Director’s Statement
“Weaving the Past: Journey of Discovery” is about family, heroes, justice, life and death. It is about finding meaning in our lives.
12 years ago I was in a mid-life crisis that was devastating. I realized I needed to return to the roots of my being and from there find renewal, to rekindle my life. I chose to go on a quest, a journey that ultimately required over a decade to complete. I set out to uncover secrets and mysteries in the early life of my late and remarkable Mexican-born immigrant grandfather, Reverend Emilio N. Hernandez… «Tata,” as I nicknamed him, was my mentor and hero since I was a boy. But his childhood and youth were hidden and he had always evaded talking about it. With a DV camera in hand, seeking out people and places in the U.S. and Mexico with information to reveal, piecing together Tata’s amazing story, I found out why he had kept so much hidden.
Tata had a childhood of tragedy and pain, including working from the age of five at a sprawling, rugged hacienda. There he was befriended by Praxedis G. Guerrero, one of the younger sons of the owner of the hacienda. Prax was an idealistic and courageous journalist speaking out against the virtual enslavement of Mexico’s workers. Through Prax, Tata became intimately associated with important Mexican and American revolutionaries in the crucial years leading up to the Mexican Revolution one hundred and ten years ago. He became an active participant with Prax in extraordinary and heroic activities to bring social and economic justice to the people of Mexico, and to Mexican immigrants in the US Southwest, from Texas to California. The Mexico-US history unfolding as I continued my search was (and is) largely unknown by the general public. And the social justice issues that Emilio fought for alongside his mentor Praxedis (and his other revolutionary comrades) are just as crucial and pertinent today as they were then.
As I investigated, and more and more astonishing details emerged, I came to see that something bigger was at work, as if unseen forces were guiding me from one person and place to the next, revealing more about Emilio’s turbulent early life than I ever imagined was possible after so many lost decades. It was then I decided I needed to share his journey and mine as a documentary.
“Weaving the Past: Journey of Discovery” embodies the universal human impulse to make the world a just and better place, to find meaning and redemption, and to reconnect with family and draw sustenance from those we love and admire – even long after they have died.
Preview audiences have come away inspired and deeply stirred, often in tears from the upwelling of memories and emotions that were shaken loose inside them. Having come along with me on my journey, they have taken their own personal journeys as well. Whatever your ethnic background, this film reaches your core.