(bright upbeat music)
(bright music)
- [Filmmaker] Okay, I want
to say a couple of words
and I want you guys to
tell me the first word
that comes to your mind.
- [Filmmaker] Oakland?
- Hood, hyphy,
hyphy, hy-phy.
[Filmmaker] What does that mean?
- Lit, like hood.
- Like exciting and...
- Like you always lit, you know?
I don't know how to describe it.
- Home.
- [Filmmaker] Identity?
- Issues. (chuckles)
- I'm like what the hell! (chuckles)
Confusion.
[Filmmaker] The future?
- Isn't it an interview?
- Yeah.
- So I'm gonna interview you,
and then you can interview
me, the questions.
- No, I'm gonna interview, okay.
- So Alejandra, how is
it being a teenage girl?
- I would just say the
only hard part is school,
especially being a senior,
and like, you just gotta handle so much.
But then also work, home stuff.
You kinda have to balance out stuff out
and know when's the right time
for each one of them or not,
you will we'll get like senioritis
and you will like...
- Huh?
- Be annoyed.
Senioritis is when you
hate everybody at school,
usually want to be done with it.
- That's you!
- Yeah, that's me right now.
A lot, a bunch of people
wanna come to my graduation.
- I'm coming to your graduation.
- Yeah, exactly.
- I'm going,
it's not even a question.
- You going.
- Yeah, it's not a question, I'm going.
You better put my name on
that list, I'm so serious,
or we're gonna fight!
(car engine roaring)
- I work at Popeyes.
I go in on Thursday, Friday,
Saturday, Sunday, and so on.
And I have to do essays,
I have to finish my private
college application,
my final project for senior year
in order for me to
graduate, which is rough.
And then I also need to find a new job
'cause I'm tired of this,
I can't do it anymore.
- We out here in downtown Oakland.
- Y'all might be wondering,
who's talking, right?
So this is who is talking
,okay, who are you?
- Well, let me start off.
My name is Martin, we
met off of social media.
We started going out back in 2016, right?
Like starting off 2016.
- Usually what we do is we get off school
and we go straight to
Starbucks and we just study,
do our homework, like those corny couples.
But you see, the outcomes are amazing.
Our grades look good.
- I just love her so much.
There's no feeling that can
explain what I feel for her,
like this really my world.
- Give me a kiss.
(Martin and Ale kissing)
- I dunno, I just wanted
to show you guys my room.
I share my room with my
stepsister, that's her bed.
Right now I'm doing homework.
I got to present this
presentation on Tuesday.
And so it's like half of my grade.
So far, all these books are
the ones that I've read.
I stay up until, (yawning).
Sorry guys, I'm tired to be honest.
This is my song!
Okay, wait, wait for it to
start, wait for it to start.
(upbeat music)
♪ I'm young, I be sprung ♪
(dog barking)
- I be cleaning this whole damn house
and he just be sitting
there eating on his phone.
That's him all day, him
and my dad, all day.
Sexism is not okay.
I don't know if this is
like an Oakland thing
or if this is a me thing, or
this is like an in general,
but it's just like, you can't
be looking around hella soft,
because people are gonna
take advantage of you.
I think that's just something in life.
People come and go in your life
and it's just kind of like,
you're gonna take
bullshit from all of them.
It's just about choosing
who you wanna take that
bullshit for, you feel me?
Like, it's my mama, like me,
my mama argue all the time.
Me and my dad argue all the
time, but they're my parents.
You feel me?
I have to deal with them.
How scary all this shit is about DACA
and getting deported and ICE.
All of this is so real,
and that's how it is.
I am scared, right?
I am scared of being deported.
- [Quetzaly] Surprise!
- Get out, please, (speaks
in foreign language).
Close the door please.
Sorry, my sister came in and my cousin.
Okay, that's my sister, that's my sitter.
And then that's my cousin,
and then that's my mom.
- (speaks in foreign language)
- Okay, ma.
- Okay, Yose.
- (speaks in foreign language)
Ma, (speaks in foreign language)
- (speaks in foreign language)
- I would be pregnant right now
if I was repeating the story.
- Yose, she's fat, she
don't fit, she don't fit.
(car engine roaring)
- (speaks in foreign language)
- (speaks in foreign language)
- (speaks in foreign language)
Dang I didn't know that.
Almost.
- (speaks in foreign language)
- Damn, (speaking in
foreign language), right?
- Yep.
- (speaking in foreign language)
- (speaking in foreign language)
(car engine roaring)
(ball bouncing)
- Procedure says he
should have taken us back
to the station, checked
our fingerprints, etcetera.
He must have remembered
his family over the border
or the border coming over them
because he drove us to the border
and told us next time,
rest at least five days.
Don't trust anyone calling
themselves coyotes,
bring more tortillas, sardines, alambra.
He knew we would try again
and again like everyone does.
And I'll just say that all
that shit is still hard
for me to talk about, did it
make you think of anything?
- It made me think of
when I crossed the border
with my mom and dad.
- How old were you?
- I was 4.
- Four?
- Yeah, I just remember
my dad having to carry me
in his back all the time.
They never let me down.
And I just like...
- Do you ever talk with
your family about it?
- No, 'cause on the way...
- Yeah, a lot of shit happens.
Like for me, I've only talked
with my family about this once
because it's too hard to talk about.
We would rather hide
that aspect of our lives.
What I'm trying to write are poems
in which an immigrant does experience joy.
So think about the
depiction of an immigrant.
How would you want to be depicted?
(bright upbeat music)
- Where did you apply?
- For UCs, it was for UC
Berkeley, UC Merced, UC Davis,
and UC Santa Cruz.
And then for Cal State,
it was Cal State East Bay,
Cal State Monterey Bay.
- Look, you see how he replies now
but he posted something else on Snapchat
and now he wants to reply?
No, that's not how it
works, guys ain't shit.
Most of them ain't shit.
- Who hurt her, man? (chuckles)
- Nobody, just that's why!
I don't want to get hurt
so I'ma be an asshole.
Me, 'cause I fucked it up all the time.
Hey, can I curse?
- Yeah.
- Because I've been cursing.
- I've been cursing too.
(bright upbeat music)
(dial pad tapping)
- Hopefully everything
goes like I prayed to God
that my DACA gets renewed.
I actually got a letter through
email, through mail, sorry.
Like two days ago, three days ago,
telling me to go get my fingerprint.
When I looked at the
date of my appointment,
it has already passed.
And so it also says that if I did not,
how do you say it?
if I did not go to my appointment,
my case would be seen as abandoned.
And so I'm really, really worried
because I don't know what happened.
Emailed my lawyer asking
what am I gonna do.
So I'm just praying to God that...
I dunno, there's a way
for me to renew my stuff
or set up another appointment.
I don't know, it's just
like, I don't know.
I'm overwhelmed right
now, really overwhelmed.
- I might look a mess right
now because I was crying.
It was just like some
family shit with my dad.
My dad just got home,
and my dad just, (speaks
in foreign language) today.
Like, why are you taking my phone away?
He was like, I already told you.
And I was like, well, I
don't think it's a reason.
I don't think it's correct,
I don't think it's the right reason.
I don't think it's fair for you
to take my phone for that reason.
He just basically saw it as
(speaks in foreign language).
He said I wasn't respecting him, right?
Everything I say is (speaks
in foreign language) to him.
And my dad took my phone,
he like just pointed at me.
He was like, (speaks in foreign language).
And then my mom came in and she was like,
(speaks in foreign language) to my dad
because he was like really mad. (sobbing)
And I was like do you know I
took therapy because of you?
And he was like, he came back
in the room and he stood still
and looked down at me,
he kind of like laughed.
He was like, why, what?
He was like, for what?
He looked down at me, he
smiled and he laughed.
And the way he did that,
that shit hit me bro.
And then I told him, I was like,
I never told you because
you react like this.
You're not gonna take me serious.
And you're just going to laugh at my face,
and that's exactly what you did right now.
What would always keep me
going to give him a chance
and keep trying is because
he has all the machista shit,
and this patriarchic shit,
and all this shit from your
ancestors, from colonization,
'cause it was passed on through hurt
and all of this and that.
But it's just like, I feel
like he knows this is wrong,
but it's just, and so I don't know,
I just feel like he knows it's wrong.
Yeah I know my dad cares
about me, I know it.
But the way he shows it,
or the way he wants to be respected,
just because he's a fucking
man is bullshit. (sobbing)
(car engine roaring)
- How are parents feeling now
that you're like a year away
of potentially leaving home or staying
and going to somewhere in the area,
going to college in the area?
- I don't know, I'm not
talking to my dad right now.
- (speaks in foreign language)
- He tried to fucking...
He tried to call me disrespectful
because I didn't do something
that he could have done.
He's my dad, he pays half
the bills, I understand that.
But he's not there for me.
So for him to say (speaks
in foreign language),
and then ask for my phone
for a stupid ass reason.
- We both come from the same backgrounds
where literally we felt
like nobody had our back,
especially at home,
where especially our dad
was nowhere to be seen.
Even though he was physically there.
But emotionally,
economically, no, you know.
I get where you're coming from.
But that's what I tell you.
Like for me, it was an act of survival.
I had to leave,
I knew that the only way I was
going to like be successful
and thrive in this world is
literally by leaving home.
I know it can be scary,
but don't let that fear stop
you from achieving your dreams.
'Cause you know your potential.
You know what you're capable of, Yose.
You're so young and have already
overcome so much in life.
Hold my hand.
It's okay to cry. (chuckles)
- I don't wanna cry.
- It's okay to cry, you need to.
- 'Cause my eyes are gonna be puffy.
(bright music)
- That's the sun you normally
see, that's my sunshine.
- I qualified for DACA
and then I went from my social security.
Like just having social security,
right away I applied to
a fast food restaurant.
Popeyes which I just stopped
working, like I quit.
That notice came where
they said that Trump
was gonna take DACA away.
It was kind of like a breakdown for me.
'Cause I was like, okay,
what am I gonna do?
But right now there's this thing going on
where a few people could renew it.
And so I turned in the application,
so I'm about to get my DACA
for like two other years.
I think it's gonna expire when
I'm a sophomore in college.
But by then, I don't
know how things would be,
how laws would be set.
If I'm gonna be able to renew it or not.
- Look, look, look, we're
twins, she's my daughter.
(speaks in foreign language)
- She's your sister not your daughter.
- What the fuck is the point,
I damn near raised her.
(speaks in foreign language)
Life is hard.
Alejandra, in your opinion,
what's the most difficult thing
about being a teenage girl?
Teenage, going into adulthood already?
- I don't know,
it'd be like now acting
like a grown up and shit.
- (chuckles) Sorry.
- Actually acting like a damn grown-up.
People are like, oh you 18...
- Oh you 18!
Dang, dang girl!
- Okay, what was I going
to talk about babe?
Oh, I was going to talk about colleges!
Okay.
- Okay!
- Shut up, all the CSUs I
applied to, I got accepted.
I got accepted to Mills
College, it's a private college.
For UCs, I got accepted to UC Merced.
So I'm just waiting for UC Berkeley,
UC Davis, and UC Santa Cruz.
I don't know it's just really exciting,
but yeah, that's one
challenge that I'm having now,
just to selecting which
school I should go to.
- But I feel like I'm
mature but not mature
because I don't know.
I don't have big expectations for myself.
Even if I get B's and some A's,
my dad's like, no, you gotta do better,
that's not good, not at all.
I'm gonna punish you for
this so you can do better.
So instead, I just don't do good in school
because I feel like there's no point.
'Cause he never says,
oh good, keep trying.
So I really don't have
what I need from a parent.
And he always pressures me, not in school,
but like oh, you gotta
cook, you gotta clean,
you gotta do these things.
- This was me freshman year.
And what I've learned, I mean,
maybe you haven't learned it right now.
I mean my dad says the
same exact things to me.
And he's like, you can't
cook so you can't do shit.
And it's like, wait, I have good grades.
You know where I'm at,
I can speak English.
Like I'm undocumented and I'm doing good.
- This year, you had this
kind of transformation,
what changed for you this year?
- Hearing all of these
grown-ups in my life
talking about how you should
start making the change now
and how you should encourage younger women
and people your age right now
so that they don't get pushed
around like your mothers,
your aunties, your grandmothers.
And then that just made
me think about my sister.
Like she's three years old
and I don't want her to be
thrown around like that.
And so I feel like you have
to start challenging it
in your family, and once you do that,
you can challenge it outside of it.
(bell dinging)
- (speaks in foreign language)
(car engine roaring)
(bright upbeat music)
- (speaking in foreign language)
- [Crowd] Stand up, fight back!
- When our people are under
attack, what do we do?
- [Crowd] Stand up, fight back!
- When our communities are
under attack, what do we do?
- [Crowd] Stand up, fight back!
- Stand up!
- [Crowd] Fight back!
- (speaking in foreign language)
(audience applauding)
(bright upbeat music)
- Hey everyone.
My name is Alejandra.
I was four when I migrated from Guatemala.
We crossed the desert.
I remember being carried by
my dad and mom taking turns.
I was never let down.
(speaking in foreign language)
- (chanting in foreign language)
- [Crowd] (chanting in foreign language)
- So, (speaks in foreign language),
how to heal myself.
I see myself now as a
strong woman of color
graduating from MetWest
High School this year and...
(audience applauding)
First generation!
Going to college, and I'm
not gonna stop fighting.
I'm gonna be out there
in front of the lines,
in front of those walkouts
and protests lines,
fighting for my dad and
for my little brother,
and for my community.
Thank you. (chuckles)
(crowd applauding)
- [Filmmaker] Future?
- I hope, I really, really hope
from the bottom of my heart.
- That's so corny.
- Alright, fuck off! (chuckles)
That in the future, people
are still gonna keep fighting
and that there's gonna be one time
where we're gonna get where we wanna get.
- Get hyphy.
- Let's organize!
That's what we need to do. (chuckles)
Dude we got to organize
and then get hyphy.
- We could get hyphy and motivate
and organize, all of that.
Imagine, imagine, let's
take a second to imagine.
(bright upbeat music)
- (speaking in foreign language)
(audience applauding)
- (speaking in foreign language)
(audience applauding)
- (speaking in foreign language)
(crowd applauding)
- (speaking in foreign language)
(crowd applauding)
- (speaking in foreign language)
(crowd applauding)
- (speaking in foreign language)
(crowd applauding)
