
“The Infiltrators” – on Amazon Prime
If you have been associated with our Peninsula for very long, you (or someone close to you) has probably been involved with something or someone amazing! I don’t know the reason. Perhaps it’s just that there are few enough of us that everyone knows someone who knows someone who was involved with something….
To all of you who have found that to be true, and especially if you have been involved, concerned, aware — in ANY way — of our immigrant/ICE crisis here, I commend to you Cristina Ibarra and Alex Rivera’s film, “The Instigators” that won two big awards at Sundance in 2019. Also, as a direct result of the film, Alex became involved with a group of Dreamer Activists who were working with the ACLU to get a very specific group of deported immigrants back into the United States. (They had a three-month window of opportunity; they managed to get 10,000 deportees returned to their families here.)

Gilberto Ortiz – “Mundo”
Alex had read Mac Funk’s NYT magazine article, contacted him, and through Mac’s information was able to get a number of deportees back to the U.S. including a cast member from “The Infiltrators” for whom he felt responsible. Among the others was Gladys, the subject of “A Family Fractured – Children in Flux,” the third in my Stories from the Heart series published in the Chinook Observer in 2019. It had been as a result of that series that Mac featured some of the Peninsula’s undocumented immigrants in his article. And… because of all of that, Mac Funk and Alex Rivera were sitting in my living room last Sunday!

Chelsea Renden – “Viridiana”
Let’s see… does that make all six degrees of separation? I did leave out a couple of “minor” steps. As a result of his “outstanding talent and exceptional creativity as a filmmaker and digital media artist whose work explores themes of globalization, migration, and technology” Alex was awarded a 2021 MacArthur Fellowship — colloquially known as the MacArthur “Genius Grant.” It includes a stipend of $625,000 for the pursuit of a Fellow’s creative, intellectual, and professional work. Alex, who lives in L.A., said that he was using a part of that award to meet the people he had helped get back to their families here in the United States — people he had “known” only by long-distance. Four of them (including Gladys) live on the Peninsula! And then he came to Oysterville to meet me!!! Unbelievable.

Manuel Uriza — “Claudio”
Last night Nyel and I watched “The Infiltrators” — available on Amazon Prime. Besides all the six degrees of separation and besides the fact that we found Alex the low-key, knowledgeable kind of guy you’d like for a friend or next door neighbor — we found the film riveting — informative and, despite all, full of hope. If you know a Dreamer or an immigrant — documented or not — watch it! You are probably only a few degrees away from this film, yourself!