News at St. Catherine's
Award-Winning Director Speaks to Upper School Students
Roy Germano, director of "The Other Side of Immigration," shares his story with St. Catherine's and St. Christopher's Upper School students.
What is the American dream?
The award-winning documentary, “The Other Side of Immigration,” explains just what this phrase means for Mexican immigrants crossing the border. Roy Germano, the film’s director, spoke to St. Catherine’s and St. Christopher’s Upper School students Thursday morning after showing his film.
The documentary gives viewers an inside look at the lives on the other side of the border. Germano interviewed hundreds of Mexican workers and families about their experience and the motivation behind their decision to migrate to the U.S. The film primarily focuses on the lives of families in the countryside of Mexico. In this rural area, the economy is struggling because of the lack of demand for Mexican agricultural goods. Due to lack of opportunities in the countryside, Mexican men and women travel to the U.S. in hopes of making a better living for themselves and their families.
Following the impactful film, Germano told the students and teachers his story of the journey to creating the film.
“I grew up in Louisville, Kentucky and went to a Catholic all boys school,” Germano told the students. “I only had contact with people that looked like me.”
Following high school, Germano attended Indiana University which he explained was also racially homogenous. After he started graduate school at The University of Chicago he applied for a restaurant job to cover his expenses. During his time at the restaurant, he befriended the cooks and dishwashers in the kitchen. Most of the kitchen staff were immigrants from Mexico and Ecuador.
In order to effectively communicate the waiters and kitchen staff started to teach each other words from their respective languages.
“It was fun,” Germano said. “We started the way many people do, with curse words, dirty jokes. Eventually we proceeded up to food words.”
Jorge, a 16 year old Mexican boy made an impression on Germano. Unlike other members of the kitchen staff, Jorge wanted to learn sentences, not just words. One day Jorge asked Germano how do you say “yo soy” or “I am” in English? After he told Jorge how to say the phrase Jorge said, “I am intelligent.” Germano wondered why Jorge chose that phrase as his first sentence.
“I think in a way he looked up to me,” Germano said. “He was asking for respect, for friendship. This interaction was a pivotal point for me.”
The experience in the restaurant gave Germano a new perspective, and he started to become more interested in the issue of immigration and his co-workers’ lives.
“I then made it my mission to go to towns in Mexico and find out why these people were migrating, to figure out what’s driving this phenomena,” he said.
Germano pursued this mission while working on his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. The documentary began as research for his Ph.D., and accidentally became a film. Since then, Germano has taken his film to numerous audiences around the U.S.
“The film really humanizes the issue,” Upper School teacher Cindy Trask said. "In addition to the film, he was an incredibly engaging speaker. I’m glad the students heard from him today.”
For more information on “The Other Side of Immigration” visit http://roygermano.com/
Located in the heart of Richmond, Virginia, St. Catherine’s School is a private, all-girls pre-K, kindergarten, elementary, middle and high school. We provide a well-rounded educational experience for girls from communities across Richmond, Chesterfield, Henrico and all of central Virginia. St.Catherine’s all-girls educational experience is rooted in more than a century of history and tradition. From our revolutionary past to our dynamic present, St. Catherine’s has always focused on preparing students for a boundless future.
