Educational Media Reviews Online

Intimidad is the story of a family. Cecy and Camilo Ramirez are a 21 year old couple who live in Mexico with their 2 year old daughter Loida. The video documents their efforts to own their own home, “a house with a garden and a little tree,” as Cecy says.

The couple needs the equivalent of $7200 to buy the land on which they will build their house. They can save only $15 a month toward this, despite both of them working many hours. Camilo works at Johnson Controls, assembling fire hydrants for the U.S. market, and puts in a lot of overtime. Cecy works at the Rey-Mex bra factory, which makes garments for Victoria’s Secret. She earns the equivalent of 18 cents for each bra she makes. The couple moved to Reynosa, Mexico to get work in the factories, but Cecy misses her hometown of Puebla and regrets she had to leave daughter Loida with her mother when she moved to Reynosa.

Cecy returns to Puebla with Camilo for Christmas and finds her father in ill health. Wanting to stay with her family and help her mother, and frustrated over the small amount they have saved, she tells Camilo she won’t go back to Reynosa. Camilo is determined to earn enough to purchase the land and returns by himself, although he misses Cecy greatly. After Cecy’s father dies, she and Loida join Camilo in Reynosa. Cecy does not go back to the bra factory, but instead sells homemade jewelry, allowing her to care for Loida. A year and a half after we first saw the family, they finally have enough to purchase the land for their home. Camilo builds it with leftover plywood from the Johnson Controls factory. As Cecy says at the end of the video, “My house doesn’t have windows, no doors, no floor, no electricity. No light, no water, but I’m very happy here.”

Intimidad means intimacy or familiarity in Spanish, and the treatment of the story gives it the feel of home movies. The digital video footage shot by the directors is supplemented by 8 and 16 mm film footage, as well as video shot by the Ramirezes themselves (including some shot surreptitiously in the bra factory). Although the idea of following the family around as they live their daily lives may make one think initially of some “reality” television shows, this video does not use the conventional editing tricks to manufacture tension or conflict. Filmmakers Redmon and Sabin allow the story to play out naturally, engrossing the viewer in the process.

Continuing the feeling of intimacy, there’s an hour of extra footage, broken into brief segments, that was not used in the video. The DVD release also includes a 50 minute cut of the story, perhaps to fit into a one hour time slot for television. It would have been interesting to hear the filmmakers talk about how they discovered the Ramirez family and got them to cooperate so fully. But what is available is still valuable and recommended for social science and Latin American studies classes, as well as anyone who wants to enter the world of Cecy, Camilo, and Loida.