THE CITY/LA CIUDAD DISCUSSION LEADERS' GUIDE

ABOUT THE CITY/LA CIUDAD

The ultimate motivation of migration is not economic or political: it is simple human dignity - the desire to live a dignified life. To take often life-threatening risks to migrate across international borders requires great motivation; when immigrants searching for a better life ultimately find that their dignity continues to be denied, our whole society faces a grave political, economical and social problem.

THE CITY/LA CIUDAD was produced by David Riker to offer a respectful view of immigrants, reflecting the dignity and strength of the Latin American immigrant community living in conditions of exploitation and loneliness. Riker spent five years in dramatic workshops with the actors, most of whom are themselves struggling immigrants. "My job as a director was to create a space that was safe for my actors," he says. "The non-professionals are often here without papers and their experience in New York has been hostile. They live with a certain level of fear of deportation, and they are abused throughout their time here. They never deal with a white person except in situations that are hostile - either a cop, an immigration agent, or a boss. I had not only to earn their trust, but also to show them that they could feel safe. Safe not only to come out of the shadows of the city, to stand in front of the light, but more than that, safe to open up and talk about their most intimate stories with strangers."

The stories are set in New York City, but could have happened in many other places in the United States or the world. Filmed in black and white, in Spanish with English subtitles, the program tells four fictional stories of Latin American immigrants living in New York: day laborers who are paid to gather bricks from an abandoned lot, struggle to save one who is crushed by a wall that collapses; a young man from Mexico meets a girl from his home village at a Sweet 15 party, then loses her in the maze of a housing project; a homeless puppeteer dreams of a better life for his daughter, but cannot enroll her in school; a sweatshop seamstress needs money for her daughter's medical treatment, but her employer has not paid her for more than a month. Most of the actors are non-professionals and are themselves struggling immigrants, bringing understanding and realism to the film.

THE CITY/LA CIUDAD is a vivid and moving portrait of the reality of the immigrant experience for many who arrive with dreams and hopes and find themselves working hard, but staying poor. It injects humanity into a debate that has made demons out of working families struggling to survive - a debate which has largely ignored the voices and images of immigrants themselves. The program takes age-old themes of work, love, struggle, and community, and paints a world of pain and hardship - a world much like the one that faced the Irish, the Italians, the Jews, and the Russians not so very long ago. It shows the same beautiful hope reflected in the newcomer of today, not arriving through Ellis Island, but sharing the same motivation for leaving their homeland - economic hardship, political persecution, war, or the desire to be with family. Sweatshops, poverty, and abuse await them just as it did their predecessors. THE CITY/LA CIUDAD shows us a completely modern world in which there is no such thing as an eight hour day or bathroom break, a world in which school is not available for all children and parents face the pain of separation from their families.

Producer David Riker hopes that people will come away from THE CITY/LA CIUDAD with a different and deeper understanding of and identification with recent immigrants. "The vast majority of people in this country have had the family experience - of coming from somewhere else, arriving here and being treated as an exploited workforce, not knowing the language, dealing with the profound dislocation of being uprooted. I hope this program is a denunciation of xenophobia, the fear of the outsider. But the final sequence is meant to go one step further, when we see all the faces and portraits of this community. I deliberately tried to choose a series of faces that was very diverse, with the hope that people will see themselves in one of those faces, someone that doesn't look too far removed from themselves, or someone they know."


DISCUSSION GUIDE

In a country that used to pride itself on its heritage as "a nation of immigrants," to watch and discuss THE CITY is to consider our national history and to examine ourselves.

Going beyond political considerations and debates, THE CITY/LA CIUDAD asks us to look directly into the human face of immigration. By showing us the faces of his immigrant-actors, producer David Riker invites us to look at our own past. Thinking about the personal experiences of immigrants and their families can be very helpful to facilitate a dialogue at the local level in communities that are struggling to cope with rapid demographic changes.

This Discussion Leaders' guide for THE CITY/LA CIUDAD is designed to help your community, classroom, union, or church group gain a better understanding of immigration and its impact on everyday lives. It aims to humanize and personalize discussions about immigration by asking questions that remind us of our own experiences as individuals and families in a country of immigrants. We hope that this guide, like the program, serves as a tool in the hands of the people working against xenophobia and for a more just society.

GETTING STARTED

Facilitator's Note: This section offers group leaders a closer look at some of the issues raised in the film, poses discussion points to stimulate dialogue, and answers questions viewers may ask.

As discussion leader, you can decide to organize one session to discuss the entire program, or four sessions, each addressing one of the film's four stories and corresponding issues. The discussion should promote personal reflection about the implications of immigration in one's own story. The dialogue after participants watch the program can be a good opportunity for the group to challenge common prejudices and misperceptions about immigrants, put a human face on immigration, integrate the personal and historical perspectives of the viewer, and respond to the call to build bridges within our diverse communities.

In order to discuss a program like THE CITY/LA CIUDAD, it is useful to reflect on our own personal and family experience as immigrants, as descendants of immigrants or simply as people who live in a society which is deeply influenced by successive immigration "waves." Participants may want to share their own stories, or those of their relatives or ancestors encountering the experience of being a "stranger in a strange land." It will be important for you to know who is participating and to be sensitive to how each individual might potentially contribute to the dialogue.

Helpful Tips :

• You might want to invite an interpreter to your event.
  
  
• Think about protecting people who are vulnerable if there is a possibility that undocumented immigrants or those still involved in legal proceedings could attend. At the beginning of your event, help your group establish ground rules that ensure everyone's safety. These may include agreeing to confidentiality and reminding people to use respectful language. You may need to do some prior planning to provide a safe environment, perhaps making sure that people with conflicting legal interests don't attend the same event.
  
  
• Localize your event - include participants from organizations working with immigrants in your community (see "Resources" section, below).
  
  

QUESTIONS BEFORE VIEWING THE CITY/LA CIUDAD:

• Have you ever moved to another town? To another state? Have you immigrated to another country? What was it like? Was the language different? How were your new neighbors the same as or different from you? How did they react to you - were they welcoming, or hostile? If you have never moved, why not?
  
  
• Where are your ancestors from? When did they come to this country? What kind of challenges did they face to make a life here? Did they leave family behind in the place they came from? Did they find it difficult to get work?
  
  
• Do you know someone who was born outside the U.S. and lives here now? Why did they move here? Do they want to go "home," or is the U.S. "home" for them now? Why?
  
  
• Can you think of any reason that would make you want or need to emigrate to another country? If so, what kinds of things might make it easy or stand in your way of doing that?
  
  

ICEBREAKER ACTIVITY:

Materials Needed: Paper, Markers, Tape

This exercise gives some personal content to the word IMMIGRATION. Sitting in a circle, ask participants to write the word "IMMIGRATION" vertically in the center of a piece of paper. Then participants take a few minutes in silence to write one word incorporating each of the letters which describe something about their views, perceptions, or experiences regarding immigrants or immigration. Here is an example:

Initiative
hoMesick
Money
INS
couraGe
fReedom
fAmily
Transition
dIfficulty
hOpe
streNgth

When finished, participants will share what they wrote. They can just take turns talking about what they wrote, or tape the paper to their back and walk around reading one another's lists and discussing words that make a particular impression on them.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS AFTER VIEWING THE CITY/LA CIUDAD:
Depending on the objectives of the group and the length of the meeting, the discussion leader can decide which questions to use and how much time to spend on each one.

• It is common for many of us to hold stereotypes about people from different cultures or who have different ways of life. Did you have stereotypes about immigrants before seeing the film? If so, have any of them changed?
  
  
• Which one of the stories of the program is closest to your personal experience? How? What challenges does your family have in common with the people you saw in THE CITY/LA CIUDAD? How are you different?
  
  
• It is very hard for any family to reach out for help, sometimes for personal reasons, other times for cultural, political or legal ones. What are some of the obstacles that stand in the way of an immigrant seeking and accepting government and community help?
  
  
• Recall a time when you experienced a period of difficulty. What strengths did you draw on? What strategies did you use? Where did you turn for help? Did that experience change you in any way? What strengths do the people in THE CITY/LA CIUDAD exhibit in dealing with adversity? What kinds of personal or community resources might help them and other immigrants to build on those strengths?
  
  
• Why do you think the people in the program migrated? Why would an undocumented immigrant endure such difficulty to come to and stay in the United States?
  
  
• Is the presence of immigrants important to this country? Why or why not? Where do immigrants work in your community, and what kind of jobs do they have at those workplaces? If all immigrants were sent back to their countries of origin, what businesses and institutions in the United States would be affected and how?
  
  
• What are some of the reasons people reject immigrants? Do you think race plays a role in people's attitude to immigrants in the U.S.? Why or why not?
  
  
• Do you know what xenophobia is? (See "Glossary" below.) Can you think of any time when you've seen or experienced it? Can you think of any ways of overcoming xenophobia?
  
  

"FINISHING THE STORIES"

The stories in THE CITY/LA CIUDAD are unfinished. The viewer does not know how they end: Are the workers of "Bricks" left alone with the body of José? Does the daughter of the puppeteer get to go to school? Does Francisco finds Maria again; does he find his uncle? Does Ana get paid for her work; does her daughter get well? A very common question after watching the program is: What happens next? Because THE CITY/LA CIUDAD portrays the real lives of immigrants, what happens "next" must be answered in real life. What happens next with undocumented workers who are injured or who don't get paid? What happens next to poor children who need education, housing, and health care? Who decides what happens next? In real life, who do you think "writes" the end of the stories?

Discussion and Research Questions:

Participants should consider the following questions:

• Has a situation similar to one of those in the program happened to you, or someone you know?
  
  
• Can you imagine it happening? If not, why not?
  
  
• If this situation happened to you, what would you do? What are the community and personal resources that you have to address this situation? Are these resources available to the people in the program?
  
  
• Make a list of local organizations in your community who offer services or support to address the situation. (Facilitator: You can invite local organizations to come speak to your group about the work they do and the services they offer, or make it a research activity for your group.)
  
  

Activity:

Divide the participants into four groups and ask each to select one of the four stories and carry out the following exercise:

• How do you believe the story ends? Each group can present the end of the story in the form of a drama, a song, a drawing, a newscast, or another form. After seeing the endings proposed by each group, all should discuss what resources would be needed for this ending to take place.
  
  

The discussion leader should allow around half an hour for each group to prepare their ending, and then 20 minutes for them to present and discuss the ending. The entire activity could take as long as two hours.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS AND ACTIVITIES FOR EACH SEGMENT OF THE CITY/LA CIUDAD

"Bricks"
This segment lasts 24 minutes
"Bricks" can be an excellent starting point to discuss the situation of undocumented workers.

Questions for Discussion:

• Do you think undocumented workers should have any labor rights? If not, why not, and if so, what rights do you think should they have?
  
  
• Research Question: What kind of work do day laborers do in your community? How much are they paid?
  
  
• If the story of "Bricks" happened in your community, and one of the workers asked you for help, what would you do?
  
  

"Home"
This segment lasts 22 minutes
This story offers the opportunity to talk about the loneliness of immigration and the fragility of daily life when one is in a foreign land, but it also encourages discussion of the joy of finding a kindred spirit.

Activity: Our Own Homes
Materials Needed: Paper, Colored Pencils, Crayons, Markers

The following activity could be completed by each individual in silence. Ask each participant to draw their family in their place of origin, for a period of about 30 minutes. Then invite each one who wishes to share their drawing and to explain to the rest of the group, or alternatively, each person could share their drawing with the person seated next to them. Encourage everyone to share.

"The Puppeteer"
This segment lasts 15 minutes
The story offers the opportunity to reflect on family, the situation of immigrant children, the quality of life of immigrants, and access to services such as housing, education, and health.

Questions for discussion:

• What access do immigrants in your community have to basic services - housing, education, and health care?
  
  
• Do immigrants have a right to these services, even if they are living here without papers? If not, why not, and if so, which services should they have a right to?
  
  

"Seamstress"
This segment lasts 22 minutes
This story returns to the theme of immigrants as workers, and offers the opportunity for reflection on the relationship between immigrants and labor organizations, as well as the experiences of women and migration.

Questions for discussion:

• What would you do if your employer would not pay you? What are your options?
  
  
• What are your own support networks?
  
  
• What are the particular challenges that immigrant women face?

THE IMMIGRATION QUIZ

A very good way of starting the dialogue is this quiz. It's challenging and helps us to be open to learn a new perspective and maybe even to "unlearn" some misconceptions.

The discussion leader will distribute the quiz and give participants 5 minutes to look it over and answer as much as they can. The leader will then use his/her copy to lead a discussion with participants about their answers. The leader might repeat each question and ask, "What did people write down for number 1?," give the correct answer, and encourage discussions of participants' perceptions, or encourage participants to raise their hands with responses about why they wrote down a particular answer. The leader can then lead a general discussion regarding the experience of the quiz.

Myths and Facts of Immigration

1. What percentage of the world's immigrants come to the United States?

1. Over 35%
   
   
2. 22%
   
   
3. 15%
   
   
4. less than 2%
   
   

2. In 1900, the U.S. population was 15% foreign born. In 2000, the foreign born percentage of the population is:

1. 1.4%
   
   
2. 9.7%
   
   
3. 17.6%
   
   
4. 22.3%
   
   

3. About 60% of all undocumented immigrants enter the country legally and then overstay their visas. What percent of undocumented immigrants cross the Southern border of the U.S.?

1. 90%
   
   
2. 75%
   
   
3. 40%
   
   
4. 15%
   
   

4. INS efforts to deter immigration at the border and at other checkpoints have:

1. Received $3.8 billion in funding, a 153% increase in the past 5 years
   
   
2. Hired 1000 additional border patrol agents
   
   
3. Increased the number of border patrol agents by 99% in the past 5 years
   
   
4. All of the above
   
   

5. The total population of the United States is more than 226 million people. According to INS estimates, how many immigrants (documented and undocumented), enter the United States every year?

1. 75.3 million new immigrants a year
   
   
2. 46.8 million new immigrants a year
   
   
3. 12.5 million new immigrants a year
   
   
4. 1.2 million new immigrants a year
   
   

6. Before 1996, approximately 5% of immigrants used public benefits, a figure equivalent to usage by U.S. born citizens. New legislation reduces total government spending on welfare by $53.4 billion in the next 6 years. What percentage of these cuts came from eliminating benefits to immigrants?

1. 95%
   
   
2. 44%
   
   
3. 20%
   
   
4. 1%
   
   

Answers for the Immigration Quiz:

1. (d)
Of the approximately 125 million migrants in the world today, the United States admitted 915,900 documented immigrants in 1996. The INS estimates that undocumented immigration to the United States is an additional 270,000 per year.

2. (b)
U.S. Census Bureau statistics report that out of approximately 267 million people, 25.8 million were born outside the United States.

3. (c)
Only about four out of ten undocumented migrants cross the U.S.-Mexico border, but 85% of all border enforcement personnel are located on that border.

4. (d)
The U.S. Department of Justice announced in March 1998 that sharply increased efforts to deter undocumented immigration would be enacted at a cost of $3.8 billion.

5. (d)
According to INS estimates, fewer than 1.2 million people immigrated to the US in 1996. Even this number may be high, as past INS projections of undocumented immigration have overestimated actual growth. The INS estimates are also based on the number of undocumented immigrants who are apprehended, a figure which is more directly related to the increase in INS enforcement than to the increase in actual immigration.

6. (b)
The Congressional Budget Office estimates federal cost savings from reducing coverage for legal aliens at $23.7 billion, more than 44% of the total $53.4 billion cuts in the welfare bill.


IMMIGRATION FACT SHEET

• There are more than 125 million displaced people in the world today; every day, another 10,000 people have to move because of war and violence. Economic pressures also force people to migrate, usually from poorer Southern countries to richer Northern ones; this kind of economic migration has quadrupled since the 1960s.
  
  
• While the U.S. government is encouraging the mobility of goods, information and money across borders in the economic process called "globalization," it is attempting to restrict the movement of people. As avenues for legal migration are curtailed, many people in poor, third-world countries are left with few choices but to migrate illegally.
  
  
• Within the United States, median hourly wages have steadily fallen as corporations export production and jobs to poorer countries. In a "race to the bottom," these countries compete among themselves to offer the most attractive business climate to foreign capital in the form of the low wages, suppression of union organizing, lax environmental controls, and unsustainable export-based economies. Oftentimes, these measures are forced on countries by the terms of their loans and economic "development" plans from the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and international trade treaties, even if the result is widespread poverty and crises in education, health and infrastructure. These measures drive desperate workers to seek the possibility of living wages in the more affluent countries of "el Norte," where their often-undocumented status makes them vulnerable to exploitation by employers.
  
  
• Although critics may characterize recent immigration to the U.S. as an "invasion," the number of foreign-born people in the United States today is less than 10% of the total population. In 1900, a century ago, that percentage was 15%. The number of immigrants coming to the United States each year is just 2% of the total number for the world.
  
  
• An immigrant's eligibility for public benefits will depend on her immigration status, whether she entered the U.S. before the 1996 welfare reform law was enacted, and whether she was already receiving assistance when the welfare law went into effect. Access to certain benefits will also vary based on which state the immigrant lives in. While "not qualified" aliens are ineligible for nearly all federal benefits, they are still eligible for certain very basic kinds of assistance, including: emergency Medicaid; immunizations; testing and treatment for the symptoms of communicable diseases; short-term non-cash disaster relief; school lunches and breakfasts; and certain other programs essential to public health and safety specified by the Attorney General.
  
  
• According to the National Academy of Sciences, the average immigrant contributes $1,800 more in taxes than he or she receives in benefits. However, the federal government reaps the lion's share of immigrant tax dollars (approximately two-thirds). States and localities provide the bulk of services immigrants use - most notably education, health, and public assistance. As a result, states and localities often find themselves "shortchanged" - forced to provide services without sufficient revenue. The 1996 welfare reform law, which barred or restricted legal immigrants' access to most federal public benefits, exacerbated this dilemma by withholding even more federal funds for immigrants.
  
  
• In 1996, soaring anti-immigrant sentiment led the U.S. Congress to pass three major bills limiting the rights of immigrants:
  
  
  • The Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act grouped provisions impacting immigrants with those designed to curb terrorism. Among other measures, it established a new court charged solely with hearing cases in which the government seeks to deport aliens based on secret evidence submitted in the form of classified information. Though the secret evidence court has not yet heard a case, the INS already has moved in other proceedings to use secret evidence against immigrants.
    
    
  • The Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) expanded INS enforcement operations, eliminated basic rights of due process for immigrants, and cut down on avenues for immigrants to legalize their status.
    
    
  • The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (popularly known as "welfare reform") ended many forms of cash and medical assistance for most legal immigrants and other low-income individuals.
    
    
  Since 1996, state and local governments have added measures that limit immigrants' rights by ending affirmative action, limiting access to social services, and curtailing bilingual education.
  
  
• A number of recent legislative and legal decisions have also made it more difficult to enter this country legally and acquire and maintain permanent residency status. Most resources have been devoted to immigration as a "law enforcement" issue: constructing new detention spaces, training and deploying border patrol and other agents, and using high-technology equipment, despite their impact on the human and civil rights of immigrants as well as many border communities.
  
  

GLOSSARY

Day laborer - Short-term (even daily or hourly) work, usually performed by undocumented workers.

Green Card - A permit allowing an immigrant to live and work indefinitely in the U.S.

Immigrate - To come into a region or country where one is not a native.

Quinceañera - (pron. keen-say-ah-NYEH-ra) a traditional "coming of age" birthday celebration for girls turning 15.

Sweatshop - Workplaces, usually industrial, which operate under unsafe and illegal working conditions.

Undocumented immigrant - a person who comes to settle in a country without the legal permission of its government. The expression "illegal alien" is considered a pejorative.

Xenophobia - (from the Greek, pron. zee-no-FO-bee-ah: xeno: stranger; phobia: fear) Fear and hatred of strangers and foreigners.


RESOURCES

ORGANIZATIONS

Updates and additions to this list will be posted on LA CIUDAD website, www.itvs.org/thecity

AFL-CIO
202/637-5000
www.aflcio.org
A voluntary federation of America's unions, representing more than 13 million workers nationwide, the AFL-CIO's mission is to bring social and economic justice to our nation by enabling working people to have a voice on the job, in government, in a changing global economy and in their communities.

American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)
Immigrants and Refugee Rights Program
Immigration/Migration Concentration Network, Community Relations Unit
215/241-7128
sdhernandez@afsc.org or lperez@afsc.org
www.afsc.org
The Network supports the social and human rights of immigrants and refugees through programs that concentrate on immigrant and refugee legal rights, community organizing and education in 14 regional centers.


Association for Residency and Citizenship of America (ARCA)
713/ 921-0653
Arca-Houston@worldnet.att.net
Founded in 1998, ARCA's work is focused on "late amnesty cases," restoring the legal status of more than 350,000 long-term resident families nationwide.


American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)
Immigration Law Enforcement Monitoring Project (ILEMP)
713/926-2977
afscilemp@igc.apc.org
ILEMP is a network of organizations documenting and denouncing human rights abuses on the U.S.-Mexico border and promoting the rights of all people regardless of their immigration status.

Church World Service
219/264-3102
The relief, refugee resettlement, and development agency of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA. Its work in global education looks to inform and sensitize the U.S. public about the root causes of hunger, the limitation of resources and the interdependence of all people.

League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC)
202/408-0060
The League of United Latin American Citizens advances the economic condition, educational attainment, political influence, health and civil rights of the Hispanic population of the United States.

Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS)
202/783-7509
lirswdc@aol.com
LIRS speaks out for just and humane solutions to migration crises and their root causes, both national and international; works with Lutherans and others to turn solutions into reality; and encourages citizens to take part in shaping just and fair public policies, practices and laws.

Mexican American Legal Defense Fund (MALDEF)
213/629-2512
MALDEF is a national non-profit organization whose mission is to protect and promote the civil rights of the more than 29 million Latinos living in the United States.

Mexico Solidarity Network
773/583-7728
msn@mexicosolidarity.org
Founded in 1998, the Network comprises 75 organizations who work together to focus attention on Mexico, with special emphasis on Indigenous populations in the state of Chiapas.

Migration and Refugee Services, National Conference of Catholic Bishops (MRS)
202/541-3352
MRS is an office of the U.S. Catholic Conference, representing the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. It advocates in national and international forums to promote the human dignity of immigrants, refugees and people on the move in accordance with the social and moral teachings of the Catholic Church. MRS provides refugee resettlement services as well as immigration counseling, and advocacy and public education.

National Coalition for Amnesty and Dignity
212/473-3936
A nationwide coalition working for a new amnesty for all undocumented workers.

National Council of La Raza
202/785-1670
The National Council of La Raza (NCLR) is a non-profit non-partisan organization established in 1968 to reduce poverty and discrimination and improve life opportunities for Hispanic Americans.

National Immigration Forum
202/544-0004
A national coalition dedicated to fair immigration policies in the U.S. Works on public education providing speakers, conducting workshops, and circulating accurate data.

National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (NNIRR)
510/465-1984
nnirr@nnirr.org
The NNIRR is a national organization composed of local coalitions and immigrant refugee, community, religious, civil rights, and labor organizations and activists. It works to promote a just immigration and refugee policy in the U.S. and to defend and expand the rights of all immigrants and refugees, regardless of immigration status.

Television Race Initiative (TRI)
415/553-2841
tvrace@pov.org
In partnership with national and community-based organizations, TRI uses public television broadcasts to encourage sustained community dialogue and problem-solving around the issue of race relations.

U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)
202/663-4900; for nearest field office, call 800/669-4000
The EEOC enforces federal law prohibiting employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, gender, and disability.


Arizona

Human Rights Coalition/Indigenous Alliance Without Borders
520/770-1373

California

Coalition for Human and Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA)
213/353-1333

Pan-Valley Institute
American Friends Service Committee/Pacific Mountain Region
559/222-7678
mnateras@afsc.org
Northern Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (NCCIR)
415/243-8215

Colorado

Rights for all People
303/556-6706

Illinois

Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
312/332-7044

Midwest Immigrant and Human Rights Center
312/629-4500
New York/New Jersey

Garment Workers Solidarity Center
212/967-3802

Latino Workers Center
212/473-3936
centrolatino@hotmail.com

New Jersey Immigrant Rights Program/ AFSC
973/643-1924

Tepeyac Association of New York
212/633-7108

Oregon

CAUSA
503/563-1895

Texas

Houston Immigration and Refugee Coalition (HIRC)
713/926-2890
gsn@igc.org

Texas Immigration and Refugee Coalition (TIRC)
512/459-1700
www.tirc.org

Washington

Washington Alliance for Immigrant and Refugee Justice
206/340-9187


PUBLICATIONS

American Dreaming: Immigrant Life on the Margins by Sarah J. Mahler. Princeton,1995.

Beautiful Flowers of the Maquiladora: Life Histories of Women Workers in Tijuana by Norma Iglesias Prieto. University of Texas,1997.

Health and Social Services among International Labor Migrants: A Comparative Perspective by Antonio Ugalde and Gilbert Cardenas. University of Texas,1998.

A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America by Ronald Takaki. Little, Brown, 1993.

Immigrant America: A Portrait by Alejandro Portes and Rubin G. Rumbaut. University of California, 1996.

Latinos: A Biography of the People by Earl Shorris. Avon Books, 1994.

The Mexican Outsiders: A Community History of Marginalization and Discrimination in California by Martha Menchaca. University of Texas Press, 1995.

New to North America: Writings by U.S. Immigrants and their Children and Grandchildren edited by Abby Bogomolny. Burning Bush,1997.

A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present by Howard Zinn. Harper Collins, 1995.

Shadowed Lives: Undocumented Immigrants in American Society by Leo Chavez. Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1992.


CURRICULA

"Building a Race and Immigration Dialogue in the Global Era: The BRIDGE Curriculum Series." National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. (See "Organizations")

"Well-Founded Fear" Facilitators Guide. Television Race Initiative. (See "Organizations")

"Who Are My Sisters and Brothers? A Catholic Educational Guide for Understanding and Welcoming Immigrants and Refugees." United States Catholic Conference. (See "Organizations")


CREDITS

This guide was created for use with the public television production THE CITY/LA CIUDAD, with contributions and assistance from the following:

Francisco Argüelles Paz y Puente

Br. Dave Andrews, National Catholic Rural Life Conference
Tom Hampson, Church World Service
Tom Hansen, Mexico Solidarity Network
María Jiménez, Immigration Law Enforcement Monitoring Project, AFSC
Benito Juárez, Houston Immigrant and Refugee Coalition
Sasha Khokha and Cathi Tactaquin, National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
Christine Kovic
Yvette Martinez, Television Race Initiative
Monica Medina, KPBS San Diego
Ken Nash, "Building Bridges: Your Community and Labor Report," WBAI
David Riker
Janna Shadduck-Hernández, Immigrants and Refugee Rights Program, AFSC
Stephanie Weber, Catholic Campaign for Human Development

Actors and immigrant workers who participated in the workshop to reflect about THE CITY/LA CIUDAD, May 2000: Cipriano G., Rodolfo G., Ghillermina de J., Marcos M., Pepita M., Mario, Galo R. [Last names omitted to protect their privacy.]

THE CITY/LA CIUDAD was produced by David Riker for the Independent Television Service (ITVS) with funds provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

ITVS was created by Congress to fund and present programming that involves creative risks and addresses the needs of underserved audiences while granting artistic control to the independent producer. ITVS has brought to public television more than 200 single programs and limited series since its inception in 1991.

To obtain additional copies of this guide, call your local public television station or contact ITVS at 51 Federal Street, First Floor, San Francisco CA 94107; tel: (415) 356-8383; fax: (415) 356-8391; email: itvs@itvs.org; web www.itvs.org. Spanish-language materials available include a Discussion Leaders' guide and a Viewers' guide.

Copies of these materials may also be found on the bilingual THE CITY/LA CIUDAD website, at www.itvs.org/thecity

THE CITY/LA CIUDAD premieres on PBS on September 22, 2000 at 9 p.m. (check local listings).

To purchase or rent THE CITY/LA CIUDAD, contact Zeitgeist Films, (212) 274-1989.