Inspiration

The story of Mercedes and Gordon is the story of my ancestors, my maternal grandparents’ story, translated through a modern lens. It is the story of the contemporary young Latina woman, the undocumented immigrant unable to attend college, racked with responsibilities to serve and support her family, ambivalent in the extreme about her cultural and individual identity. It is my story, yet it is a story written by myself as a “Latina” thrice removed—I am not the first generation; that path was walked by my first generation Mexican-Venezuelan-Puerto Rican grandmother who grew up in the Bronx and the Southern, White, military-enlisted man whom she met by chance and later married.

It is the continuing story of the young Latina (or Latino, for that matter) in this country and their entrance into and often strained acceptance of being a part of the American culture, or at least, a part of the American experience. This is no easy divide to traverse—it is one that requires the sojourner to balance racial, ethnic, language, cultural, socioeconomic and personal differences and values. The divide also represents, for many young Latinos, a harrowing yet unavoidable question of how becoming accustomed to life in the States, or even buying into the American Dream bit-by-bit, distances you from your heritage, your family, and the person that you appear to be and feel you should be.

However, these issues are not the main focal point of the film. Those are details that will nuance and color this narrative-driven character study. It should offer a slice of life, and Mercedes’ story is uniquely her own. The formation of her decision to be (or not to be) with Gordon is not a testament to what the young Latina women living in this country today should aspire to do, but an intimate portrait of what this Latina does given her options, her doubts, her aspirations, and yes, even her prejudices. This is the story of a marginalized woman finding and embracing her agency, and choosing to see beyond differences and cultivate new human connection and re-frame herself by means of that connection.