New Immigration Film: Letters From the Other Side

Austin filmmaker Heather Courtney sets out to show the human struggle that accompanies globalization and free trade. In her most recent film,“Letters from the Other Side,” Courtney follows the lives of four women (Carmela, Laura, Eugenia, and Maria) who are left on the other side of the border in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato after their husbands and sons try to cross into the United States to work. The women try to support themselves through alternative methods, without their husbands’ (or the government’s) support. Carmela and Laura, whose husbands were among the 19 immigrants who died outside Victoria, Texas, in 2003, try to open a bakery. Maria farms and makes pillows, and Eugenia has learned to make cactus products. As the film makes clear, despite the promises that NAFTA would bring jobs and prosperity to Mexico, an increasing number of Mexicans are left with two options: They can remain poor or suffer the dissolution of their families. In many cases, these options are not mutually exclusive.   For an article and interview with heather Courtney, click here.

KJ