All language subtitles for Linda.and.the.Mockingbirds.2020.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL

- 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 the cultures,

people wanna get away from
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.
How far back in--

- My father is
sort of full 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, it--

Spain is not Mexican either.
- Mm-hmm, all right.

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 and sing.

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

- We spoke Spanish in my house.

We ate tamales
at Christmastime, you know.

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 nine.

He was like, "Oh, my God,
you gotta 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 nine,

and I would just be listening
to her songs,

'cause when you'd call,
they'd play the music.

It was just very inspiring.
Brought me a lot of hope.

- In the '80s,
with "Canciones de Mi Padre,"

in the Mexican community,
Linda's music was everywhere.

- 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
'cause 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,

for a 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 Cenzontles
were really special,

and 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

and that what he was doing

with his kids
was really important.

- Good!

- 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
gonna 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 Cenzontles
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'd you get
Jackson to come?

- We asked him.

He likes to eat.

Well, you know, and he likes
good music.

- Look, if Linda Ronstadt
invites you to go to Mexico,

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

It's, you know,
of course, let's go.

I knew that she wanted
to take Los Cenzontles,

and I already knew them,

so I knew it would
be a great trip.

- Los Cenzontles
means "the mockingbirds."

The mockingbird
doesn't mock other birds.

A mockingbird listens
to the sounds of other birds,

and they incorporate
those songs

into their voices.

This is what we try to do.

- I was 15
when I first joined

Los Cenzontles
back in the '90s.

And it's going to be
25 years this year

that I've been
at Los Cenzontles.

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 wanna give them more.

It's a satisfaction
knowing that what I'm doing,

it's making an impact
in their lives.

I am looking forward
to going to Mexico.

I love Mexico.

Linda invited our group
to join her

in this trip going to Senora.

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 hungover
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 'em.

- 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 they'll send 'em

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

till I was ten 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 ten,
and my younger brothers

were seven and five.

We had to cross
the border illegally.

I remember just, you know,
being super scared

and thinking they were
either gonna separate us or...

I thought they were gonna
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 go
across border,

and although I can cross
and, 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 "A 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'd change it to,

"Well, the minutemen
are down on the border."

- And I thought,
"Yeah, that's cool."

He wanted to maybe
do something with it,

but can we not make this
about the minutemen?

Like, let's make it about us

'cause I'm sick
of talking about them.

I wanna talk about us.

And so, you know,
it came almost immediately.

So then, you know,
that's Lucina.

- You know, ten 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.

- I sing "The Dreamer"
in every show I do.

I introduce it
by telling them about Eugene

and how we came
to write this song,

and that it's inspired by
the story of my friend Lucina.

It's very well received,

and people usually stand
at the end and applaud.

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

and when I say, "And I ain't
no white supremacist,"

and the place just roars

because who would
be a white supremist

in this country?

This country...
this country's 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 I play instruments too.

- My name is Clarissa.

I dance, sing,
and play instruments.

- My name's Avena.

I play instruments,
sing, and dance.

- I'm Jacquina.

I dance.

- Juan Ortega, I'm the father.

I'm a carpenter by trade.

- Could you translate that?

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

We're respectful
and 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, some--you know,
I gotta tell 'em,

"Hey, that's it."

"That's it, no more.
It's 10:00.

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 the 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.

- Check one, two.
Check one, two.

- Get everybody together.

The show starts at 3:00,
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...

Just freely in the front.

I grew up in Glendale,
in the LA 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.

- Which one's Miriam's?

I was taking care of all
the costumes for the children.

We made two different sets
of costumes.

The folklórico group,
the children wear costumes

for the mariachi style
and some jarocho 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.

Gonna start gluing more sticks.

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,
so--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,

and you know,
they decide already

that you have limitations.

And of course,
glue the head 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 ten, I think.

- My name is Oswaldo,
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, Oswaldo?

- We're a family
that helps each other out

when we need some help.

- This long trip
to get over here--

we're gonna get down.

They don't wanna hear me.

We gotta get
Fabi and Lucina ready first.

- I am a very stubborn person,

so 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 wanna speak English,

but Eugene
only spoke English to me,

so he's like,
"You have to speak English."

You know, you have to be--
you're here in the U.S.,

so you gotta 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.

- What I want Los Cenzontles--
I want them to be themselves.

- Hey, what about me?

- This is what
we're trying to do.

- Smile.
- Got it?

- Smile.
- No, I can't.

I don't want to.
- Oh, don't want to?

- When I met Lucina,
she was 15,

and I'm not kidding you,
she didn't smile for six years.

Am I serious?

- Yes.

- It took her six years
to even smile.

My point is, is that
that wasn't why

she was invited into 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.

- Look at the camera.

- She came.
She didn't sing for a while.

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

She came from
a pretty big family

and tough neighborhood.

You know, she would walk around
kind of like a boy.

She had
her big puffy 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 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.
- Isn't he cute?

- I forget how tiny they are.

We hope you enjoy
this performance.

It's from folkloric
Mexican dances.

- Wearing western shirts,

that was
a Northern Mexican costume,

and the boots and the pants
with the flare--

they call 'em frontier pants.

The hat, it's all from Mexico.

- All right, partner, freeze.

- Hi, fellas.

- Roy Rogers!

- The cowboy is all based
on Mexican tradition.

- How would you like to
surprise your pals like that?

Well, you can with my new
Roy Rogers Quick Shooter Hat.

- Roy Rogers--there wouldn't
be any Roy Rogers

if there weren't
those Mexican cowboys.

We 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 folklórico dancing
and yours?

- I think each girl
has a guy to dance with.

That...

- Do you guys have boyfriends?

all: No.

- Are you ready
for your performance?

How do you feel?

- I feel cold,
but I feel ready.

- I also feel cold.

- Gracias, grupo Cenzontles.

- 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 play in
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.

- Oh!

- 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 just like a cycle
that, you know, goes on.

It's like you give,
and then you take.

You give and you take.

- These kids
learn the roots.

They learn the tradition,
and then they can learn

how to break 'em,
and they do come up

with some really great stuff.

- Gracias.

- 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.

- Brava!
- Gracias, thank you.

- Can you understand
the lyrics?

- No.

- It's about
a little orphan girl

that lives on the edge
of a palm grove,

and she has no friends
to console her--

little, tiny girl--
and she comes and goes all--

passes her life,
coming and going,

like the waves of the ocean.

It's a beautiful song.

I learned it
from 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.

- They 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 Cenzontles.

- 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.

It's fantastic.

- Do you have any musical--
any tips that you have?

- Oh, my goodness,
me 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 you see the whole thing,

like this moment,
it's really great.

- You guys 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.

- You look so pretty
when you smile from the stage.

The whole time, you smiled.

- 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.

- Yes.
- 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--
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, like,

being a citizen
of the United States.

- This is Camila.
Is that right?

- Yeah.
- Hi, best friend!

- 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.

- 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,

they were gone,
or my dad was gone.

He had been detained.

And that was very scary for me.

'Cause 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 at five,
just 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 can

not 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 Rafael 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 die.

As they realized that they
weren't gonna survive this,

they wrote some things down,
you know, that my friend Joel

put into a song,
and it's very moving.

- These were people
who were forced to leave.

They left places that were
beautiful and they had culture.

So just to think about...

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

- What?
- It's being sleep deprived.

I'm not actually--
I have no sentiments.

They just come out when I'm---

- I don't believe you
for a second, you know.

You wouldn't be doing
what you do

if you didn't care a lot.

- Is 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.

- Oswaldo, what do you want for
the country and 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.

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 gonna make
wonderful charros.

- Oh, look!

Yupa!

- We're charros, cowboys!

- Oh, look!

- Yeah!

- Oh, yeah!