Today’s program focuses on Diego Luna as the director of the new film on 1969s farm worker organizer Cesar Chavez; Jorge Perogurría, now appearing in Return to Ithaca, the story of a Cuban exile who returns to the island after a 17 year absence; and Alonzo Ruizpalacios, director of the new Mexican movie “Gueros.” Diego Luna tells us that in living between Los Angeles and Mexico, he came upon the story of Cesar Chavez, which is in fact, the story of an entire community of people who have made their way northward in search of a better life. Luna says that although the film focus on the lives of Mexican workers in the fields and vineyards, it is also related to the situation of all Mexican immigrants, who are the “motor of the economy” in the United States, yet never recognized or justly rewarded for the work they do. Jorge Perogurría, one of the leading actors in Return to Ithaca, sees the film as a kind of catharsis for a generation whose dreams of a new way of life in Cuba never fully materialize. Yet Cuba is reinventing itself, and as this happens, the characters in the movie must follow suit, says Perogurría. This involves taking a hard look at the past, reinventing themselves and creating new dreams. From the Isle of Santa Clara, host Monica Mayano tells us that the Horizons Prize goes to Mexican director Alonso Ruizpalacios for his road movie “Gueros.” It’s a film about social contrasts shot in black and white, says the director, whose starting point is the major student strike at the National Autonomous University in 1999. teleSUR
