIDS, and urban blight. She is a proud lesbian and carries this with her through the many bigger struggles that she faces. Through her story, a myriad of social issues come to light, such as the flaws of foster care and social services, systemic poverty, urban blight, LGBT discrimination, and homelessness.

This documentary explores the lives of three Latina immigrant women who work as nannies and housekeepers in Los Angeles, California. Through these women's lives, this documentary explores the globalization of motherhood, the challenges they face while pursuing the American dream and the significant role they play in American households today.

Explores the environmental devastation and urban chaos of Tijuana's assembly factories and the female laborers who have organized themselves for social action. Maquiladora workers produce televisions, electrical cables, toys, clothes, batteries and IV tubes, they weave the very fabric of life for consumer nations. They also confront labor violations, environmental devastation and urban chaos -- life on the frontier of the global economy. Carmen and her colleague Lourdes reach beyond the daily struggle for survival to organize for change: Carmen takes a major television manufacturer to task for violating her labor rights. Lourdes pressures the government to clean up a toxic waste dump left behind by a departing factory. Incorporates video diaries by the women.

The New Americans follows four years in the lives of a diverse group of contemporary immigrants and refugees as they journey to start new lives in America. We follow an Indian couple to Silicon Valley through the dot-com boom and bust. A Mexican meatpacker struggles to reunite his family in rural Kansas. Two families of Nigerian refugees (including the sister of slain Ogoni activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa) escape government persecution. Two Los Angeles Dodgers prospects follow their big dreams of escaping the barrios of the Dominican Republic. A Palestinian woman who marries into a new life in Chicago only to discover in the wake of September 11, she cannot leave behind the pain of her homeland's conflict.

The story of Mexican immigrant women who were sterilized while giving birth at [an] L.A. county hospital during the 1970s. Alongside intrepid young Chicana/o lawyers and a whistle-blowing doctor, the mothers stood up to powerful institutions in the name of justice.

Follows five years in the life of a New York Puerto Rican family struggling against poverty, drug addiction and incarceration. The film also presents elements of community life -- solidarity, sharing of resources, cultural citizenship -- which make day-to-day survival possible giving testimony to the central role played by Puerto Rican women in maintaining family and cultural ties.

On August 15th, 1914, the Panama Canal opened, connecting the world's two largest oceans and signaling Americas emergence as a global superpower. American ingenuity and innovation had succeeded where, just a few years earlier, the French had failed disastrously. But the U.S. paid a price for victory: More than a decade of ceaseless, grinding toil, an outlay of more than 350 million dollars--the largest single federal expenditure in history to that time--and the loss of more than 5,000 lives. Along the way, Central America witnessed the brazen overthrow of a sovereign government, a revolutionary public health campaign, the backbreaking removal of hundreds of million of tons of earth, and the construction on a unprecedented scale.

Offers a view of the 1989 invasion of Panama that was not given by the American media. Presents evidence of mass burials of civilian casualties and internment of homeless civilians which was concealed by the U.S. military or went unreported. Also claims to reveal President Bush's "secret agenda" behind the invasion: to keep U.S. military bases in Panama after the year 2000 in defiance of canal treaties.

Set in Ciudad Juarez, where U.S. multinational corporations assemble equipment across the border from El Paso, Texas, this work investigates the growing impact of the global economy on Mexican women who live and work in the area. The video explores the sexualization of the border through labor division, prostitution, the expression of female desires in the entertainment industry, and sexual violence in the public sphere.

The objective of the project is the development of a collaborative decolonized anthropology that permits intercultural dialogue and self-representation of indigenous groups in Chiapas and along the southern border of Mexico. The project began in 2000 that allowed the "videoastas populares" (popular video artists) to promote new forms of self-representation. This is the first step of the project, 12 selected videos showing the work of the authors (the indigenous, their organizations, and collaborators). Contains interviews, photographs, and complementary text in interactive menus.

Story of two towns linked by immigration, family, and work: Jacaltenango, a highland Maya town in Guatemala; and Jupiter, a coastal resort town where many Jacaltecos have settled in Florida. The film chronicles a story of how and why people migrate across borders, how people make and remake their communities when they travel thousands of miles from home, and how people maintain families despite their travel. News of undocumented immigrants is familiar in nearly every community across the U.S., and citizens must choose how they respond to this issue.

Re-imagines the Mexico/U.S. border as a mythical place comparable to Dante's purgatory. Leaving politics aside, the film takes a look at the beauty of the border and the people caught in its spell. By capturing a mosaic of characters and landscapes on the border, Reyes reflects on the flaws of human nature and the absurdities of the modern world.

Cruzando Fronteras/Border Crossings. "US-Mexico activists struggle for dignity and human rights along the border. This documentary examines abuses by U.S. immigration agents and infringements on the sovereignty of Native American nations as a result of the militarization of the region." Resistencia! Derribando barreras/Tearing down fences. "A personal account of the anti-globalization movement, Resistencia covers ground from the anti WTO actions in Cancun to the anti-FTAA demonstrations in Miami during fall of 2003, with a focus on popular movements in Mexico and the United States." Immokalee: una historia de esclavitud y libertad/a story of slavery and freedom. "The Coalition of Immokalee Workers struggles to build solidarity and fight back against the brutal exploitation of thousands of farmworkers in the fields and groves of southern Florida.

With intimate access and striking imagery, Sin País (Without Country) explores one family's experience as they are separated by deportation. Sam and Elida Mejia escaped a violent Civil War in Guatemala and came to California. After raising their family for nearly 20 years in the Bay Area, immigration agents stormed the Mejia's house in 2007. After a passionate fight to stay in the U.S., Sam and Elida are deported back to Guatemala, and leave their two teenage ch[i]ldren in the U.S. This short documentary explores the complexities of the Mejia's new reality: parents living without their children, and children doing their best to succeed without their parents.

Symbols of Resistance' illuminates the untold stories of the Chican@ movement with a focus on events in Colorado and New Mexico. The film engages student activists, the effect of police repression, and how issues of identity, land, and community still resonate in the Chican@ struggles of today. Through interviews with those who shaped the movement and rare historical footage, 'Symbols of Resistances' [sic] offers a window into a dynamic moment in history and movement building.

An introduction to the history of the Mexican American people from their origins in Europe's invasion of the American continent up through World War II, through the Chicano Movement years to the present day. Includes archival footage and music ranging from corridos to rap. Presented in English- or Spanish-language versions.

As the United States continues to build a wall between itself and Mexico, Which Way Home shows the personal side of immigration through the eyes of children who face harrowing dangers with enormous courage and resourcefulness as they endeavor to make it to the U.S. The film follows several unaccompanied child migrants as they journey through Mexico en route to the U.S. on a freight train they call "The Beast". Director/producer Rebecca Cammisa tracks the stories of children like Olga and Freddy, nine-year old Hondurans who are desperately trying to reach their families in Minnesota, and Jose, a ten-year-old El Salvadoran who has been abandoned by smugglers and ends up alone in a Mexican detention center, and focuses on Kevin, a canny, streetwise 14-year-old Honduran, whose mother hopes that he will reach New York City and send money back to his family. These are stories of hope and courage, disappointment and sorrow. They are the ones you never hear about - the invisible ones.