By Jeffrey Sipe and Nina Rodríguez
In 1994, Mexican director Trish Ziff produced her first documentary, focusing on the travails of the Mejia family from Oaxaca as they settled in Fresno, California, and adapted to a new cultural and economic reality. Twenty-five years later, Ziff has revisited the Mejia family, now three generations strong in California and still grappling with the nature of dual nationality and the bicultural terrain that continues to be an integral part of their lives.
“Oaxacalifornia: The Return” is especially poignant and effective in presenting the story of the Mejias because the members of the family who we come to know are especially sympathetic and likable. From the couple, now grandparents, who planted the family in Fresno to the youngest members of the clan who are now second-generation Americans, all display not only a sense of humor about their transplanted lives but also serious contemplation of their Mexican American identity.
The youngest generation, understandably, rebels against what they feel is a forced decision to declare themselves either “Mexican” or “American.” In large part, one young man says, their friends and family in Mexico imagine that they have shirked off their Mexican identity and are consumed in Fresno by hamburgers and dollars while their American friends believe they are serious consumers of tacos, rice, beans, and everything Mexican.
“Why can’t we be both Mexican and American?” asks one of the younger members of the clan in what, in the end, seems to sum up the central message of “Oaxacalifornia: The Return.”
It’s a simple question, and the answer—“why not?”—seems apparent, but there are significant hurdles to clear. One girl recounts being made fun of at school because of her Mexican background, so much so that she stopped speaking Spanish to deflect the taunts. Another first-generation American tells of her mother criticizing her for not speaking Spanish with her own young daughter. At the same time, however, members of the newest generation of Mejias happily engage in traditional Mexican dance as well as helping their grandmother cook mole and tamales.
The opening scene, in many ways, encapsulates the complexity of what is a common situation in the United States (and around the world). We watch as the youngest generation sits in their immigrant grandparents’ home and watches old home movies of their parents and grandparents, often laughingly commenting in colloquial American English on the images from the past. It’s an interesting, mutual reflection of these very different yet intrinsically connected generations.
The plight of immigrants and the often-difficult assimilation to a new culture and way of life is hardly limited to Mexican immigrants to the United States. But with more than 37 million Americans of Mexican descent and given the artificial line drawn in the sand between the two countries, this particular migration is especially significant. It’s also especially significant that “Oaxacalifornia: The Return” is a U.S.-Mexico co-production, made with support and money from government and private foundations on both sides of the border.
A welcome and sincere depiction of the human side of crossing the border without the vitriol that’s coming increasingly from “over there,” “Oaxacalifornia: The Return” is just released theatrically in Mexico and screening at Compartimento Cinematográfico on Calzada de la Estación 59.
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