The Film

FIRST TIME HOME is a film directed and shot by young people who are Indigenous Triqui, second-generation immigrants: Noemi Librado Sanchez, Heriberto Ventura, Esmirna Librado, and Esmeralda Ventura. This is their story, told as they wish to tell it. When the four cousins learned their grandfather in Mexico was gravely ill, they travelled from their immigrant community in California to their family’s ancestral village in Oaxaca for the first time. The teenagers recorded video letters to share with their parents and other relatives in the U.S., who are farmworkers and have not seen their relatives in Mexico in over 15 years.

Through a mixture of Spanish, Triqui, and English, they got to know their grandparents, aunts and uncles. In the midst of border politics and violence, the group of cousins forged a link across thousands of miles, developing a newfound pride in their indigenous immigrant identity and a new understanding of the meaning of family.