Film Documentary to Spotlight Latino Reconstruction of New Orleans
FROM CHOCOLATE CITY TO AN ENCHILADA VILLAGE:
Reconstructing the Narrative of the Latino Reconstruction of New Orleans
A Film Documentary by José Torres-Tama, who wrote the article below
In June of 2006, I recorded a radio commentary for National Public Radio’s Latino USA program titled From Chocolate City to an Enchilada Village Called New Orleans. It aired nationally on 200 plus public radio stations, and locally on WWNO in New Orleans. The piece commented on the Latino immigrant labor force engaged in the reconstruction of New Orleans while being subjected to wage theft at the hands of ruthless contractors who exploited their labor and undocumented status.
You can hear the original piece at www.torrestama.com and click on NPR’S LATINO USA Radio Commentaries icon. The Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities published the essay form in their Cultural Vistas magazine in the fall of 2007.
As part of my performance project called ALIENS, IMMIGRANTS & OTHER EVILDOERS, which explores the rise in hate crimes against Latinos and demonization of immigrants across the country, I have been conducting filmed interviews of immigrant workers and immigrant activists in post-Katrina New Orleans. Some of these stories will be used to inform the ALIENS performance script. The ALIENS multimedia performance will debut at the Ashé Cultural Arts Center in New Orleans this September.
Other stories will be part of a film documentary called FROM CHOCOLATE CITY TO AN ENCHILADA VILLAGE, and my aims is to reconstructs the narrative of the immigrants who rebuilt New Orleans, risking life and wages. The greatest dirty little secret of the reconstruction of New Orleans is that it owes a huge debt to the thousands of Latino immigrants who rebuilt the city with their sweat and arduous labor. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, 80% of them were cheated out of their rightful wages by ruthless contractors who exploited their labor and undocumented status. Fears of deportation have kept thousands silent while they have been victims of crimes and police brutality, but the SLAVE LABOR FIESTA continues at their expense.
This film aims to honor the noble labor of thousands of Latino immigrants whose sweat and blood reconstructed a city that has never officially offered any thanks—GRACIAS—to them.
If you know of any stories of immigrants and their role in the reconstruction of New Orleans, please contact me at jose@torrestama.com or by cell phone 504-232-2968. Interviews of immigrant laborers, immigrant activists, the general public, and social workers assisting the immigrant community in New Orleans are now being conducted for the film.
We hope to have a short documentary available by the 5th Anniversary of the storm in August 2010, and screen the film at various sites around town.
This is an ArteFuturo Productions and Blood, Sweat of Immigrant Labor Films.