{"id":62631,"date":"2024-10-02T18:42:21","date_gmt":"2024-10-03T01:42:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eltecolote.org\/content\/?p=62631"},"modified":"2025-08-04T15:43:58","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T22:43:58","slug":"prodigal-daughter-sf-latino-film-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eltecolote.org\/content\/en\/prodigal-daughter-sf-latino-film-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"Undocumented and estranged: An immigrant\u2019s reunification journey kicks off SF Latino Film Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

At 25, Mabel Valdiviezo packed up her life and left her family and country behind. Feeling misunderstood by her working-class family and amid the violent political repression in Per\u00fa, she fled to the U.S. in 1993. Sixteen years later, she returned to Lima \u2014 this time with a video camera \u2014 in an attempt to reconnect with her estranged family.
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\u201cYou left so young, and we didn\u2019t know anything about you,\u201d Valdiviezo\u2019s mother, Bila, says in the documentary <\/em>Prodigal Daughter<\/em><\/a>,<\/em> which will kick off San Francisco\u2019s Latino Film Festival<\/a> on October 11. \u201cCould you have died? I didn\u2019t know anything.\u201d Combining difficult family conversations with mixed media art, Valdiviezo\u2019s autobiographical film shows a daughter\u2019s reckoning with a home she rejected, because she felt like it rejected her first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lea esta historia en espa\u00f1ol.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was trying to study to be a filmmaker, to make art,\u201d Valdiviezo told El Tecolote<\/em>. In Peru, she was part of the burgeoning punk \u201csubte\u201d scene, but her identity sometimes got in the way of her aspirations. \u201cThere were always tremendous obstacles, not just because I am a woman, but also because of my social class.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Prodigal Daughter documents Mabel Valdiviezo\u2019s journey to reconnect with her estranged family in Per\u00fa after fleeing to San Francisco as an undocumented immigrant. Courtesy: Mabel Valdiviezo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Becoming an artist in San Francisco came with its own challenges. Valdiviezo became one of the country\u2019s 3.5 million undocumented immigrants after overstaying her tourist visa. Without the ability to pursue mainstream work, she found herself working as a stripper in the city to make ends meet, while also struggling with addiction to drugs and alcohol. \u201cI had a lot of ideas about being in control, but in reality, I wasn\u2019t,\u201d she said. \u201cYou\u2019re not in control, the exploitation system is.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her complicated past, both in Per\u00fa and San Francisco, made it all the more difficult to finally decide to reach out to her family after more than a decade of silence and soul-searching. She reunited with them after receiving her green card in 2009. \u201cEstrangement is complex,\u201d Valdiviezo said. \u201cWhat struck me the most [when reuniting] was feeling like they had felt my absence with pain, with shame.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Making Prodigal Daughter<\/em>, Valdiviezo said, was \u201can odyssey.\u201d The process spanned 15 years, during which she documented multiple journeys to Lima, filming conversations with her family. She recorded from 2009 to 2016, layering in mixed media art to reflect the emotional and artistic journey she was on \u2014 all on a shoestring budget supported by a city grant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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