La Boda (The Wedding)

Filmmaker Hannah Weyer's portrait of migrant life in America centers on 22-year-old Mexican-American migrant worker Elizabeth Ruis, as she prepares for her marriage to Artermio Guerrero. Living in cramped quarters with the Ruis family, Weyer's casual questions and hand-held cameras evoke the amateur quality of so many humdrum wedding videos, but with a well-trained eye on the emotional upheavals and significant details behind the scenes. In the course of a week, beginning with the wedding preparations in the Ruis household in Mission, Texas and ending with the wedding itself 15 minutes south of the border in Nuevo Leon, Mexico, Weyer reveals how strong cultural traditions and family support help soften the economic hardship of migrant life, shaping a young couple's hopes and plans for the future. Relying on the financial assistance of a network of some 60 family members and friends ("compadres" and "padrinos"), Elizabeth's mother acknowledges simply, "this is what we're here for." Shy and unassuming, Elizabeth exhibits the giddiness one might expect from a young woman preoccupied with her impending wedding, a light-heartedness that belies the sober realities of her difficult life. In 22 years she has traveled the 1,800 miles to California 44 times as a migrant worker; yet, despite living half the year apart from school friends and often missing classes to work, Elizabeth became the first in her family to graduate from high school. As we listen to her and Artemio discuss their impending "American Dream" across the border, the filmmaker leaves us wondering--and caring about--what will happen to the newlyweds. Recommended. H, C, P. (A. Cantú)