“Seek to understand before you’re understood”, is the essence of the documentary EMBRACING AMERICA. A documentary, which follows the lives of an undocumented Mexican family and a Minuteman's family in order to understand their intentions behind their actions and motives to fight for, or against immigration reform. This documentary gets through the clutter and heated rhetoric in order to listen to the details of both sides and foster dialogue and understanding.
I was born in Mexico City and raised in the United States. My worldviews, through most of my upbringing, had been filtered through an immigrant’s eyes. My immigrant and Hispanic community had a significant influence on most of my ideologies. It was not until I stepped out of my immigrant world that I began to grow. I began to discover and understand other people’s worldviews and empathize with them. I realized that by allowing myself to be solely placed in categories such as Hispanic, immigrant, minority, second-class citizen, etc. inhibit me from seeing my connection and relation to other humans. I wanted to understand this issue of immigration a little better and analyze why it has been such a burden in the history of the United States. I wanted to understand why people could not feel compassion for the immigrant’s plight—the victim—so I thought.
I went on to “be the change I wanted to see in the world”. I became a social activist, focusing mostly on Hispanic immigration issues. Because that’s what everyone immediately categorized me as, “You’re Latina, you have to work on Latino issues”. “You have to help your people”. I realized that the fastest way to divide humanity is by creating illusionary walls that inhibit us from learning and reaching out to each other. We have fallen for the myth of “the other”, which is only a tactic to instill fear that plays into our emotions and most basic needs of financial and personal security.
While working as an activist I was curious and determined to find the root cause problem to this issue of immigration. I thought I wouldn’t get very far just preaching to the choir so I decided to reach out and understand the perspectives of those who were usually against what I represented—a Mexican immigrant in the 21st century.
I was appalled by the fact that we live in the 21st century, but yet we continue to have the same social issues as we did centuries ago. I realized that this issue was not simply about changing policies or laws—this issue had to do with a deeper psychological examination of a collective society whose change had to come from within.
Through our conflict and struggle we can grow to realize that we’re more than a label someone would give us. We are much more than generalizations we are transforming beings and details are what constantly define us. That is why it is our personal and continuous transformation that inspires us to reach out and Embrace America.
I reached out to the Minuteman, which is a group of civilians dedicated to guard the border against illegal immigrants coming into the United States. They are very politically active and you will always see them present at any protest. Never in my life had I felt such a soothing contradiction. I started finding out that I agreed with many of the points of view they had and that we had more in common than most organizations I had volunteered for made it out to be. I realized they weren’t “the other”, but instead they were my brothers. I could sit and drink a beer with both groups and have a great laugh about life and our situation.
After going back and forth for about 6 months between the Minuteman group and Hispanic organizations as well as immigrant communities I realized that the root cause problem of this whole issue is communication.
I became aware that many organizations that offer services to immigrants victimize them more than empower them. They disable them by taking their voice and leaving them mute, unable to become fully independent. How different is that from colonization?
The reality was that I didn’t know what my nature and potential was because I was so wrapped up in how my traditions, family, media, identity, and society wanted me to act. And so deconstructing my “identity” became the most powerful idea of my life. I realized that if I wanted to go beyond the vicious cycle of discrimination and fear I had to first stop victimizing myself.
The change began with me. Too often we point fingers at everyone except ourselves. In doing so we create more divisions amid our world, and us; impeding us from uniting and collaborating towards a better future. I knew that if I wanted to change my life I would have to begin from within--a thought at a time.
It is my personal and continuous transformation that inspires me to reach out and understand the Minuteman. To understand the group that had been the antithesis in my immigrant’s world and the group that I see as my brother in my human’s world. I want people to realize as Martin Luther King once said, “The power of love and wisdom will always overcome the self-destructedness of hate and undying bitterness”.
The more academic and in-the-field research I did on the topic of immigration the more I realized that the truth is in the details. One thing that became obvious to me is that mainstream media does not give details; in fact it has a tendency of generalizing and placing individuals in condemning categories of either victim or evil. These are categories of which, both the Minuteman and undocumented immigrants are tired of being portrayed as.
EMBRACING AMERICA was shaped out of communicating and listening to the collective voice of society. It came from research of many past and present authors on immigration, history, psychology, philosophy, economics, politics, and sociology. It is due to this amalgamation of topics that a more holistic and detailed view of immigration was created. We are all interconnected and interdependent that is why this project EMBRACING AMERICA is not just a Deep Focus Team effort it’s a collaborative effort of today’s society. The Deep Focus Team listened to both groups and spoke with many people who had various point’s of view with the intention to understand in order to document this issue as accurately as possible.
A question I often ask myself is, how much of what we do on a daily basis is purely based on reaction and not action? If we just learned to listen, reflect, communicate and take action we wouldn’t be burdening ourselves with so many wasteful reactions.
We need more detailed communication to avoid misinformation and to clarify misunderstandings. We need to spend quality time with various cultures in order to understand why they do the things they do and not judge out of our own worldviews and ideologies.
Both groups have done enough to dehumanize each other in order to justify and vindicate their actions. Therefore, EMBRACING AMERICA shows both groups for what they are, humans, in order to achieve effective communication.
Through our conflict and struggle we can grow to realize that we’re more than a label someone would give us. We are much more than generalizations we are transforming beings and details are what constantly define us. That is why it is our personal and continuous transformation that inspires us to reach out and Embrace America.