Adios Amor: the Search for Maria Moreno
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Latino Public Broadcasting | VOCES Season 5 Outreach Guide for Adios Amor: The Search for Maria Moreno Thank you for taking the extra step to encourage viewers of Adios Amor: The Search for Maria Moreno to think critically about the film and its themes, and to share their thoughts with others in their community. According to U.S. Census projections, it is anticipated that the U.S. Latino population will grow by 167% between 2010 and 2050. As Latino Americans expand their impact economically, culturally and politically, they will contribute more and more to our ongoing national conversations about identity and empowerment. As the demographic landscape continues to shift, public media can play a significant role in building bridges of understanding by presenting audiences with trustworthy content and neutral spaces for meaningful dialogue. Community conversations hold tremendous potential to enrich our understanding of our unique and varied stories, as well as our shared values, forging a future as a nation whose strength lies in its diversity. This outreach guide offers themes to inspire conversation, as well as tips for planning events, suggestions for community partners and speakers, social media strategies and discussion questions, supplemental readings and free resources to accompany the film. Film Summary: Set in 1950s and 60s California, Adios Amor recaptures the forgotten yet epic struggle of Maria Moreno, a determined migrant mother who became an early outspoken leader in the movement for farmworker rights years before Dolores Huerta and César Chavez launched the United Farm Workers. • Website: www.adiosamorfilm.com • Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Cqyj-MPcJg • Downloadable Trailer: https://vimeo.com/243694687 • Facebook: www.facebook.com/adiosamorfilm Themes for Outreach & Topics for Discussion • Women’s Leadership in Social Justice Movements • The Farmworkers’ Movement as a Civil Rights Struggle • Immigration, Migrant Labor and the American Dream • Hunger (Food Insecurity) in America • Race and income disparity/poverty • The role of photography and audio recording in social history • How are history narratives shaped and who shapes them? Community Partners: Adios Amor presents an opportunity to strengthen or cultivate partnerships with community organizations whose mission is allied with the issues and themes explored in the film. Partners can participate in a number of ways, providing resources and expertise, recommending experts for roundtables or presentations, hosting events that serve the needs of their communities, engaging their constituents, and spreading the word about the broadcast. Organizations to consider partnerships with include: 1 Latino Public Broadcasting | VOCES Season 5 Outreach Guide for Adios Amor: The Search for Maria Moreno • Educational institutions, such as local universities, colleges, community colleges, and high schools, with a special focus on first generation students and the teachers that serve them; programs in history, women’s students, Latinx Studies, civics and photography. • Public libraries • Local centers for photography and digital arts education, such as Youth in Focus • Radio stations serving the Latino American community, such as Radio Bilingüe (a national network; see station list here) and La Campesina Radio Network • Community organizations, such as NALEO (National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials), local Concilios; UnidosUS (formerly National Council of La Raza); MALDEF (Mexican American Legal Defense Fund); MANA (Mexican American Women's National Association) • Farm labor unions or service organizations active in different regions: o Alianza Nacional de Campesinas (National Farmworker Women’s Alliance) o United Farm Workers (UFW), California/West Coast o California Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA), California o Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (PCUN), Oregon o Familias Unidas por la Justicia (Families United for Justice) Washington state o Campesinos Sin Fronteras, Arizona o Coalition of Immokalee Workers, Florida o Farmworker Association of Florida (FWAF), Florida o Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC), Ohio/North Carolina o Indiana Migrant and Seasonal Farmworker Coalition, Indiana o Centro Campesino, Minnesota o La Union del Pueblo Entero (LUPE), Texas Speakers/Facilitators: If the opportunity is available, have an expert speaker introduce the film and themselves at the top of the program. Make the film available to the speaker and recommend that they watch in advance. Then ask this speaker to facilitate the audience conversation, adding their thoughts on the questions and topics at hand throughout. Potential sources for speakers/facilitators: • Filmmaker or producer • Representative from partner/co-sponsor organization • Faculty from Latinx Studies, women’s studies departments, or history at local university or college • Representative from farmworker or food worker associations • Representative from a local historical society (such as California Historical Society) • Local Latina community leaders (such as City Council Representatives) • Food justice, anti-hunger or sustainable agriculture activists Audience: Station members; general audience; partner/co-host constituencies; clergy and faith-based groups; civic leaders; K-12, college and adult education teachers; food justice and sustainable agriculture groups; labor unions; hunger and anti-poverty activists. Promotion: Promote on air, website, e-blasts, and social media. Distribute fliers through partners, in partner lobbies and send electronically to station members. 2 Latino Public Broadcasting | VOCES Season 5 Outreach Guide for Adios Amor: The Search for Maria Moreno Social Media | Tips & Ideas • Connect with the film on Facebook: www.facebook.com/adiosamorfilm • Create a centralized Facebook event page and be sure to make all participating partners co-hosts. For RSVPs, this event page must link to Eventbrite, which is a free service for tracking reservations. This event page can be updated with the latest event updates, news, and contact information. • Consider engaging your Facebook audience by live streaming the speaker presentation and/or post- screening discussion via Facebook Live, Instagram or Twitter. Then promote the broadcast or if the event takes place after the broadcast, provide the link where people can stream the film online at www.pbs.org. • The filmmakers of Adios Amor rely extensively on black and white photos to reconstruct Maria’s story. Pre or post event, invite followers to post black and white photos depicting their life stories and/or someone they deem to be an unsung hero like Maria Moreno on social media using an easy- to-remember and relevant hashtag, such as #AdiosAmor #MyMariaMoreno Community Conversation | Suggestions & Tips • Part I: Screening. Begin with brief opening remarks and screen film (approx. 1 hr 5 min). • Part II: Community Conversation (approx. 25-30 min). The moderator should lay out Community Norms for the conversation, such as ground rules for civility; encouraging participants to give voice to personal, family and community experiences; asking questions that move the conversation forward; and suggesting connections between local conditions and those portrayed in Adios Amor; and then proceed through 3-4 discussion questions, giving each one three to five minutes for audience members to discuss with a neighbor or in a small group. End with a question that inspires solution-oriented action. Spend final 10 minutes having volunteers share ideas about how to solve this issue in their community. • Handout: Provide participants with a follow up activity to do at home in the form of a 1-page handout with instructions on finding a photograph, writing a brief story about it or the memory it evokes, and then sharing the photo and story on social media (see above). • Speaker/Facilitator: If the opportunity is available, have an expert speaker introduce the film and themselves at the top of the program. Then ask this speaker to facilitate the audience conversation, adding their thoughts on the questions and topics at hand throughout. • Audience: Station members, college or high school students, general audience, partner constituencies and members, civic leaders, educators, local, regional and state policy makers, elected officials. • Promotion: Promote on air, website, e-blasts, and social media. Distribute fliers through partners, in partner lobbies and send electronically to station members. Discussion Questions: After the screening of the documentary, ask audience members to turn to a neighbor or form small groups of up to eight people. Ask them to identify a note taker and someone who will represent each group and summarize results when discussion ends. Provide the following questions with the suggestion that each group spend a few minutes at the beginning choosing a couple questions: 1. Was there a person, story, image or fact from the film that particularly resonated with you? 3 Latino Public Broadcasting | VOCES Season 5 Outreach Guide for Adios Amor: The Search for Maria Moreno 2. What inspired Maria Moreno to become a community organizer and advocate for the workers, what was her “fire in the belly”? 3. How did Maria bring attention to the cause? What characteristics made her a good spokesperson? 4. What does Maria Moreno’s story convey about the plight of farmworkers and their strength and perseverance? 5. How did Al Green and Maria’s tactics differ? Why was she pushed out of AWOC and left out of the United Farmworkers movement?