The San Diego Union-Tribune
A Window into Migrant Life
August 24, 1995
by Neil Kendricks
When KPBS-TV producer Paul Espinosa and writer-director Severo Perez collalorated on the film "...and the earth did not swallow him," it was a chance to dream behind a movie camera.
With its rich, dreamlike imagery, Perez's film adaptation of Tomas Rivera's classic, semi-autobiographical novel gives viewers a glimpse of life and death from the perspective of 12-year old Marcos, the son of migrant Texas workers during the 1950s.
Marcos is at that anxious age when his head is filled with age old questions: Why is he here? Is there a meaning and purpose behind his family's nomadic struggles? These questions and other rites of passage are universal themes that most viewers can identify with, regardless of one's race and cultural background.
Since its completion, "...and the earth did not swallow him" has garnered awards from the Cairo International Film Festival, the San Antonio CineFestival, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival and the San Diego Film and Videomaker's Showcase. KPBS' first feature film opens tomorrow for a one-week engagement at the Ken Cinema.
Migrant Window
"Basically, the film is a window into the world of migrant life," said Espinosa, 44, who has been a producer at KPBS for 15 years. "For many American viewers, the lifestyle that's portrayed in the film is not a lifestyle they are familiar with.
"Many people don't come into contact with migrants at all. So I think this film will really be an eyeopener in a way. Beyond that, it's clearly a story about sur'vival and the kinds of things that a young person faces in trying to survive despite great odds."
Perez said Rivera's novel had a cinematic quality that made it an obvious choice for making the jump from the printed page to the screen. Although the novel's mosaic of vignettes is streamlined, Perez was careful to preserve the stream of consciousness flow of Rivera's narrative.
"The thing that made (Rivera's novel) filmic to me was that this film is about the interior landscape of a child's mind," Perez said, "How people remember and how you use memory. The film becomes a blending of memories, dreams and fantasies."
This award-winning film also presented Latino actors and actresses with an opportunity to play challenging roles that go beyond the usual stereotypes. Both Espinosa and Perez stressed the pressing need for more latino voices to be heard via access to film and the mass media.
"In general, it is very distressing that there are so few Latino stories heing told in either television or the motion picture industry" Espinosa said. "And I believe this film and other films that I've done are part of an effort to counteract that trend."
Child rearing
Political agendas aside, Perez said his filmmaking process is analogous to raising a child. Together, Perez and Espinosa nurtured the film project from developing a script and getting funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities and other sources, to shooting the film on a tight 27-day schedule. What was once only an idea sparked by reading Rivera's novel has now blossomed into a film intended to stand on its own.
Looking back at the experience, the 54-year-old independent film- maker reflected on an odd moment when he first listened to the Dolby transfer of his completed film.
"There was this sense that I couldn't talk to my film anymore," Perez recalled. "My film had grown up. And up to this moment, my film had talked to me."
"It asked me: Should I be louder? Should I be shorter? Should I be darker? You tell me what I should be. The actors spoke to me and asked me what they should be. But at that moment, I couldn't speak to the film anymore. It had assumed its own identity and it was on its own."