Sad Happiness: Cinthya’s Transborder Journey

Sad Happiness: Cinthya’s Transborder Journey

directed by Lynn Stephen; produced by Sonia De La Cruz and Lynn Stephen
Creative Commons
(2015)
39 minutes

Lynn Stephen is co-director of CLLAS and a professor in the UO Department of Anthropology.

This documentary “explores the differential rights that U.S. citizen children and their undocumented parents have through the story of one extended Zapotec family. Shot in Oregon and Oaxaca, Mexico, and narrated by eleven-year old Cinthya, the film follows Cinthya’s trip to her parent’s home community of Teotitlán del Valle with her godmother, anthropologist Lynn Stephen. There she meets her extended family and discovers her indigenous Zapotec and Mexican roots. … At a larger level, Cinthya’s story illuminates the desires and struggles of the millions of families divided between the U.S. and other countries where children are mobile citizens and parents cannot leave. In English, Spanish, and Zapotec with English subtitles. TRT: 39 minutes.

Watch it on Vimeo at these links:  Sad Happiness: English   Sad Happiness: Spanish

NWWS Documentary Film Premiere “Sad Happiness: Cinthya’s Transborder Journey,” directed by Lynn Stephen

Knight Library
Browsing Room
1501 Kincaid St.
UO campus

5th annual CSWS Northwest Women Writers Symposium

“Crossing Borders: Women’s Stories of Immigration, Migration, and Transition,” May 6 – 7, 2016

Documentary Film Premiere: 12-1 p.m. “Sad Happiness: Cinthya’s Transborder Journey,” followed by Q&A with the director. 

Directed by Lynn Stephen, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Ethnic Studies at the University of Oregon and co-director of the Center for Latino/a and Latin American Studies (CLLAS). Produced by Sonia De La Cruz and Lynn Stephen.

Sad Happiness: Cinthya’s Transborder Journey explores the differential rights that U.S. citizen children and their undocumented parents have through the story of one extended Zapotec family. Shot in Oregon and Oaxaca, Mexico, and narrated by 11-year old Cinthya, the film follows Cinthya’s trip to her parent’s home community of Teotitlán del Valle with her godmother, anthropologist Lynn Stephen. There she meets her extended family and discovers her indigenous Zapotec and Mexican roots. While in Oaxaca, she participates in her community’s annual celebration of their patron saint, learns how to make chocolate and spin wool, explores a Zapotec archaeological site, and shares in a family party where she dances with her great-grandmother. Her absent parents are omnipresent on the trip as Cinthya’s cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents and great-grandparents all talk to her about them and how they wish for their return. › Continue reading

Tags: CLLAS, CSWS, immigration, Lynn Stephen, NWWS, transborder, UO

Spring Film Series. Ayotzinapa: Crónica de un crimen de estado | Latin American Studies

Source: Spring Film Series. Ayotzinapa: Crónica de un crimen de estado | Latin American Studies

Film Viewing: Ayotzinapa: Crónica de un crimen de estado

Screening of ‘No Más Bebés’ & producer talk on the coerced sterilization of Mexican American women

Columbia 150
1215 E. 13th
UO campus

No Más Bebés tells the story of a little-known but landmark event in reproductive justice, when a small group of Mexican immigrant women sued county doctors, the state, and the U.S. government after they were sterilized while giving birth at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

See the film’s trailer here: http://www.nomasbebesmovie.com/

Marginalized and fearful, many of these mothers spoke no English, and charged that they had been coerced into tubal ligation — having their tubes tied — by doctors during the late stages of labor. Often the procedure was performed after asking the mothers under duress. The mothers’ cause was eventually taken up by a young Chicana lawyer armed with hospital records secretly gathered by a whistle-blowing doctor. In their landmark 1975 civil rights lawsuit, Madrigal v. Quilligan, they argued that a woman’s right to bear a child is guaranteed under the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade.

The filmmakers spent five years tracking down sterilized mothers and witnesses. Most were reluctant at first to come forward, but ultimately agreed to tell their story. Set against a debate over the impact of Latino immigration and overpopulation, and the birth of a movement for Chicana rights and reproductive choice, No Más Bebés revisits a powerful story that still resonates today. The film was released in 2014 and debuted on PBS in February 2015. › Continue reading

Tags: Mexican women, No Más Bebés, sterilization, UO

Documentary Screening: Keep Your Eyes on Guatemala, produced and directed by Gabriela Martínez Escobar

Straub 156
2451 Onyx
UO campus

Documentary Screening: Keep Your Eyes on Guatemala, produced and directed by Gabriela Martínez Escobar

Keep Your Eyes on Guatemala tells the story of Guatemala’s National Police Historical Archive intertwined with narratives of past human rights abuses and the dramatic effects they had on specific individuals and the nation as a whole. In addition, it highlights present-day efforts to preserve collective memories and bring justice and reconciliation to the country. TRT 54 min.

Co-sponsored by Latin American Studies, International Studies, Political Science, Sociology, History, Global Justice Program, College of Arts and Sciences, and the Crossings Institute.

Tags: CLLAS, Gabriela Martinez, Guatemala, UO