Trails (2025)
In July 2021, through funding from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, we at the Institute of Women & Ethnic Studies (IWES) formed the Puentes Para Invitados (PPI) project to support the creation of an immigrant, migrant, and asylee ecosystem in New Mexico that builds on local assets and expands the infrastructure for trauma-responsive care. In order to achieve our vision, we embarked upon a narrative change project to center humanity in the conversation about migrants and asylees and create a deeper understanding of how individuals and systems are impacted by the crisis at the New Mexico/Mexico border. We sat down with partners to record and document their narratives in order to weave together an intricate audiovisual tapestry of migration stories, pathways to healing, roadblocks and barriers, and the individuals and communities advocating for basic human rights.
Trails is the first product of this work, and it contains interviews with migrants, DREAMers, and other folks directly impacted by current and past immigration policies who are seeking to reclaim their narratives and share what is not commonly portrayed in the mainstream media. The protagonists candidly share their space, their practices, their ancestral and newfound wisdom, and their reflections. From young people who wake up before the sun comes up to cross the US/Mexico border every day just to attend school, to community-based organizations in Albuquerque that reintroduce youth and adults to the healing powers of nature, community, agriculture, and curanderismo, this film compassionately exposes the core of the United States' melting pot and reminds us how much we all need each other and need our diversity in order to advance as a human society.
