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 A New Film Captures Inspiration to Repopulate Ghost-towns in Mexico Los Angeles – An unsettling homecoming to an empty village in Mexico has inspired a set of imaginative responses in unexpected places. 2501 Migrants: A Journey is a new documentary about the response of one Oaxacan artist, Alejandro Santiago, to the impact of migration on rural Mexico. The film adds another layer to the creative process of Santiago’s project that aims to repopulate his village with life-size clay sculptures. www.2501migrants-themovie.com
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 2501 Migrants is a full-length documentary that explores questions of art, the artist, and indigenous community in the context of global migration. Daily, thousands of primarily poor and young indigenous Mexicans abandon their native homes. They start voyages to the “first world” in search of jobs and the hope of a brighter future--or, indeed, any economic future at all. In their wake, they leave behind the hollow footprints of a cultural and domestic abandonment. 2501 Migrants illustrates this through the story of Alejandro Santiago, a middle-aged artist and family man from Oaxaca, Mexico. Relatively affluent and erudite, Alejandro returns home after a brief self-exile in France. But upon arrival to his native Teococuilco, he is struck by what he perceives as a virtual “ghost town.” Alejandro experiences, first hand, the reality that Oaxaca has emerged as one of Mexico’s leading “exporters of human labor” to the United States. Inspired by this, he decides to create a monumental installation art piece: 2,501 life-size sculptures— an homage to each individual migrant who left his village.
Migrants succeeds in posing one of the central questions of our times: Is Alejandro Santiago an example of an “artist as catalyst for social change?” Is 2,501 Migrants an original model for creating art around community building? Synopsis | Website |
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Check Out the New Petate Blog |
I have been working as a director and producer of films centered around indigenous issues for the last seven years, I find that one of the most enjoyable things about my work is the opportunity I have to meet with my people, hear their stories, and capture their points of view on film.
I’m currently wrapping up work for my new documentary 2501 Migrants and preparing for the festival circuit. 2501 Migrants depicts the life and work of Oaxacan artist Alejandro Santiago, who created 2,501 sculptures to represent the members of the Oaxacan community of Teocococuilco who have been forced to leave in order to search for work in the United States. I hope you like it!
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LA Times features 2501 Migrants, Sells Out Redcat |
Filmmaker Yolanda Cruz pays heed to the overlooked Mexican Indian. --------------------
Her work seeks to depict a culture's complexity. Take '2501 Migrants,' showing at REDCAT.
By Reed Johnson
December 14 2009
Its indigenous people are an integral part of Mexican society, but you wouldn't guess it from watching Mexican movies and television, glancing at billboards or perusing the ranks of the nation's political and economic elites.
The complete article can be viewed at: |
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Check Out the New Petate Blog |
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Cruz allows her subjects to tell the story in their own words. But the perspectiveis uniquely hers, a reflection of someone with an intimate knowledge of bothsides of the border. –Los Angeles Times Santiago’ssculptures are larger than life, rough-hewn, scarred and sturdy like the peoplewho have left his village of Teococuilco de Marcos Perez. He dreamed up theproject as a way to repopulate the village – at least symbolically, to createchallenging jobs for those left behind and to ultimately lure back some [of]the community’s former inhabitants with improved job opportunities in hisworkshop…. ...Read More |
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Sueños Binacionales (Bi-National Dreams) |
 A documentary about the bi-national experience of indigenous immigrants from Mexico. Sueños Binacionales tells the stories of the Mixtec people who have been immigrating to California for over 30 years and the more recent stories of the Chatinos who have been immigrating to North Carolina for the past 10 years. This film was made with generous support from The Rockefeller Foundation
DVD | 30 mm Film | English | Spanish | Chatino
Click here to buy your copy!
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Women who Organize Make Progress |
 15-minute video about the accomplishments of a group of Mixtec women who have created a mini-credit union to provide emergency funds for their community. This video was made possible by: A grant from the Ford Foundation to the department of Latin American and Latino Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
DVD | Color | English | Spanish |
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As we are people who communicate with visuals, we are proud to have excellent photos of the film subjects, their work, their environment, and of our production team. Check out the photographs of Jerome Manet, Johnny Simmons and
Yolanda Cruz.
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