Harvest of Empire: The Untold Story of Latinos in America

High School/Adult

Harvest of Empire offers a comprehensive analysis of the connection between immigration to the U.S. and the long history of United States intervention in Latin America. “They never teach us in school that the huge Latino presence here is a direct result of our own government’s actions in Mexico, the Caribbean and Central America over many decades — actions that forced millions from that region to leave their homeland and journey north,” says Juan González at the beginning of the film. The film is based on a book of the same title by González. A new edition of the book was released in 2022. 2012. 90 minutes.

The Houses Are Full of Smoke*

High School/Adult

The Houses Are Full of Smoke is a documentary series released in 1987 studying U.S. involvement in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua. "An eye-opening documentary about the Central American wars . . . the film's most frightening sequences are bloodless interviews with right-wing vigilantes — self-possessed men of power who suavely deny their responsibility for crimes attributed to them by human rights organizations . . . a formidable work of investigative cinema." — San Francisco Examiner. Streams free online.

If the Mango Tree Could Speak*

Elementary/Middle/high school

If the Mango Tree Could Speak shares the story of ten girls and boys in Guatemala and El Salvador during the war. From losing family members to war, to challenges to obtaining an education, to the struggle to retain Mayan identity, the movie is filled with their stories, portraying the war through the lens of the youth whose lives it changed. There is a beautiful companion website, When We Were Young, with interviews conducted 20 years later. Teaching for Change developed lessons to accompany the film. See note in annotations in our lessons collection.

Native America

Middle School/High School

The PBS documentary series Native America celebrates the innovations and stories of Indigenous peoples across the continent. The series architectural, scientific, and political contributions of Indigenous peoples and their contemporary realities are front-and-center, including those of the Mayan, Mexican, and Incan civilizations and their descendants. Airs on PBS and available as a DVD set.

Banana Land: Blood, Bullets, and Poison

High School/Adult

Bananas are by far the most popular fruit in the United States, but consumers know little about the conditions in which they are produced. Banana Land shows how behind the appealing polish of playful marketing campaigns lies a world fraught with unspeakable violence, corporate and political greed, and egregious violations of the most basic human rights.

When Banana Ruled

High School/Adult

When Banana Ruled is the saga of a handful of entrepreneurs who built an empire in Central America and invented the methods of one of the very first multinationals: The United Fruit Company. In 19th-century Central America, this company enslaved populations and corrupted governments for over 100 years through unregulated capitalism. It turned an unknown fruit into an instrument of fortune and domination and created a business model still largely used by today’s tech giants.

El Salvador, the People Will Win*

High School/Adult

El Salvador, the People Will Win depicts the battle of El Salvador and its revolutionary history, from the time of the Spanish conquest and colonization to the insurgency of the 80s, approached by a Puerto Rican filmmaker immersed in the conflict. It depicts a host of F.M.L.N. guerrillas marching forth from Monte Alzaco, the spiritual home of Salvadoran resistance. Warning for graphic scenes. Streams for free. 74 minutes.

El Pasado No Es Historia*

High School/Adult

El Pasado No Es Historia is a film about the historical memory of people in Arcatao, Chalatenango, El Salvador about the civil war that lasted more than a decade.

Gold or Water? The Struggle Against Mining in El Salvador*

High School/Adult

Gold or Water? The Struggle Against Mining in El Salvador explores how residents in the northern Salvadoran community of Santa Marta are fighting U.S. and Canadian mining companies eager to extract the rich veins of gold buried near the Lempa River, the water source for more than half of El Salvador’s 6.2 million people. The film streams for free online in English and Spanish.

Guazapa: Yesterday's Enemies

High School/Adult

Guazapa: Yesterday’s Enemies explores the past and present of the Salvadoran civil war. Don North, a U.S. war correspondent who had spent two months in El Salvador during the height of the conflict, returns to El Salvador to interview people about the consequences 26 years later. The film consists of those interviews and observations from 2009 as well as the observations he collected in 1983 when he first began documenting the crisis. Read COHA review of the film.

La Manplesa: An Uprising Remembered

High School/Adult

On May 5th, 1991, people took to the streets of Washington D.C.’s Mount Pleasant neighborhood to protest the police shooting of Daniel Gomez, a young man from El Salvador. The uprising called attention to the deep and widespread discrimination experienced by the Latinx community. Through testimony, song, poetry, and street theatre, La Manplesa weaves together the collective memory of one of D.C.’s first barrios and dives into the roots of the ‘91 rebellion. 52 minutes. Streaming on PBS, America Reframed.

Keepers of the Future: La Coordinadora of El Salvador*

High School - Adult

In a fertile floodplain in El Salvador, a peasant movement puts down roots — growing resilience in the scorched earth of exile and civil war. But soon these farmers and fishing folk discover new challenges, and this time they are global: climate crisis, exacerbated by an economy of ruinous extraction. Viewers learn how the community relies on organizing and running for political office to protect the environment and their humanity. Beautiful cinematography and an engaging story. 2018. 24 min. 

Maria's Story:  A Documentary Portrait of Love and Survival in El Salvador's Civil War*

High School/Adult

Maria’s Story: In 1989, Maria Serrano, was on the frontlines of the civil war. With unprecedented access to FMLN guerrilla camps, the filmmakers dramatically chronicle Maria's daily life in the war as she travels from village to village organizing the peasant population, and helps plan a major nationwide offensive that led the FMLN into the historic peace pact of 1992. Originally produced in 1991, the contemporary DVD includes updates on Maria's family 20 years later. 2010. 60 minutes. 

Prudencia Ayala, (animación)*

MIDDLE/HIGH SCHOOL

This short animation follows the life of Salvadoran writer and social activist, Prudencia Ayala, who fought for womens rights in early 1900s. Due to poverty and limited access to school as a child, she could not continue her formal education past the second grade. Despite these obstacles, Ayala gained mass popularity after publishing predictions and feminist articles in favor of gender equality, anti-imperialism, and Central American unionism. She challenged the political and social parties and went on to run for Presidential candidacy despite the laws that impeded women from having any rights at all. This short film is appropriate for middle and high school students. Subject area connections include Central American history, women’s rights, indigenous rights, gender inequality, and changemakers around the world. 9 minutes.

Romero

High School/Adult

Oscar Romero was named Archbishop of El Salvador at a time when the country was in turmoil and a slogan on the right was "Be a Patriot--Kill a Priest." Starring Raúl Juliá, Romero follows the Archbishop's personal journey from being on the side of the elite to fighting fervently for social reforms and becoming “the voice for the voiceless.” Produced by a Roman Catholic order, the film says little about the role of the U.S. 1989. 102 minutes.

Roses in December

High School/Adult

Roses in December. On December 2, 1980, lay missioner Jean Donovan and three American nuns were brutally murdered by members of El Salvador’s security force. This film chronicles Jean’s life, from her affluent childhood in Connecticut, to her decision to volunteer with the Maryknolls in El Salvador, to her tragic death. "The power of this documentary is that it may reshock us into remembering the United States’ complicity in El Salvador: Our government arms a government that kills Americans." - Washington Post. 1982. 56 minutes.

Imperdonable/Unforgivable*

High School/Adult

Geovany, a ruthless hitman from the Barrio 18 gang, is serving his sentence in an isolation cell in a Salvadoran prison. In prison, he withdrew from the gang and joined an evangelical church that granted him God's forgiveness. However, there is one sin that is unforgivable for both the church and the gang: Geovany is gay.

The Tiniest Place*

High School/Adult

On the surface THE TINIEST PLACE (EL LUGAR MAS PEQUEÑO) is the story of Cinquera, a village literally wiped off the official map during El Salvador's 12-year civil war. But on a deeper level it is a story about the ability to rise, to rebuild and reinvent oneself after a tragedy.

Holding the past and present in focus together, the film takes us to the tiny village nestled in the mountains amidst the humid Salvadoran jungle, while villagers, survivors of the war's massacres, recount their journey home at war's end. When they first returned their village no longer existed.

Nevertheless they decided to stay. And over the years as they worked the land, built new homes and started new families, the people of Cinquera learned to live with sorrow.

Voces Inocentes/Innocent Voices*

High School/Adult

Based on the life of co-screenwriter Óscar Torres, Innocent Voices tells the story of a 12-year-old boy who is forced to join the Salvadoran army during the civil war.

Witness to War

High School/Adult

One man's journey of conscience from Vietnam to El Salvador, WITNESS TO WAR is the Academy Award winning story of Dr. Charlie Clements, who was a pilot in Vietnam until he refused further combat missions. Stripped of his military identity, Clements dedicated his life to non-violence and healing, ultimately tending to the wounded behind rebel lines in El Salvador.

18 With a Bullet

High School/Adult

18 With a Bullet documents the life and experiences of a major Salvadoran gang called “18.” Gangs developed in El Salvador as a result of deportation of thousands of Salvadorans from the U.S. in the 1990s, including young people who had joined gangs while in Los Angeles.

1932, Scar of the Memory*

High School/Adult

In 1932 the army and "citizen militias" in El Salvador brutally crushed an uprising of Indigenous peasants in western El Salvador, killing 10,000 people. Survivors share their harrowing memories, many for the first time.

500 Years: Life in Resistance*

High School/Adult

500 YEARS: Life in Resistance tells the epic story that led Guatemala to a tipping point in their history from the genocide trial of former dictator General Rios Montt to the popular movement that toppled sitting President Otto Perez Molina. Focusing on universal themes of justice, racism, power and corruption, 500 YEARS tells the story from the perspective of the majority indigenous Mayan population, and their struggles in their country’s growing fight against impunity.

Film guide for educators.

The Art of Political Murder

HIGH SCHOOL/ADULT

Based on Francisco Goldman’s book of the same name and executive-produced by Academy Award winners George Clooney and Grant Heslov, The Art of Political Murder tells the story of the 1998 murder of Guatemalan human rights activist Bishop Juan Gerardi and how it stunned a country ravaged by decades of political violence. Read a review of the film.

Dirty Secrets: Jennifer, Everardo & the CIA in Guatemala

High School/ Adult

Dirty Secrets describes Jennifer Harbury’s courageous search for her missing husband Everardo — a Mayan rebel leader — and reveals the dark legacy of decades of CIA complicity in Guatemalan human rights abuses. Part human rights primer, part mystery and part love story, Dirty Secrets follows Harbury through a frightening journey to save Everardo and stop the killing in Guatemala.

El Silencio de Neto*

High School/Adult

El Silencio de Neto is a coming of age story of a young boy in the midst of the U.S. backed overthrow of President Jacobo Arbenz in 1954 in Guatemala. Read a detailed description. This film, produced by Luis Argueta, is available on Netflix. 1994. 108 minutes.

Granito: How to Nail a Dictator

High School/Adult

Granito: How to Nail a Dictator is an award-winning film that connects the lives of five different individuals trying to piece together the past and demand justice for Guatemala. The leaders that had orchestrated the brutal genocide against the Mayans in 1982 have still not been brought to justice. An international human rights lawyer, a forensic archivist, documentary filmmaker, forensic anthropologist and Mayan survivor team up to make that justice happen. 2011. 103 minutes.

Guatemala: The Secret Files

High School/Adult

Guatemala: The Secret Files tells the story of a hidden history in Guatemala that is being uncovered by human rights activists and a non-profit tech company called Benetech. Archaeologists and Benetech have discovered an archive of hidden police records that documented the human rights violations committed by the state during Guatemala’s civil war. 

Ixcanul

High School/Adult

A Maya Kakchiquel teenager who lives on the slopes of a volcano in Guatemala juggles her traditional roles with her own desires. This film explores themes of Mayan girlhood, gender roles, and racial-ethnic marginalization in Guatemala. It is available for viewing on Kanopy and other streaming platforms. 2015. 1 hour, 33 minutes.

José*

Adult

José centers on the experiences of a young gay Guatemalan man who lives with his mother. his coming-of-age film delves into the challenges faced by LGBTQ+ individuals as they pursue love in a deeply religious and homophobic society. Notably, it stands as one of the initial Guatemalan films to portray queer relationships. 85 minutes.

La Llorona*

High School/Adult

A war criminal accused and tried for genocide in Guatemala is haunted by the ghosts of his war crimes. The home of a bourgeois ladino family becomes a haunted house as spirits terrorize the former general’s family. This horror film is an allegory for the Guatemalan genocide during the armed conflict from 1960 to 1996. It is available for streaming on various platforms. 2019. Directed by Jayro Bustamante. 1 hour, 37 minutes. 

Los Diablos No Sueñan*

High School/Adult

Devils Don't Dream is a film about Jacobo Arbenz Guzman. The film focuses on the historical memory of the 1990's Guatemala. It looks back at 1954, during the U.S.-backed overthrow of the seemingly progressive president.

Sipakapa Not Sold*

High School/Adult

The transnational company Glamis Gold (now Gold Corp. ) operates a gold mine in Guatemala. The Maya People of Sipakapa defend their autonomy against the advance of the great neoliberal projects.

When the Mountains Tremble*

High School/Adult

When the Mountains Tremble filmed in 1982 at the height of the Guatemalan Army’s repression against the Mayan indigenous people, has become a classic political documentary. It describes the struggle of the largely Indian peasantry against a heritage of state and foreign oppression.

28 De Junio: Vicky vs Honduras*

High School/Adult

The documentary June 28: Vicky vs Honduras follows the story of Vicky Hernández, a trans woman murdered during the 2009 coup d'état in Honduras. It details the legal battle led by the Cattrachas Lesbian Network and Vicky's family to seek justice despite obstacles and threats, culminating in a favorable ruling against the State of Honduras after twelve years. View online for free. 83 minutes.

Berta Didn’t Die, She Multiplied!*

High School/Adult

Berta Didn’t Die, She Multiplied! is a documentary on the legacy of Berta Cáceres, the Indigenous Honduran environmental activist whose defense of her people’s lands successfully pressured the world’s largest dam builder to pull out of the Agua Zarca Dam at the Río Gualcarque. After winning the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2015, she was assassinated on March 3, 2016. The film highlights not only her legacy but also that of other influential leaders like Garifuna activist Miriam Miranda. In Spanish with English subtitles. View online for free. 30 minutes.

Berta Vive*

High School/Adult

In March 2nd, 2016 news of Berta Caceres' murder shook the world. The activist whose fight defending Lenca territories brought her to lead COPINH, the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras. Gustavo Castro, Mexican environmental activist, witnessed the crime, and survived the horror of that night but was then trapped in Honduras. The defense against the construction of a dam at the Gualcarque River, sacred to the Lenca indigenous communities, is the preface to a story in which we follow Miriam Miranda, leader of the Garífuna Afro-descendant people, as well as a friend and comrade of Berta. Both women unified in a struggle for decolonization in a country that is being sold to transnational capital and where death is delivered in so many different ways.

Favela in Paradise*

High School/Adult

The crown jewel of tourism on Honduras’ Caribbean coast hides an uncomfortable truth. Unbeknown to most visitors, the only cay entirely inhabited by Garifuna islanders is a shanty town where residents live in dire need locked in a nonstop battle against the sea, forgotten by the state and treated as a stumbling block for development. 22 minutes.

Garifuna in Peril

High School/Adult

A Garifuna language teacher, Ricardo, struggles to preserve his endangered Afro-Indigenous culture by building a language school back in his home village in Honduras. A business venture with his brother designed to raise money for the school’s construction becomes complicated by the expansion plans of a nearby tourist resort into Indigenous territory. Historical parallels are invoked as Ricardo’s son rehearses a stage play about the Garifuna people’s last stand against British colonialism over 200 years ago in their motherland, the island of St. Vincent in the Caribbean. The film is the first dramatic feature film with a majority of its dialogue in Garifuna (a language proclaimed by UNESCO in 2001 as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity). 98 minutes.

La Lucha Sigue/The Struggle Continues*

High School/Adult

In Honduras, one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a land defender, the Lenca and Garífuna people are not backing down. They are fighting to uphold their spirituality and Indigenous ways of life in the face of state-backed megaprojects and narco-traffickers who seek to assassinate them, destroy their lands, and erase their existence.

Maíz, Copal, y Candela*

High School/Adult

Produced by Hondura’s first Film Department in the 80s, this non-fiction medium-length film is defined as a benchmark of Honduran documentaries. It is a respectful and close exploration of the reality and customs of the Lenca people, an Indigenous community of Honduras.

Olancho*

High School/Adult

In Olancho, Honduras, the drug trade has taken its toll on human lives and economic damage. When a song Manuel writes angers a dangerous drug cartel, he is forced to flee his home in Honduras to go to the United States. From a radio cabin in North Carolina, Manuel recounts his narrow escape from death and describes the challenges of assimilating into a new world as an undocumented immigrant.

Pulga*

High School/Adult

Set in the 1969 war between El Salvador and Honduras ―better known as “The Soccer War”― a Honduran foot soldier finds a lonely survivor in a raided border town during a recon mission. Moved by mercy, the soldier takes him in and looks after him. Soon enough, the survivor’s presence draws empathy from the Honduran soldier and even from the enemy, who forget about war for an instant as soon as they see him. 28 minutes.

Resistencia: The Fight for the Aguan Valley*

High School/Adult

When a 21st century coup d’état ousts the only president they ever believed in, these Honduran farmers take over the plantations with no plans to ever give them back.

Beginning with the first coup in Central America in three decades, Resistencia: The Fight for the Aguan Valley picks up the story of the farmers who responded to the coup by taking over the plantations of the most powerful man in Honduras. The camera follows three of the movement’s protagonists and one brilliant journalist from the capital city over the four years between the coup and the elections that the farmers hope will return democracy to Honduras. Produced by Makila Usine Médiatique and Naretiv Productions.

The World of a Primitive Painter

High School/Adult

Documentary about José Antonio Velásquez, one of the most important painters in Honduras considered the first primitive painter in America, narrated by Shirley Temple Black. Views of San Antonio de Oriente constitute the main subjects. The artist built an inventory of everything that his eyes captured in this quiet Honduran colonial town, which had been forgotten by history after the closure of the silver mine for which it was built.

Alsino y el Condor*

High School/Adult

Alsino, a young Nicaraguan boy, lives in a war-torn area. Amidst conflict, he tries to embrace childhood but is drawn into the war’s reality. A chopper flight with a US advisor leaves him unimpressed. Witnessing soldiers’ cruelties he becomes sympathetic to rebels and fully immersed in the conflict.

Bananas!

High School/Adult

Bananas!* follows a legal battle between Dole Food and Nicaraguan banana workers over the company's use of a banned pesticide. All over the world, banana plantation workers are suffering and dying from the effects of these pesticides. Cancer, kidney failure, sterility. Dole Fruit and Dow Chemicals are on trial. And history is about to be made. 87 minutes.

Dawn of the People: Nicaragua’s Literacy Crusade*

High School/Adult

The Nicaraguan National Literacy Crusade during the 1980s was an initiative carried out by mostly middle-class teenagers who traveled to impoverished rural and urban parts of Nicaragua to teach basic literacy skills. The literacy crusade drew on the teachings of Brazilian educator and theorist Paulo Freire and was led by Jesuit priest Fernando Cardinal. The Sandinista victory aimed to unify the country after the war and provide opportunities deprived in previous regimes, and the literacy campaign was one such initiative toward that goal. The documentary offers a perspective into the crusade through the eyes of teachers, students, and supporters during the war and in post-war Nicaragua. Available to view online on an unofficial YouTube post. Directed by Jay Craven and Doreen Kraft. 1984. 36 minutes. 

Heiress of the Wind*

High School/Adult

Gloria’s parents are revolutionary Sandinistas, fighting to liberate Nicaragua from decades under dictatorship. In 1979, they are finally successful, plunging the nation into civil war. Living life on the front line, the greater good forever takes centre stage. But what about young Gloria? Now an adult, Gloria recalls the past with painful clarity. Her reflections pave the way for searing debates regarding torture, tragedy and the importance of parental love.

¡Las Sandinistas!*

High School/Adult

¡Las Sandinistas! uncovers the untold stories of women who shattered barriers to lead combat and social reform during Nicaragua’s 1979 Sandinista Revolution, and the ensuing US-backed Contra War, as these same women continue as leaders in the struggle against their current government's suppression of democracy and women's rights.

The film is centered around the personal stories of Dora Maria Téllez, the young medical student who became a major Sandinista General, and four of her revolutionary allies - Nicaraguan women who overcame traditional gender barriers and subverted stereotypes to lead rebel troops in battle and reshape their country with landmark social reform. ¡Las Sandinistas! exposes a watershed moment in history when thousands of women transformed society’s definition of womanhood and leadership before facing renewed marginalization by their male peers after the wars ended. Now, 35 years later, amidst staggering levels of gender violence in Nicaragua, these same women brave the streets once again to lead popular movements for equality and democracy.

Pictures from a Revolution

High School/Adult

In 1981, Susan Meiselas published "Nicaragua, June 1978 to July 1979," 70 photographs she took documenting the Sandinista revolution. Ten years later, Meiselas returns looking for the people who appear in the photographs: where are they now, what do they remember, what do they think of their country and of the revolution? She finds a woman who buried her husband when she was 14; she talks to those who fought the Guarda Nacional - some are disillusioned, some still have the fervor of revolution; she talks to mothers about their sons; she finds a Guarda member who became a Contra. And she offers her own reflections on time and history and on the moment and meaning of a photograph.

Sex and the Sandinistas

HIGH SCHOOL/ADULT

The documentary Sex and the Sandinistas reveals the untold story of how queer Nicaraguans fought for recognition within the Sandinista Revolution. It explores the LGBTQ+ community in Managua, showcasing safe sex demonstrations, drag shows, love poetry, and discussions on gender roles. The film captures the unique experience of LGBTQ+ individuals during the Latin American Revolution, shedding light on their struggles and triumphs.

Patrol*

High School/Adult

PATROL is a character-driven documentary that follows communities on the frontlines of an intensifying environmental conflict in Nicaragua. The Rama Indians, in alliance with the Afro-descendent Kriol community, are fighting to stop illegal cattle ranchers from destroying the virgin rainforests of the Indio Maíz Biological Reserve.

Sunflowers of Nicaragua*

Adult

Sixteen female sex workers have been named judicial aides by Nicaragua's Supreme Court to facilitate the resolution of conflicts that come up in their work. It is the first time in the world that sex workers have had access to this function. The film accompanies some of these women in their mediation work and in the actions they promote through their association, Girasoles (Sunflowers) of Nicaragua, to gain recognition and regulations for autonomous sex work. 70 minutes.

Box 25*

High School/Adult

Box 25 surveys the major events in the troubled relationship between Panama and the United States. The focus is 114 recently discovered letters written by Panama Canal diggers describing brutal working conditions, rampant discrimination, and enduring hopes. Making elegant use of archival documents, photographs, and films, as well as contemporary interviews, Box 25 brings these voices back to life, reminding the viewers of the troubled history of the Panama Canal. 72 minutes.

Héroe Transparente*

High School/Adult

This documentary film explores the life of Buglé Panamanian hero Victoriano Lorenzo through the historical memory of prominent social struggles and cultural figures. From a young age, Lorenzo was deeply aware of the injustices perpetrated by the Conservative party regime. At that time, Panama was a department of Colombia, and the violent political-military struggles between the liberal and conservative parties intensified in the late 19th century. Despite being marginalized from official history and sometimes depicted as a bandit or a victim of circumstances, Lorenzo is remembered in popular historical memory as the Transparent Hero: the guerrilla "cholo" and his army of "mountaineer" liberators who eluded their enemies and never abandoned their cause.

Invasión*

High School/Adult

Invasión documents the collective memory using reenactments and interviews of the 1989 U.S. invasion of Panama. It includes accounts from defense forces, politicians, church associates, civilians, and former General Noriega. The invasion, which took place during the Christmas and New Year of 1989, saw American troops overthrowing dictator Manuel Noriega, resulting in the loss of an unknown number of civilian lives. Through this event, the documentary delves into how people recall, reinterpret, and sometimes overlook their past, shaping their identity and current state. 94 minutes.

Miss Panama

High School/Adult

In 1980, Gloria Karamañites made history by becoming the first Black woman to be crowned Miss Panama. Prior to her victory, pageant officials attempted to prevent her from winning by insisting she answer an additional obscure legal question. Gloria's story sheds light on broader issues of race, national identity, and the far-reaching impacts of US imperialism. Through a blend of archival footage, real-life accounts, and personal testimony, the series raises questions about who has the opportunity to represent a nation. 28 minutes.

Panama Canal Stories*

High School/Adult

Panama Canal Stories chronicles five stories of people who helped build the famous canal and Panama itself. Spanning a century, from 1913 to 2013, the film weaves together the tales of five characters: Clarice, a young Jamaican laborer forced to choose between love and survival at the hands of her American and British bosses during the Canal’s construction; Jake, the son of an engineer who grows up in the ‘American zone’ in 1950s Panama but who wants to be with his Panamanian friends; José, a student caught up in the 1960s political unrest and his love for a pretty American girl, Lucy; Silverio, a chauffeur for visiting U.S. politicians who is hired to spy on them by local political activists in 1977; and Clarice Jones, a jazz singer in New York City who discovers that her great-grandmother worked on the canal and decides to go to Panama to explore her roots.

Panquiaco

High School/Adult

Cebaldo, an indigenous man from Panama, is a fishermen's assistant in a town in northern Portugal who suffers of nostalgia. In his loneliness, memories takes him away from his daily routine, immersing in a journey back to his village in Guna Yala, where a botanical doctor confronts him with the impossibility of returning to the past.

The Panama Deception

High School/Adult

In their Oscar-winning documentary, director Barbara Trent and writer/editor David Kasper contrast media coverage of the 1989 invasion of Panama with expert testimony. The filmmakers backtrack to the U.S. turn-of-the-century takeover of the Panama Canal--and volatile aftermath--before flashing forward to the reform-minded Carter era. When the CIA-supported Noriega comes to power, reform gives way to repression, and Reagan calls for the dictator's ouster. The documentary streams for free online. 1992. 90 minutes.

Cálido Afuera*

High School/Adult

In a turbulent political period following the declaration of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in favor of equal marriage in Costa Rica, a lesbian woman, a gay man and a transgender woman face a new coming out of the closet, but this time public and in favor of sexual diversity in the country.

Costa Rica S.A.*

HIGH SCHOOL/ADULT

The film explores with satirical black-humor a series of polemical aspects of the The Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), such as the inclusion of war weapons as objects of commerce for Costa Rica, a country without an army, or the incorporation of Central American undersea resources as part of the United States' definition of territory

El Codo del Diablo*

HIGH SCHOOL/ADULT

Puerto Limon, Costa Rica, 1948. Four days before Christmas, Setico a 12-year-old boy must take a train in search of his father. A trip that will reveal the forgotten memories of this banana enclave and the murder of six political prisoners in a place known as Devil's Elbow.

Tropical Iron: The Saga of Minor Keith

High School/Adult

Tropical Iron is about the story of Minor Keith and the construction of the Costa Rican Railway in the 19th Century. Laying one hundred miles of track cost the lives of over 4000 men, took nearly 20 years to complete, and bankrupted a nation. It resulted in the formation of the United Fruit Company, the largest agricultural enterprise in the world, and the most controversial US company ever to operate in Latin America. Watch critically: this film explores an often untold history but occasionally glamorizes Minor Keith in its portrayal. 108 minutes.

Ghost Empire § Belize

High School/Adult

Ghost Empire § Belize examines the constitutional challenge taken by Belizean activist Caleb Orozco against Section 53, a 19th century British colonial law criminalising acts ‘against the order of nature’. Opposition to the case by evangelical Christian groups has included symbolic hangings of an effigy of LGBTQ+ group UNIBAM. The film follows Orozco from 2015 through 2020.

The Chocolate Farmer

High School/Adult

This full-length documentary takes us to a corner of southern Belize, where cacao farmer and father Eladio Pop manually works his plantation in the tradition of his Mayan ancestors: as a steward of the land. The film captures a year in the life of the Pop family as they struggle to preserve their values in a world that is dramatically changing around them. A lament for cultures lost, The Chocolate Farmer challenges our deeply held assumptions of progress. 71 minutes.

The Garifuna Journey

High School/Adult

Genocide, exile, Diaspora and persecution did not break the spirit of the Garifuna people. Descendants of African and Carib-Indian ancestors, the Garifuna fought to maintain their homeland on the island of St. Vincent in the Caribbean. The Garifuna resisted slavery. For this love of freedom, they were exiled from St. Vincent to Roatan in Honduras by the British in 1797. Despite exile and subsequent Diaspora, their traditional culture survives today. It is a little-known story that deserves its place in the annals of the African Diaspora.

Working closely with Garifuna tradition bearers, this "outsider and insider" collaboration was the first of its kind, one that captured the triumph of the spirit of the Garifuna people. With vivid and engaging footage shot entirely in Belize, the documentary celebrates the continuity of Garifuna culture in the face of overwhelming odds. Download the film teaching tool for educators.

Yochi

High School/Adult

Yochi, a 9-year-old selectively mute Mayan boy, guards a nest of endangered yellow-headed Parrots in Belize's pine savannah. When his beloved older brother, Itza, returns from the city, Yochi learns that he’s in debt and has turned to poaching — setting the brothers on a collision course. 24 minutes.

El Norte*

High School/Adult

El Norte is a about a brother and sister who fled the persecution and civil war of Guatemala after the government army destroyed their home and family. The movie follows their journey north through Mexico, crossing the border into the United States, and life in Los Angeles as undocumented immigrants. Directed by Gregory Nava, El Norte received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay in 1985. The film was selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." 1983. 139 minutes.

Sin Nombre*

High School/Adult

Sayra, a Honduran teen, is looking for a better life. Her chance for one comes when she is reunited with her long-estranged father, who intends to emigrate to Mexico and then enter the United States. Sayra's life collides with a pair of Mexican gang members who have boarded the same U.S.-bound train. Film Q&A. 96 minutes.

The Golden Dream/La Jaula de Oro*

High School/Adult

The Golden Dream/La jaula de oro tells the story of four teenagers (three Guatemalan and one Mexican) on a dangerous journey across the border to the U.S. Their stories are based on 600 interviews conducted by the director. "La Jaula de Oro just may stand as the definitive Latino immigrant odyssey." -- Film Journal International. Listen to an extended Democracy Now! interview with film director Diego Quemada-Diéz on La Jaula de Oro and migration to the U.S. Available on Netflix. 

The Vertical Border 

High School/Adult

People across the world are fleeing hunger, climate disaster, and violence in their countries. The Vertical Border focuses on Central Americans who head to Mexico and the United States in search of a livable life. This feature-length documentary looks at what happens when forced migrants claim dignity and rights, but arrive to a hostile welcome, complicating common ideas of the Mexico-US border and its extending reach. 78 minutes.

Which Way Home? 

High School/Adult

Academy Award nominee Which Way Home follows unaccompanied children as they make the long and treacherous voyage to the U.S. border. Some, like Olga and Freddy, venture out in search of distant relatives. Others, like Kevin, hope to find work to support their families at home. Often traveling for months or even years at a time, these courageous and determined children each have stories of hope and resilience, disappointment and sorrow. Chronicling the harrowing journey of thousands of migrant children, Which Way Home illuminates a powerfully human side of immigration.

La Manplesa

High School/Adult

On May 5th, 1991, people took to the streets of Washington DC’s Mount Pleasant neighborhood to protest the police shooting of Daniel Gomez, a young man from El Salvador. The uprising called attention to the deep and widespread discrimination experienced by the Latinx community. For thirty years, these three seminal days in the city’s history of racial justice movements have remained seared in the memories of community members — yet have also rested largely untold beyond the neighborhood’s own streets.

Through testimony, song, poetry, and street theatre, La Manplesa weaves together the collective memory of one of DC’s first barrios, dives into the roots of the ‘91 rebellion, and explores the ways that activism of the past informs and inspires present social movements. 52 minutes.

America First: The Legacy of an Immigration Raid

High School/Adult

America First: The Legacy of an Immigration Raid tells the story of Postville, a small Iowa town, a decade after a massive raid on the local meatpacking plant. With Donald Trump reviving George W. Bush’s immigration enforcement policies, Postville’s experience informs the impact, efficiency and repercussions of massive raids in worksites. 2018. 42 Minutes.

Los Eternos Indocumentados

High School/Adult

In July 2014, mainstream US media became flooded with images of what they termed “unaccompanied Central American children.” Most of these children—many coming with their parents—were fleeing from the violent consequences of U.S. intervention in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. Rather than providing asylum, the Obama Administration expanded the previously defunct practice of family detention. Based on interviews with recently arrived Central Americans as well as interviews with organizers leading the struggle on the ground in Central America, this film captures Central American refugees' stories and the reasons behind their forced migration, echoing the concept of "los Eternos Indocumentados" (the Eternally Undocumented) as expressed by Salvadoran poet Roque Dalton. Film guide.

First Package for Honduras*

High School/Adult

Life between waiting and arriving. Joining one of the migrant caravans, Dinora made it to the US. Now she has to deal with a GPS ankle bracelet, constantly reminding her that her time in the US might end at any moment.

PRIMER PAQUETE PARA HONDURAS captures the atmosphere of a transitional state of a mother trying to find a place for herself and her kids in a new world that is everything but welcoming. The film walks a fine line between depiction and representation of Dinora’s new life and raises questions about filmmaking itself.

These Days

High School/Adult

These Days is a Salvadoran-American coming-of-age story that centers on a 14-year-old Salvadoran-American artist, Jay, in the Brentwood neighborhood of Long Island, New York, where many Salvadorans landed in the 1980s when they fled war in their country. 

Brentwood’s population is 71 percent Latinx, yet Central American stories in New York like These Days are underrepresented. The writer and film makers are all Salvadoran who felt the need to tell their own story about what it means to grow up as Central Americans.

In the film, Jay and his friends are bullied and tormented by gangs. The film illustrates how both the youth and gang members give in to their circumstances and resist their limitations. Young people from the community — not professional actors — were cast to tell this story. These Days raises awareness about issues faced by young people around the country of different backgrounds and highlights the important role that local youth organizations can play.

The theme of healing intergenerational familial trauma is prominent in the film, given the legacy of many Salvadoran adults who lived through fleeing the war in El Salvador, which inevitably affects their children. 

The filmmaker, Juan Gonzalez, makes the film very personal, grounding it in his own narrative. Film screenings. 2023. 85 minutes. 

Almost American

High School/Adult

Maria Ayala Flores, raised in the United States since age one, does not have U.S. citizenship like her U.S.-born siblings.

Sheltered by Temporary Protected Status, her family quietly lived and worked in the nation’s capital for 20 years — but when the termination of TPS threatens to separate them, they join a lawsuit that exposes high-ranking officials who bent the rules to try to deport them. Streaming on Prime. 2024. 85 minutes. 

Las Muertes Más Bellas del Mundo (The Most Beautiful Deaths in the World)

High School/Adult

1980 marked the beginning of an exodus of Salvadorans fleeing a US-backed war, with tens of thousands of people making the Washington, DC, region their new home. This mass migration gave birth to a new artistic movement. Using the corner of 15th & Irving Streets in NW DC as their home base, artists brought meaning to a uniquely Salvadoran-Wachintonian identity. In the process, they shaped the city’s vibrant, longstanding, and thriving cultural scene.

Las Muertes Más Bellas del Mundo tells a story of the Salvadoran diaspora’s struggles and humanity through the eyes of artists who created art out of war. The film follows a poet’s journey to find acceptance and healing through his writing of Las Muertes and interweaves a collection of Salvadoran-Wachintonian artist portraits – a poet, a photographer, a dancer, and musicians. Collectively, their voices and archival images tell a compelling, intimate, and historically-grounded story of a community resolving trauma and finding identity, salvation, and joy. 2024

Smithsonian Latino Center. Roundtable discussion (2011).

Root Causes of Central American Migration

Eric Hershberg, director of the American University Center for Latin American and Latino Studies and Dennis Stinchcomb, assistant director for research, of the American University Center for Latin American and Latino Studies offered an in-depth presentation about many of the causes, consequences, and challenges of the Central American youth refugee crisis. 

History of Central America

Dr. Ana Patricia Rodríguez, associate professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and U.S. Latina/o Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park, gave an overview of the history of Central America, including the Indigenous peoples, colonization, independence movements, and the role of the United States.