29 Oct Immigrant Roots, Philly Hearts: Art and Film Illuminate Untold Stories

BY GABE CASTRO

This article is part of a column by Gabe Castro called “Reel Impact: From Screens to Streets.” The column explores contemporary film through conversations with Philadelphia-area community members and organizers. This column is funded with support from Bread and Roses Community Fund.

“We’re a country of immigrants, and we’re all Philadelphians.” – Nadia Hironaka, co-creator of The Philadelphians

The United States remains a global hub for immigration, with 47.8 million foreign-born residents in 2023, marking the largest increase in over 20 years. Immigrants from countries like Mexico, China, and India are shaping the nation’s diversity, and in Philadelphia, immigrants from East Asia and Latin America are revitalizing communities. Philadelphia’s foreign-born population is expected to rise significantly, driving the city’s growth and cultural vibrancy. Philadelphia is a sanctuary city, which means it limits or denies its cooperation with the national government in enforcing immigration law. Because of that, the federal government has withheld funding in an effort to pressure cooperation with immigration enforcement. This has made safety and support for immigrants a major priority for many here, despite our city’s distance from the country’s southern border. 

Immigration is a key issue for U.S. voters, with 61% considering it very important—a 9-point increase since 2020. As the 2024 presidential election approaches, immigration could be a decisive issue, with both parties offering vastly different approaches to reform border security, potentially reshaping the nation’s immigration landscape. The immigration policies of Presidents Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden have shaped the lives of millions in distinct ways. Obama introduced Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (more commonly known as DACA), providing relief for undocumented youth, but earned the title “Deporter-in-Chief” for overseeing over 2.5 million deportations, focusing on criminal offenders. Trump took a tougher stance, cutting legal immigration with travel bans, the “public charge” rule that allowed the U.S. government to deny immigrants permanent residence if they were relying on public benefits, and attempts to end DACA and Temporary Protective Status (TPS). Biden reversed many of Trump’s actions, halting the border wall and ending Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy that prevented migrants from crossing the border until their U.S. immigration court dates, while expanding refugee admissions and prioritizing deporting security threats, though his reforms have been slow. Kamala Harris advocates for a more compassionate approach, championing pathways to citizenship, DACA protection, and TPS extensions, while restoring asylum programs, using technology for border management, and reuniting families.

Much of the conversation around immigration in the presidential debates and political ads revolves around sweeping border policies, often using dehumanizing language and offensive assumptions about immigrant populations. Filmmaker and artist Michelle Angela Ortiz sees this as deliberate erasure of the actual people affected by these policies to allow harsher laws to be passed more easily. Art can serve as a powerful reminder of the individual stories behind these broader debates, humanizing the migrant experience and shedding light on the nuanced realities that policy discussions frequently overlook.

Philadelphia-area filmmakers and artists have been creating art to do just that: the films No Sé and Las Madres de Berks and public art pieces Familias Separadas and The Philadelphians portray the personal impact of this broader debate, exploring the struggles of identity, assimilation, and cultural preservation within immigrant communities. Through cinematic storytelling, these narratives have connected young people to their families’ immigration stories, catalyzed the movement to shut down an immigrant detention center, and celebrated the vibrant diverse immigrant communities in our city. These films and projects certainly have the power to change the minds of policy makers and voters, and beyond that, to build community, elevate unheard voices and stories, and demonstrate the vast diversity in migrant experiences.

No Sé, ¿Cuál es tu origen?

Obed Arango, a filmmaker originally from Mexico, has been creating films since his teenage years, always centering his communities as the true protagonists of his work. He co-founded CCATE (Centro de Cultura Arte Trabajo y Educación) in Norristown, PA which he now calls home. CCATE is an organization focused on empowering the Latinx community through education, art, technology, and more. A standout initiative of CCATE is its youth filmmaking program, which allows students to tackle issues like bullying, recycling, and immigration. The youth program’s latest film, No Sé, explores the question “¿Cuál es tu origen?” (What is your origin?), highlighting the tension between assimilation and the feeling of being “trees without roots.”

Arango explained to cinéSPEAK that the inspiration for No Sé came during a class discussion when a student asked him to switch from Spanish to English. This moment made Arango realize that many of the students, born in the U.S., no longer spoke Spanish—whether due to a desire to fit in or a belief that the language wasn’t important. This realization shaped the film’s exploration of identity and cultural separation.

No Sé gave students the chance to dive into their family histories, interviewing their parents and grandparents to uncover personal stories and cultural backgrounds they’d never known. Through this process, they connected with their families’ immigrant experiences in a deeply meaningful way. The film, described as a “cinematic poem,” weaves together images, voiceover interviews, and scenes from the students’ lives in Norristown, drawing powerful parallels between their present and their families’ pasts.

One memorable moment features a father reminiscing about the mountains of his childhood while footage of an escalator plays, symbolizing the distance between those memories and his life now. Another scene contrasts a mother’s vivid recollection of growing up with 24 cousins with the solitary image of an older woman waiting for a train, highlighting the theme of separation.

For students with roots in Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, and the Dominican Republic, No Sé captured their struggle to hold onto their cultural heritage while navigating life in America. Many felt disconnected from their families’ homelands and stories, and the film brought that tension to life. “For the kids, it was eye-opening to understand their parents’ immigrant experiences,” recalled Arango. Of the 15 students involved, only two knew their grandparents’ names, underscoring the powerful gap in cultural knowledge—and how much was waiting to be rediscovered. A transformative moment in the creation of No Sé came when a boy, who initially insisted the class be taught in English because he didn’t need Spanish, proudly declared by the end, “I was born in Norristown, but my heart is Mexican.” 

No Sé is now making its way through the festival circuit, becoming a finalist in the Kaleidoscope Film Competition and screening at events like Hispanic Heritage Month at Mill Grove and the CAMRA Media Festival at the University of Pennsylvania.

Another of their films, Maconi, a 15-minute documentary supported by Independence Public Media Foundation and UPenn’s Dispossession of the Americas grant, tells the story of a family from Maconi, Mexico who migrated to the Norristown and Philadelphia area. The film is narrated by a survivor from the CCATE community who endured violence that led to his immigration to the U.S. It has been screened at festivals in Bogotá and Lima, and will be featured at Ursinus College’s Borderscapes exhibition and UPenn’s Latin American Studies Conference. Like No Sé, Maconi shares authentic Latinx immigrant stories, offering nuanced, personal perspectives that highlight the complexities and humanity often overlooked in broader media narratives.

Las Madres de Berks and Familias Separadas

Michelle Angela Ortiz, a Philadelphia-based visual artist and muralist, uses large-scale public art to amplify marginalized voices and share personal stories related to social justice issues. Her documentary Las Madres de Berks, part of her Familias Separadas project, follows four immigrant mothers detained with their children at Berks County Residential Center as they fight for freedom, shedding light on the harsh realities of family detention. The Berks Detention Center was a federally-run detention center that detained families, including mothers and their children, who were seeking asylum in the United States. The center detained families with children as young as a few weeks old, holding them for extended periods of time, with some mothers and their children being detained for up to two years.

Ortiz’s Familias Separadas brought five powerful installations featuring moving images, murals, and elaborate art pieces to key Philadelphia spots like LOVE Park and City Hall, exposing the troubling partnership between local police and ICE that fueled violence and human rights violations. The project began in 2013 in response to the rise of deportations and ICE raids in the city. Familias Separadas grew from Philadelphia to statewide and then nationwide, with Ortiz partnering with Juntos and the Shut Down Berks Coalition. In 2017, in the midst of the project’s first phase, she connected with detained families in the Berks Detention Center to hear their stories and begin to highlight deportation as an “act of erasure.” 

Ortiz was inspired by the detained mothers organizing labor and hunger strikes, and decided to feature four of them in her film Las Madres de Berks. Their stories, shared in their own words, revealed the system’s deep flaws and the ongoing impact of ICE surveillance. To protect their safety, Ortiz used pseudonyms and concealed their faces, except for Karen, who was deported during the time of filming and used her real name. Ortiz explained, “There’s a delicate balance in telling these stories while respecting their risks, but I also wanted to capture moments of love and joy amid the hardship.”

Ortiz especially connected with a scene of a mother singing to soothe her son, a moment that mirrored her own experiences as a parent. “It was incredibly moving to see her sing, not just Lorena, but all the mothers who managed to create love and calm for their children, even when their own freedom was uncertain,” Ortiz said.

Along with the film, she held workshops with the detained mothers where they created paper flowers for the Flores de Libertad installation. This powerful display of 1,600 flowers in front of Philadelphia’s City Hall sparked conversations about family detention and inspired action. Her installations amplified the mothers’ stories, pushing back against the erasure. One installation of Karen’s image and words on the Pennsylvania State Capitol steps coincided with a governor’s visit.

The project also included a rally and march with 250 supporters, leading to a mural in Allison Hill, a 10-minute walk from the white marble steps of the Capitol in Harrisburg. Screenings of Las Madres de Berks continue across Pennsylvania, accompanied by a facilitator’s guide for deeper discussion. A portion of the funds from the film sales are donated to the families, ensuring continued support for their efforts. Ortiz’s bond with the mothers, whose voices helped shut down Berks Detention Center in January 2023, remains strong. The murals created for Familias Separadas live on in their neighborhoods and virtual conversations are archived and can be viewed on the website. 

The Philadelphians and the Public Works Residency Program

Nadia Hironaka and Matt Suib, a Philadelphia-based artist duo, are known for their immersive video installations that blend fiction and documentary to explore power, history, and media manipulation. After the 2016 election’s violent anti-immigrant rhetoric, the duo focused their work on sparking positive conversations about immigration. They are in the editing stage of an animation project, Imaginary Lines, which highlights personal stories of immigrants who crossed the U.S. southern border and now call Philadelphia home. “They’ve been incredibly generous in sharing these deeply personal stories,” Suib said. As they near completion on that project, they’ve begun laying the groundwork for The Philadelphians.

The Philadelphians is a public art project celebrating the city’s vibrant immigrant communities. As part of the Forman Arts Initiative and Mural Arts Philadelphia’s Public Works Residency Program, they’re creating “film portraits” (short video clips) of immigrants—everyone from block captains to educators—projected on city facades alongside multilingual newsprint. The project features workshops centered on the art-making and creative process, not just filming interviews. This approach allows participants to take an active role and feel a sense of ownership over the final work. These workshops will run from this fall through early 2025.

Hironaka, whose family was detained in the Topaz Japanese Internment Camp while her father fought in World War II, feels a deep connection to these stories, both old and new. “We’re all here in Philadelphia, coming together to celebrate the diverse cultures and experiences that make this city unique. We’re a country of immigrants, and we’re all Philadelphians,” she shares.

In The Philadelphians, participants are encouraged to self-identify using their own terms, like “first-generation immigrant from X country” or “third-generation Philadelphian of X descent,” embracing their heritage and generational status as immigrants, to flip the narrative around immigration and connect everyone in the city through their shared identity as Philadelphians. By spring 2025, they aim to create 10-12 portraits through workshops and active community involvement. The project will culminate in a lively public event with food, music, and information from immigrant advocacy groups, celebrating the often overlooked contributions of Philadelphia’s immigrant communities. Follow the art team on Instagram for updates and information on the upcoming project. The Office of Immigrant Affairs will also feature information on the events on their social media. 

As the 2024 election looms, immigration is shaping up to be one of the defining issues, but the conversation is often reduced to sweeping generalizations that miss the real, human stories at the heart of it. That’s where film projects like No Sé, Las Madres de Berks, and The Philadelphians step in, offering powerful counter-narratives that spotlight the personal struggles of immigrant communities. These films cut through the political noise, reminding us that behind every policy debate are real lives, real families, and real experiences. 

*Featured Image: Image of one installation from Michelle Angela Ortiz’s Familias Separadas, featuring Karen, on the Pennsylvania State Capitol steps. Courtesy of Michelle Angela Ortiz.

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gabe castro is a Latine, Philadelphia-based multimedia creator specializing in the horror genre, exploring the real world influences behind our cinematic fears. gabe believes media can be used as a tool to bring social change and works in all they do to create impactful and inspiring media. gabe is a former cinéSPEAK Philly Beat Fellow.