Recorded October 28, 2022
Below is the original description of the event.
First Time Home was directed and shot by young people who are Indigenous Triqui, second-generation immigrants. This is their story, told as they wish to tell it. When four cousins learned their grandfather in Mexico was gravely ill, they traveled from their community in California to their family’s ancestral village in Oaxaca for the first time. The teenagers recorded video letters to share with their parents and other relatives in the U.S., who are farmworkers who have not seen their relatives in Mexico in over 15 years.
Through a mixture of Spanish, Triqui, and English, they got to know their grandparents, aunts, and uncles. In the midst of border politics and violence, the group of cousins forged a link across thousands of miles, developing a newfound pride in their indigenous immigrant identity and a new understanding of the meaning of family.
After the screening, co-director Heriberto Ventura was to be in conversation with Seth Holmes (Producer and Chancellor's Professor in Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management) and Natalia Brizuela (CLAS Chair and Professor of Spanish & Portuguese and Film & Media). However, his supervisor as a farmworker refused to give him the time off that he had requested to be at the screening, so he videotaped a statement. His parents, Francisco Ventura and Victoria Martínez, made the extraordinary effort to be there in his place.
Rising Voices Award - Portland Film Festival 2021