Guides: Hispanic and Latinx Heritage Month: Videos

Find Films at Gordon Library

Find Films in the WPI Library Search

To find films at the Gordon Library:

Enter your keywords into WPI Library Search
On the search results page, click on Resource Type on the left, and then select the Videos filter
To limit your search to online videos, go to the Availability filter on the left and select Available online
To limit your search to dvds, go to the Availability filter on the left and select Available on shelf

Online Videos: Academic Video Online (AVON)

Academic Video Online

You can find videos on Hispanic and Latinx history and culture in Academic Video Online (AVON), the library's primary databases for online videos. Videos in this database are available to current WPI students, faculty, and staff. Here are some example films available in AVON:

Delores by Peter Bratt (director)
Publication Date: 2017
Dolores Huerta is among the most important, yet least known, activists in American history. An equal partner in co-founding the first farm workers unions with Cesar Chavez, her enormous contributions have gone largely unrecognized. Dolores tirelessly led the fight for racial and labor justice alongside Chavez, becoming one of the most defiant feminists of the twentieth century - and she continues the fight to this day, at 87. With intimate and unprecedented access to this intensely private mother to eleven, the film reveals the raw, personal stakes involved in committing one's life to social change.
L.A. Bamba: An Exploration of Son Jarocho in Southern California by Kara Clemins (director)
Publication Date: 2014
L.A. Bamba examines how Son Jarocho musicians engage with Mexican American culture in Los Angeles. Son Jarocho is historically known for its playful style dating back to its creation and spread from Veracruz, Mexico. The genre is characterized by its upbeat style and colorful instrumentation. This film examines how these attributes play a role in the dissemination of ideologies and engagement with Mexican American culture. The musicians featured in the film come from diverse musical upbringings and exemplify the variety present in the Son Jarocho genre. L.A. Bamba explores the ways in which music can be utilized as a social and cultural tool and celebrates the ways that Son Jarocho musicians are taking unique strides in Southern California.
The Latino List: Vol. 1 by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders (director)
Publication Date: 2011
HBO presents a unique glimpse into the vibrant and burgeoning culture of Hispanic America through a series of highly personal video portraits of Latinos who have richly contributed to the fabric of contemporary society.
The Latino List: Vol. 2 by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders (director)
Publication Date: 2012
The Latino List: Volume 2 features interviews with an extraordinary cross-section of Hispanic Americans who represent a variety of professions, disciplines, and backgrounds, each speaking to the unique struggles and triumphs he or she has faced.
¡Palante, Siempre Palante! The Young Lords by Iris Morales (director)
Publication Date: 1996
In the midst of the African American civil rights struggle, protests to end the Vietnam War, and the women's movement for equality, Puerto Rican and Latino communities fought for economic and social justice. From Chicago streets to the barrios of New York City and other urban centers, the Young Lords emerged to demand decent living conditions and raised a militant voice for the empowerment of the Puerto Rican people in the United States. Palante, Siempre Palante documents the history with on-camera interviews, archival footage, photographs and music. The documentary surveys Puerto Rican history, the Young Lords' activities and philosophy, the torturous end of the organization and its inspiring legacy.
Rudo y Cursi by Carlos Cuarón (director)
Publication Date: 2008
Score! From the creators and stars of the international sensation Y Tu Mamá También, comes a raucous comedic drama following two brothers' rivalry. When a talent scout gets stranded in their tiny town, brothers Beto (Diego Luna, Milk, The Terminal) and Tato (Gael García Bernal, Bad Education, Babel) are discovered and whisked away to Mexico City to play for the big leagues where they quickly achieve fame. Beto is nicknamed "Rudo" for his hotheaded goalkeeper style and Tato is called "Cursi" for his peculiar scoring technique. But success leads to excess as Rudo descends into gambling debt and drug abuse and Cursi is distracted by beautiful women and a second career as a pop singer. Having come so far, will the siblings remember their original goal: building a home for their mother?
Stolen Education by Enrique Alemán, Jr. (director)
Publication Date: 2013
Stolen Education documents the untold story of Mexican-American school children who challenged discrimination in Texas schools in the 1950's and changed the face of education in the Southwest. As a 9 year-old second grader, Lupe had been forced to remain in the first grade for three years, not because of her academic performance but solely because she was Mexican American. She was one of eight young students who testified in a federal court case in 1956 to end the discriminatory practice (Hernandez et al. v. Driscoll Consolidated Independent School District), one of the first post-Brown desegregation court cases to be litigated.

Online Videos: YouTube

YouTube

YouTube offers some free documentaries on Hispanic and Latinx heritage. Here are some examples:

Harvest of Empire: The Untold Story of Latinos in America by Eduardo López & Peter Getzels (directors)
ISBN: Harvest of Empire: The Untold Story of Latinos in America
Publication Date: June 29, 2020
At a time of heated and divisive debate over immigration, Onyx Films is proud to present Harvest of Empire, a feature-length documentary that reveals the direct connection between the long history of U.S. intervention in Latin America and the immigration crisis we face today.
Notice: Age-restricted video.
Paper Children (Niños de papel) | Inside America’s Overwhelmed Asylum System by Alexandra Codina (director)
Publication Date: June 25, 2020
Love brings a family together. Will a system tear them apart?
Una familia unida por amor. ¿Logrará un sistema separarlos?

Poetry Video

Video Spotlight: Ada Limón

Ada Limón is a Mexican-American poet who was born in 1976 in Sonoma, California. This poem speaks to the return of hope each spring - Instructions on Not Giving Up -

Patient, plodding, a green skin
growing over whatever winter did to us, a return
to the strange idea of continuous living despite
the mess of us, the hurt, the empty.

You can watch Limon in this PBS recording available in Academic Video Online: A Poet's Take on Looking to Language for 'Radical Hope'. In this 2018 recording, she says, "I believe people are reading more poetry because we distrust the diatribe, the easy answer, the argument that holds only one note. Poetry makes its music from specificity and empathy. It speaks to the whole complex notion of what it means to be human."

DVDs at Gordon Library

DVDs at Gordon Library can be borrowed for 7 days at a time. Here are some examples of DVDs available at the library;

La misma luna (Under the Same Moon) by Patricia Riggen (director)
Call Number: Film Collections ; PN1995.9 M63 M678 2008 dvd
Publication Date: 2007
Tells the parallel stories of nine-year-old Carlitos and his mother, Rosario. In the hopes of providing a better life for her son, Rosario works illegally in the U.S. while Rosario's mother cares for Carlitos in Mexico. Mother and son face daunting challenges and obstacles to reunite, but are sustained by their constant hope of finally being together again.
Massacre River: The Woman Without a Country by Suzan Beraza (director)
Call Number: Third Floor Browsing: F1938.55 .M37 2019
Publication Date: 2019
Massacre River is a character-driven documentary that takes place in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, two ethnically and culturally distinct countries that have been forced to share an island since colonial times. The film follows Pikilina, a Dominican-born woman of Haitian descent, and her family. Racial and political violence erupt when the country of her birth, the Dominican Republic, reverses its birthright citizenship law and she is left stateless, along with over 200,000 others. This sets Pikilina off on an epic journey as she struggles to regain her Dominican nationality.
No by Pablo Larraín (director)
Call Number: Third Floor Browsing: PN1997.2 .N6 2013
Publication Date: 2012
Military dictator Augusto Pinochet calls for a referendum to decide his permanence in power in 1988, the leaders of the opposition persuade a young daring advertising executive - René Saavedra - to head their campaign. With limited resources and under the constant scrutiny of the despot's watchmen, Saavedra and his team conceive of a bold plan to win the election and free their country from oppression.
Roma by Alfonso Cuarón (director)
Call Number: Third Floor Browsing: PN1997.2 .R669 2020
Publication Date: 2018
"In Mexico City's upscale Colonia Roma district, a quiet but swift change is on its way. Pivoting around Dr Antonio's middle-bourgeoisie family, the lives of two women--the devoted live-in maid and housekeeper of Mixteco heritage, Cleo, and her academic employer, Sofía--become inextricably intertwined, as a seemingly ordinary business trip to Quebec paves the way for a bitter heartbreak. Over a span of one long year--from the quadrennial 1970s World Cup to the blood-drenched Corpus Christi Massacre--the unforeseen and sometimes unbearable complications of love; a new life amid death, and an almost stubborn will to find good in evil, pepper Sofía and Cleo's daily routines. And before irrevocable transformations and startling revelations, life always finds a way."--IMDb
Sin nombre (Nameless) by Cary Joji Fukunaga (director)
Call Number: Third Floor Browsing: PN1997.2 .S563 2009
Publication Date: 2009
A teenage Honduran girl forms an unlikely friendship with a Mexican gang member who is helping her to smuggle her family into the United States.
También la lluvia (Even the rain) by Icíar Bollain (director)
Call Number: General Collection: PN1997.2 E94 2012
Publication Date: 2010
Idealistic filmmaker Sebastian ... and his cynical producer Costa ... arrive in Bolivia to make a revisionist film about Christopher Columbus' conquest of the Americas. But as filming commences, the local citizens begin to riot in protest against a multi-national corporation that is taking control of their water supply. With the film shoot in jeopardy, both men find their convictions shaken. Inspired by the real-life Water Wars in Bolivia in the year 2000.
Who is Dayani Cristal? by Marc Silver (director)
Call Number: Third Floor Browsing: JV6483 .W46 2014
Publication Date: 2013
Tells the story of a migrant who found himself in the deadly stretch of the Sonora Desert known as "the corridor of death," and shows how one life becomes testimony to the tragic results of the U.S. war on immigration. As the real-life drama unfolds we see this John Doe, unidentifiable at his point of death, become a living and breathing human being with an important life story. Eventually, the authorities are able to identify the man as a 29 year-old Honduran, Dilcy Yohan Sandres-Martinez, who had a tattoo of his daughter's name on his chest. Gael García Bernal and Marc Silver then recreate the dangerous journey that Sandres-Martinez took in his attempt to enter the United States.
Y tu mamá también by Alfonso Cuarón (director)
Call Number: Film Collections: PN1997 Y88 2002 dvd
Publication Date: 2001
Two teens set off on a wild cross-country trip with seductive, 28-year-old Luisa. Lisa schools them in the finer points of passion, but will their mutual desire for her destroy their friendship forever?