Original subtitles

A lot of people don't really fully understand immigrants,

especially when they come from poor countries, that they're kind of burdened

with shame.

And sometimes that music that comes with those cultures, People want to get away

from me because they feel ashamed. To me, it's the saddest thing in the world

because that's your connection to your strength.

Your family is your strength.

Your father is half Mexican.

My father is sort of whole Mexican.

Well, excuse me. How far back in your family tree do you have to go before you

hear the Spanish sound in your name?

Well, you can go back one generation on either side. I mean, Spain is not

Mexican either.

The point we're making is that these are songs of Linda Ronstadt's childhood.

These aren't just... songs that you didn't put on a Mexican costume.

Oh, no, no, no, no. These are your family songs.

These are songs that I heard when I was growing up and that we sang as a family.

It was a family project altogether, this record.

Take it away, guys.

My older brother had seen her on Channel 9. He was like, oh, my God, you've got

to see this lady.

So I go and I see her, and I was just like, I didn't know how to get her music

or her CDs or anything, so I would call Channel 9, and I would just be listening

to her songs, because when you call, they play the music. It was just very

inspiring. It brought me a lot of hope.

In the 80s, with the Canciones de Mi Padre, in the Mexican community,

And the fact that she invested her talent into our music, our music,

was an enormous source of pride for people.

During the time I had my Los Canciones show, I was down by the Palace of Fine

Arts. And I saw these kids playing and dancing.

And I could tell by the way they were dancing, they were really authentic.

So I got into a conversation with Eugene.

And I said, yeah, you guys are really good.

And he said, well, we've been trying to raise enough money to take a trip to

Mexico because I want the kids to learn what it is to be a Mexican, you know, so

they can feel proud of it. I could see the value of a trip like that, to go

down for musical purposes or musical exchange.

And I said, oh, I'll help you with the money to go to Mexico.

So I added an extra concert into my tour to help pay for their trip to Mexico.

And that's how we started our friendship.

Why don't we do San Lorenzo?

When I went to the center to see how the kids were trained, I was so impressed by

how much they were validated and how much they were respected and how much

dignity they were given.

I thought the Simpsons were really special.

I thought they were doing a great job teaching kids music.

Every time I would introduce another musician, they got as enthusiastic as I

was about it.

Linda told me about this guy Eugene, that what he was doing with his kids was

really important.

It's important that the kids growing up in the United States, they're Americans.

It's important that they know that we're all immigrants, every one of us. Every

one of us is an immigrant to this country that isn't native.

Linda, Linda, you tricked me.

I tricked you?

Yeah. So I was going to come up here and do an interview with you for the sound

of my voice, and you said the only way you'd do an interview for your own

documentary was if I went to Mexico with you and Los Insultes and interviewed you

there.

It was a nice trick, though.

I wanted to go, and the bus was going, so I had a chance.

How did you get Jackson to come?

We asked him.

He likes to eat, and he likes good music. Look, if Linda Ronson invites you

to go to Mexico, I don't need to know any more than that.

Of course, let's go.

I knew that she wanted to take Los Anzales.

I already knew them, so I knew it would be a great trip.

Los Enzontles means the mockingbirds. A mockingbird doesn't mock other birds.

A mockingbird listens to the sounds of other birds, and they incorporate those

songs into their voice.

This is what we try to do.

I was 15 when I first joined Los Enzontles, back in the 90s.

And it's going to be 25 years this year that I've been at Los Encontres.

Now that I'm teaching, I see my students.

I plant seeds.

When I see those kids growing, the seeds growing, it just makes me very proud.

And I see the potential that they have, and I want to give them more.

It's a satisfaction knowing that what I'm doing, it's making an impact in

their life.

I am looking forward to going to Mexico. I love Mexico.

Linda invited our group to join her in this trip going to Sonora.

She wanted to take us back to where her grandpa was from and experience that

with us.

Maybe it's genetic memory, but I feel very at home when I go to Mexico.

When I'm in Mexico, I have a better understanding of who I am and who my

family is, you know?

I feel great pride in it, and I always have.

I hope it makes the kids feel like that. They have more of an understanding of

where they came from, the culture they came from, who they are, why they're

important, why they should never be rendered invisible or without their

dignity.

Jackson and I used to tour together.

When we were on the road, somebody would be hung over in the corner, and somebody

else would be playing some Rolling Stones song or something on the guitar.

But this time it was these kids.

They were playing these really great grooves, you know, and singing really

great together. It was really a thrill for me.

I wish I could sing with them.

We will be going into Mexico here in about another 50 meters or so, those of

you who might be interested.

Sometimes the people who work for ICE will drop off folks right here and send

them through these little turnstiles, and this is where a lot of deportees

just walk along this wall here.

Lucina, tell me how you came to the United States. I was born and raised in

Mexico until I was 10 years old, and my dad was in the United States.

So he wanted the rest of the family to join him.

I came with my mom and my two younger brothers. I was 10 and my younger

brothers were 7 and 5.

We had to cross the border illegally.

I remember just, you know, being super scared and thinking they were either

going to separate us or I thought they were going to kill us or something like

that.

Sounds horrible.

It was very traumatic for us.

So we were walking around in the Mexican side, and we had no money, so my mom,

you know, had to actually ask for money.

It was kind of embarrassing for us because, I mean, that's something that

we had never done, but my mom had to do it so that we can get some food.

People don't understand.

Even though, you know, I'm a citizen now, every time I see this fence or

every time I...

I go across the border, and although I can cross, you know, many

times and leave the country and travel the world, you still have that in you.

I had written a song about the violence at the border. It was called The

Silence. And Jackson was nice enough to sing with David Hidalgo from Los Lobos.

And while we were in the studio, Jackson said, hey, I got this song about the

border. I wanted to write a song about the problem with the border, like 30

years ago, with the lines, the Klan's been down on the border. They say it's

to keep law and order. I just could never get anywhere with it. Later, I

changed it to, well, the Minutemen are down on the border. And I thought, yeah,

that's cool. He wanted to maybe do something with us. But can we not make

this about the Minutemen?

Let's make it about us, because I'm sick of talking about them.

I want to talk about us.

And so, you know, it came almost immediately.

Just a child when she crossed the border to reunite with her father, who traveled

north to support her so many years ago.

So then, you know, that's Lucina. You know, 10 years old, a young girl, coming

to a new place, never seen this. And then it was all new.

I didn't know the language.

Then you were called a beaner.

So there were a lot of problems during that time.

The child she caught aboard To reunite with her father

Who traveled north to support her So many years before

She left half her family behind The weather

crucified to remind her She pledged her future to this land

And does the best she can

I sing The Dreamer in every show I do. I introduce it by telling them about

Eugene and how he came to write the song and that it's inspired by the story of

my friend Lucina.

It's very warmly received and people...

You stand at the end and applaud.

At the end, I do a song called I'm a

Patriot, when I say, and I ain't no white supremacist, and the place just

roars. Because who would be a white supremacist in this country? This

country, this country is not white.

It was not founded to be white.

Because I was light-skinned and with a German surname, people didn't suspect

that I was Mexican, and they'd make some kind of anti-Mexican remark.

They'd go, well, these greasers coming in here, you know, and I'd always get

pretty hot about it.

My name is Camila. I dance, sing, and play instruments.

My name's Belinda, and I'm a dancer.

singer, and a play instrument, too.

My name is Clarissa. I dance, sing, and play instruments.

My name is Divina. I play instruments, sing, and dance.

My name is Divina.

I dance.

My name is Juan Ortega. I'm the father.

I'm a carpenter by trade.

Buenas raíces.

Yo diría que bien. Could you translate that?

It's a good family. It's stable.

We're respectful, and we're a pretty good family.

They'll play music all night.

You know, they'll sit down in the back room. They'll just play.

You know, I got to tell them, hey, that's it.

That's it. No more. It's 10 o'clock. Hey, no more guitars.

The best place for people to learn to play music, in my opinion, is in family.

As a way to just connect to your brothers and sisters, to your parents,

to your grandparents, to yourself.

Culturally, I've always felt Mexican.

And I feel great pride in it, and I always have.

My grandmother, who identified as Mexican, was born in Arizona, when half

of the western territory of the United States used to be Mexico. So, you know,

who's a newcomer?

Mexico went all the way up through Nevada and Utah and all the way up to

Wyoming.

We didn't migrate. The border migrated.

Let's get everybody together.

The show starts at 3, but we don't go first. The other group goes first.

And so what I suggest is for those of you who aren't playing, maybe you guys

can go dance pareja, just freely in the front. I grew up in Glendale, in the L

.A. area. At that time, you don't see Mexicans on television.

We're not really on mainstream radio. We don't exist.

What we're trying to do with music and through our children is to cultivate all

that they are because we are no better or no worse than anybody on this planet.

This one is Miriam.

I was taking care of all the costumes for the children. We made two different

sets of costumes.

The folklorico group, the children wear costumes for the mariachi style and some

harucho style too.

Our costumes are made with what we find.

Astrid, where are you from?

I was an immigrant twice.

My father was from Vietnam. My mother is French, and I was born in France.

I came over here to the U.S. After the Vietnam War, and actually now most

of the time people think that I'm Latina.

Because of the mixture that I have. But then I get what Latinas get sometimes.

And what is that?

Sometimes it surprises me how people will not be so nice, not be

as open or want to struggle communicating with me, thinking

that I only speak Spanish.

They decide already that you have limitations.

And, of course, it had pin on. 25 years I've been teaching.

Do you know the man who runs the place?

Yes.

He's my husband.

You should have 10, I think.

So go ahead.

My name is Osvaldo, and what I do mostly is I'm still in

school.

Mostly? Yeah.

Could you translate that?

Some of the values that we follow are the same that my grandparents taught

my parents, which is respect or being hardworking and being united

with our family and with our loved ones.

What kind of family are you, Iswaldo?

helps each other out when we need some help.

This long trip to get over here. We're going to get down.

They don't want to hear me.

We got to get Fabi and Lucina ready first.

I am a very stubborn person.

Eugene has been very tough on us.

And he has contributed to a lot of the things that I've done.

For example, when I first came to the U.S., I didn't want to speak English,

but Eugene only spoke English to me. So he's like, you have to speak English.

You're here in the U.S., so you have to speak English.

It was always hard for me to take myself seriously in playing instruments. So

he's like, come on, you can do this, you can do this. Okay, and then I would just

do it.

I want them to be themselves.

This is what we're trying to do.

Smile. Smile.

No, I can't.

You don't want to?

I met Lucina when she was 15, and I'm not kidding you. She didn't smile for

six years. Am I serious?

Yeah. She took her six years to even smile.

My point is that that wasn't why she was invited in the group. She wasn't invited

to be a puppet.

She was invited to be herself, and we gave her time.

for her smile to come out naturally. And now she has a natural smile.

Fabiola, too.

Give us a big smile for the camera.

She came, she didn't think for a while.

And when it came out, it was time to come out.

She came from a pretty big family in a tough neighborhood.

You know, she would walk around kind of like a boy. She had her big puppy jacket

on.

And she said she wanted to learn guitar.

I tried to teach her guitar.

Next week, did you practice? No.

Next week, did you practice? I said, why are you here? You're not practicing

guitar. I figured out that she really wanted to sing.

But she was too shy to say that she wanted to sing.

And then when she started singing, she had a beautiful voice.

A soulful voice.

And then Fabiola became a singer.

Who's that baby? He's beautiful.

So cute.

I forget how tiny they are.

We hope you enjoyed the performance. It's from Haltoric Mexican Dance.

We're wearing western shirts. That was a northern Mexican costume.

And the boots.

And the pants with the flare. They call them frontier pants.

The hat.

It's all from Mexico.

The

cowboy

is all based on Mexican tradition.

Roy Rogers.

There wouldn't be any Roy Rogers if there weren't those Mexican cowboys.

They don't realize we're taking from them all the time and giving back.

So it's an interactive loop.

The dancers from Mexico are wonderful. I've known that group for a while and

supported them. I love them.

They're very elegant. The girls are very graceful.

What's different about the folklorico dancing in yours?

I think each girl has a guy to dance with. Do you guys have boyfriends?

No. No.

You ready for your performance?

How do you feel?

I feel cold.

But I feel ready.

I also feel cold.

Most of these performers are kids from 8 to 17 years old.

To have that level of musicianship that early, even if they don't play it as

well as a grown-up professional, they play it right. They're playing the right

rhythm figures, the right traditions, the right patterns, the right

instruments.

And their dance steps are right.

So they're not compromising the rhythms. They don't make it into what I call

Dorito music, which is kind of Latin-ish music, you know. This is Mexican music.

When I share my traditions and my heritage with other

people, I feel proud because this is music that comes from years ago, and

we're bringing it back alive, and it's still alive.

To play and to interpret these songs, I feel like I'm feeding my spirit. I feel

like I'm feeding my soul, and my soul is speaking through the music, through what

I'm doing. And then the joy that I see that people are having, that also feeds

my soul, feeds my spirit. It's like a cycle that goes on. It's like you give,

and then you take. You give and you take.

Pobrecita la pelota, ganas me dan de llorar. La razón de que te

agotas es que no dejan de patear. Te dicen que te quieres antes

de la jugada, pero desde darte un besote da otra patada.

Ay, pelota, me gusta la pelota.

Ay, pelota, pateando la pelota.

They get to learn the roots, they learn the tradition, and they can learn how to

break them. And they do.

They come up with some really great stuff.

They're playing the music for the right reasons. You can play music right, you

can play it well, you can play it in a very accomplished way. None of it makes

any difference if you're not playing it for the right reasons.

And the reason we play music is to celebrate our sorrows and our joys.

and try to help make sense of something that oppresses you or celebrate

something that lifts you up.

My mother, who picked vegetables and worked with her family from a very young

age in Southern California, she said when the music happened, those were the

few moments of lightness in a heavy existence.

So to me, that's what music can do.

There's nothing like playing music with your brothers and sisters and your

family. It's so much better than going shopping or watching TV or playing video

games. It's just beautiful.

A la orilla de un palmar, yo vi de una

joven bella, su

boquita de coral,

sus ojitos dos estrellas.

It's about a little orphan girl that lives on the edge of a palm grove, and

she has no friends to console her.

She's a little tiny girl, and she comes and goes all the time. She spends her

life coming and going like the waves of the ocean. It's beautiful for her, for

my grandfather.

The music you make accompanies you your whole life.

And if you're lucky enough to be still encountering new family and making new

friends when you're old, it's a very rich, rich experience.

We got the opportunity to show their dignity and their style, the way that

they performed and the way they held themselves.

And the Mexicans were really impressed.

It was really fantastic.

The older college students and the graduates of that folkloric troupe were

hanging out and the kids went over there. It was so fantastic.

that they got to meet each other. That is something that will be indelible in

the lives of these kids in Los Angeles.

We did a show in Idaho once.

A Latino who was, I think, in the Army, he came up to me afterwards and he said,

you know, this is the first time in my life that I've felt proud of being

Mexican.

It's a heavy thing to hear.

And it's not just people in the United States, it's also in Mexico.

When we did our tour of Jalisco and we brought this old music back, so many

people would come to us with tears in their eyes, just thanking us.

You know, how meaningful it was for them. Because, you know, culture is so

powerful.

There's Mexico and then there's Mexico-America.

Mexican-American culture is huge.

It's two different cultures. They have a lot of similarities, but it's fun to go

and explore what's the same and what's different.

It's very rewarding for me to be on this trip to see you in Mexico.

Fantastic. Do you have any musical tips? Oh, my goodness.

May I give you guys advice? Just keep doing it.

You know, what you're doing is really essential to every other thing, whether

it's making a family or whether it's having a band, you know, to be a part of

something bigger, you know, that you have a role in and then you see the

whole thing. It's really great.

You were so good yesterday.

I was so proud of you.

To me, it's magical to meet a woman.

who is so interested in so many things, and I appreciate that it's not just

talk. She just does what she says. She means what she says.

I don't get to meet many people who are like her.

You know, as far as I'm concerned, what Linda's doing for these kids is

fantastic. It's unbelievable.

Yes.

And I think it's about life, too. It's how you choose your life to be.

I like that last song when everybody's singing together.

I think it's important for her to say that life for Latinos is important and

just as important as anybody else would think their life is.

So today...

Do you have any thoughts about going back across the border?

I think about how much I don't have to think about it because of the privilege

I have of being a citizen of the United States.

We came back on the bus.

We had my little great niece, Annabelle, with us. She was two, and she was the

pet of the bus, and everybody was playing with her.

And I thought, what if we got to the border and they took Annabelle away and

put her in a cage?

What if they took her away from her mother who loves her and will protect

her and her father who loves her and wants to protect her and just lost her

in the system?

We'd just be beside ourselves.

I ask myself what music can do.

I think musical culture.

is constantly in flux.

And we have to see ourselves in this flow.

We're part of something so much bigger than just where we are. And I think

music and culture is the embodiment of that flow.

Well, music will find its way. It always does.

It carries as much of the truth as it can hold.

But it has to resonate in the zeitgeist.

We have to have people out there to hear it.

and the peaches are rotting. The oranges piling their

crystal down.

They're flying back to the Mexican border

to pay all their money and wave back again.

My father, some father, he waited.

that river.

They took all the money he made in his life.

My brothers and sisters don't work in the fruit trees. They're

both the big trucks till they lay down and die.

There's a negative image being placed on Mexicans now becoming... It's growing

stronger. Yeah.

Here, the negative presentation, they're choosing those bad people and they're

setting them as the face of my people.

How do you feel about it?

I feel sad because I feel like everybody should be treated the same way.

Oswaldo, as a kid, what do you think when you see these news stories of

children being separated from their mom and dad?

I'm lucky to have a family and to be with them.

When me and my sister were little, my little brother wasn't here yet. I

remember one time I was smaller than my sister.

And they were gone, or my dad was gone.

He had been detained.

And that was very scary for me because, I mean, I was little. I was like five.

One thing I will say about that is...

I think the parents should talk to their kids.

Even if I used to be informed that some parents don't go to pick up their kids

because, of course, they're already detained or they're already gone.

And I think it's the best decision for the kids to know, even though they think

they're young.

Maybe they cannot tell them everything, but something to start the conversation.

You think that they're agents of another country?

You think these people came to the United States to serve the Mexican

government? They left their country. They left their families.

There's another amazing song that I can't sing because I can't get through

it without crying.

But it's a Joel Raphael song called Sierra Blanca Massacre.

Immigrants who were being smuggled into the United States were locked in a

container. and left in the heat by the people that were smuggling them, and

they died. As they realized they weren't going to survive this, they wrote some

things down, you know, that my friend Joel put into a song, and very moving.

Fleeing my country for a better life I didn't even

say goodbye to my friend

Not to my grandparents,

nor to my parents.

Rosario, Caldera, Salazar.

Alone I cried.

There was no witness.

Only God knew my sorrow and shame.

And I didn't leave you.

One single thing.

Alone I left my country in pain.

Alone I left my country in pain.

These are some words from the victims found

inside a boxcar in a small Texas town.

Lots from the outside, inside of their fleas.

Inside was a hundred and thirty degrees.

Inside was a hundred and thirty degrees.

These are people who were forced to leave.

They left places that were beautiful, and they had culture.

So just to think about a... Sure.

I tell you, it's being sleep-deprived.

What? It's being sleep-deprived. I'm not actually, I have no sentiments.

I don't believe you for a second.

You wouldn't be doing what you do if you didn't care a lot.

He's underneath the sadness, rage.

So, yeah, so, you know, why the hell should a little kid bear the burden? Why

does a child have to bear that humiliation?

Why do their fathers have to bear the humiliation?

Just because they're trying to make a living.

So, Aldo, what do you want for the country in your future?

I want to see white people and Mexicans together.

I want to see them talking to each other.

People have been embracing aspects of Mexican culture for years and not even

realizing it.

You can be proud of the culture you came from and feel good to identify yourself

that way.

I was always very proud of being Mexican.

What's a charro?

Well, in Mexico, that's kind of like a cowboy.

And I have a feeling you guys are going to make wonderful charros.

Oh, no!

We can sing like a charro and ride the way charros ride.

It means that you're really charo, so say it with lots of pride. Oompa loompa

loompa! Oompa loompa loompa!

You're really charo, so say it with lots of pride.

Aye!

And right the way Charo's right. It means that you're really Charo, so say

it with not so fright.