Gregory Nava, maker of such memorable films on Latino life as El Norte, My Family/Mi Familia and Selena, and Barbara Martinez-Jitner will appear in person to introduce and answer questions following the screening of their new film The American Tapestry on Monday, November 20 at 7:30 p.m. in UCSB Campbell Hall. Admission is free and the public is encouraged to attend.

The American Tapestry weaves together historical accounts of several generations of immigrant families and their pursuit of the American Dream, an idea that has propelled massive movements of people from all over the world into the United States throughout the 20th century. Through moving personal interviews and historical footage, five families’ sagas come to life, creating a common tapestry of triumphs and tragedies that have helped to shape our singularly diverse nation.

The film opens with the stories of two now-elderly emigres who found very different welcomes upon their arrival in the United States. Murray Schneider, a Polish Jew who fled Nazi persecution, recalls the “joyous feeling” of reuniting with his family at Ellis Island in 1920. Li Kong Wong, a Chinese immigrant who lied to Immigration officials to circumvent Chinese-exclusionary laws, remembers San Francisco’s Angel Island as a frightening, prison-like place where immigrants could be quarantined for years, and sometimes, eventually deported.

Migrating within the U.S., devout Baptist Janie Chatman left Alabama (where her father was born a slave) for Chicago in the 1940s only to find racism in full force—more subtly, but just as powerfully—as it had been in her Southern home. And Irish-American World War II veteran Walter McNall found a prosperous all-American good life in a GI-Bill southern California suburb.

Finally, a powerful tale of a more recent struggle is revealed in a film sequence directed by Martinez-Jitner, who served as producer of the rest of the film which Nava directed. In order to immerse herself in the contemporary world of U.S.-Mexico border commerce and culture, Martinez-Jitner visits a shanty town near a maquiladora, a North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)-spawned factory in Tijuana, Mexico. She befriends Eva Canseco, a Mixtec Indian from Oaxaca, lives with her and her family in a makeshift shack and poses as a maquiladora worker, uncovering a dark world of grueling poverty and abuse in which companies take advantage of cheap labor by employing mostly women—who will work for lower wages and are less likely to complain about poor working conditions.

After being fired on her 30th birthday, Canseco makes the heartbreaking decision to leave behind her husband and two children in order to attempt an illegal border crossing (which Martinez-Jitner captures on film) in the hopes of finding work to improve the life of her family.

Produced as part of the Showtime Channel series In the 20th Century, a look at the millennium through the eyes of such noted Hollywood filmmakers as Norman Jewison, Barry Levinson, Robert Zemeckis and Garry Marshall, The American Tapestry faced some challenges once it took up Canseco’s story. In an interview in Estylo Magazine, Martinez-Jitner explains that studio executives and lawyers “were telling me that we could not film the Mexico sequence—it was too controversial and dangerous, and I was literally forbidden to shoot it.” The filmmakers held fast on the grounds that any film about American immigration would be glaringly incomplete without a story from Mexico.

Nava describes his goal for the film by saying “it shows everything Americans are most proud of and most ashamed of. I didn’t want to romanticize and glorify the immigrant and migrant experience in this country, as it so often is. I wanted to show what was wonderful and what was terrible about it.”

Nava was nominated for an Academy Award for best original screenplay in 1984 for El Norte, which tells the story of two young Guatemalans’ struggle to survive after immigrating illegally to the U.S. He also co-wrote and directed My Family/Mi Familia starring Jimmy Smits, and Selena starring Jennifer Lopez. He followed those films with Why Do Fools Fall in Love.

Martinez-Jitner was 2nd unit director and visual effects production supervisor for Selena and Why Do Fools Fall in Love. She began her career as an award-winning director for the Latino theater company El Teatro Campesino, and documented Cesar Chavez’ 36-day Fast for Life.

This event is presented in conjunction with UCSB Celebration of Communities Week by UCSB Arts & Lectures.

For more information,
call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535.

Editor: For photos, please call
Roman Baratiak at (805) 893-2080.