“Amplify. Our Voices. Our Stories.” premiered via Zoom on Tuesday with writer and director Armando Ibañez, who discussed how his experience as an undocumented immigrant influenced his series, “Undocumented Tales.”
“Undocumented Tales” is an original YouTube series following Fernando Gutierrez, an undocumented queer immigrant from Mexico, that recieved five nominations from the Los Angeles Web Festival and won two.
The storylines and themes portrayed in the show, Ibañez said, were all based upon experiences he lived through, witnessed or heard about from others.
“I’ve never seen undocumented immigrants falling in love, smiling, dancing, celebrating a birthday, pursuing happiness,” Ibañez said as he explained how mainstream media has not humanized undocumented immigrants. “That is the resiliency in us, that despite waking up in a country that denies our existence, we manage to pursue freedom and liberation, and that’s what I wanted to put in this series”
Ibañez is from Acapulco, Guerrero, Mexico, and moved to the United States over 20 years ago.
He shared that as he worked food service jobs in the U.S., he was concerned about his future. Ibañez was certain that he wanted to do more with his life, but he felt restricted due to his undocumented status.
That changed in 2015, when Ibañez watched actress Viola Davis make history as the first Black woman to win in the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series category.
Inspired, Ibañez sat down to write the first season of “Undocumented Tales” with no funding and only help from volunteers.
For the third season, which premiered earlier this year, Ibañez was awarded a grant from Immigrants Rising and was able to hire a staff of undocumented individuals.
“With [hiring undocumented artists], I’m not only wanting to make change in front of the camera in storytelling, but also wanting to create change by bringing in my own community to work in production and being able to provide them with compensation,” Ibañez said.
“Amplify. Our Voices. Our Stories.” was hosted by the Dream Success Center and the Office of Multicultural Affairs.
Travis Tamasese, chief of staff of the division of student affairs, explained what the new speaker series was about.
“One, to bring speakers to campus who reflect our students and their identities and overcoming challenges and achieving successes, which we know our students all do and will continue to do,” Tamasese said.
The event is part of CSULB’s Latinx Heritage Celebration Month.
Norma Salcedo, director of the Dream Success Center at CSULB, said in an email that she invited Ibañez to participate in “Amplify. Our Voices. Our Stories.,” after she worked with him at an event she hosted at San Francisco State University.
Before the event came to a close, two student moderators asked Ibañez questions, including what he wanted “Undocumented Tales” viewers to take away.
“You need to keep going despite what you are told in society and what we are being told everyday…and I just want you to keep educating yourself and challenge yourself. And sometimes, the limitation of not having a social security number brings a lot of intimidation, fear, confusion, but in order for us to discover what’s beyond, we have to step out of our comfort zone,” Ibañez said.
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