Project Statement: September, 2010
"Echeleganas: A Life Left Behind" is a documentary that addresses the perpetual drive of immigrant ambition, in this case, of Mexican immigrants, who have left their villages to seek work in support of their families and communities.
Over the past several years, I have become acquainted with a number of Mexican workers I have hired in Philadelphia. As I came to admire their skills, their work ethic, and their close and supportive social connections to each other, I began to ask myself, who were these Mexican workers, Alberto, Luis, Ramon, Ana, Hector and others, where did they come from, what had they left behind to come here, and why had they done so? This video and photographic project is my attempt to answer these questions.
Clearly, these men and women had left for economic reasons, and in the process had embraced the American route to success -- literally pulling themselves up by their bootstraps and "making it". Many had left their families behind, and their only compensation for leaving was to fulfill their promises to send remittances home so that their families could invest in land, start small businesses or build houses. My workers in Philadelphia had come from villages in the mountainous region of La Sierra de Norte, Puebla State, Mexico. Several of them graciously invited me to visit their families in La Sierra de Norte. Over the course of the past six years I made five visits to their villages. Each trip deepened my entry into and my understanding of their personal histories. I visited homes, workshops, and stores built with the money sent home by them and I conducted informal interviews with many of their relatives.
This project specifically describes the traditional village life, (which is quickly changing), left behind by the workers. The inhabitants of Sierra de Norte, while eking out an existence, are still celebrating a rich set of cultural activities -- weddings, saints' day celebrations, faenas (community work events), first communions, all of which make up an integral part of their existence.
On one level, "Echeleganas: A Life Left Behind" is a cultural model of a rural Mexican community that informs the American public about who these "immigrants" are, or who they were before they left home in search of economically satisfying opportunities in the North. On another, it shows the workers' sense of Mexican cultural identity, their pride in still being part of their community (which is enhanced when I show them the photographs and film clips of their families and community celebrations, and messages sent to them by their loved ones). It shows, too, the ways in which their communities are changing, often as a direct result of the financial aid they are able to send to their families.
Laurence Salzmann - Philadelphia, U.S.A.