Educational Media Reviews Online

The documentary begins as Hortensia Hernandez, President of the Citizens’ Alliance of a poor community in Mexico, organizes resources and the residence to build a new elementary school. Fourteen months later the school at Maclovio Rojas is completed, but the community is having trouble raising money to pay the teachers even a meager salary, so some of the community leaders petition the government for help. In the meantime community leaders have received word from the State Public Utilities director that infrastructure for a water system will begin soon. However, the budget situation with the school is not getting better, so the community prepares for a demonstration. At the same time, progress on the water system project appears to have halted. Back and forth, it appears that promises are made and promises are broken. Now some of the Citizens’ Alliance leaders have been arrested, though some escape capture.

Maclovio Rojas is located between Tijuana and Tecate, Mexico, and most of the residents are “campesinos” (farmers) who are resisting the trend towards becoming “maquiladora workers.” Maquiladora workers are people who use imported materials and equipment for assembly or manufacturing and then re-export the assembled product; essentially a maquiladora worker is in the assembly line industry. The community of Maclovio Rojas is unique because the people through activism and hard work have secured their own necessities, as meager as they are – yet the experience of working together has forged great loyalties and friendships. Maclovio Rojas’s land begins to rise in potential value, as it sits in the path of plans for a new highway. The documentary claims that the government wants to run the people of the community away.

This DVD is interesting but it raises many questions. Why were the leaders arrested? What is the government’s defense? The DVD is very well produced, but it is obvious that only one side of the story is being told. Are the assertions between the community and the government being litigated in a fair, democratic process? This is not to say that what the documentary claims is not truth; it’s just that the viewer, without further research, simply does not know. This video is recommended with reservations.