In the last five years one million Mexicans residing in the US have returned to Mexico, including children and youth who were born or raised in the US. Una Vida, Dos Países presents the stories of these transborder youth, highlighting their experiences living between two countries, cultures, languages and education systems, and exploring their parents’ decisions to return to their home country after living undocumented in the US.  

The 30-minute film is multilingual in Spanish, English, and Zapotec with subtitles throughout.  Also available is an accompanying curriculum for secondary schools in the US and Mexico, as well as a guide for teachers of transborder students in Mexico.

Funding provided by:

Scroll down to the "Watch the Film" section to view the full documentary.

Una Vida, Dos Países is a collaboration among educators, researchers and filmmakers. Tatyana Kleyn, William Perez and Rafael Vásquez were Fulbright Scholars in 2014-15 in Mexico.  Ben Donnellon and Tatyana Kleyn collaborated on a related film in 2013. 

Ben Donnellon – Director of Photography and Editor

Ben graduated from Ithaca College, where he studied Cinema & Photography with a minor in philosophy. He is co-founder of the non-profit organization, The FilmShop, a group of independent filmmakers and media producers dedicated to developing new, groundbreaking work through collaboration and collective development. Ben has filmed short documentaries in countries around the world including Israel, Cuba, Morocco, Poland, Czech Republic, and Ukraine. He has served as cinematographer on two feature length films and he is currently directing a feature film about our addiction to technology.  He was the producer, cinematographer, and editor of Living Undocumented: High School, College and Beyond (www.LivingUndocumented.com).  

Tatyana Kleyn – Director and Producer

Tatyana (Ed.D., Teachers College, Columbia University) is an Associate Professor in the Programs in Bilingual Education and TESOL at The City College of New York (CCNY). During the 2014-15 she was President of the New York State Association for Bilingual Education and a Fulbright scholar in Oaxaca, Mexico.  At CCNY she is the faculty advisor of the college’s DREAM Team (a student club of undocumented students and their allies).  She is the author of Immigration: The Ultimate Teen Guide (Scarecrow Press), a non-fiction book geared toward youth that addresses immigration issues such as policy, discrimination, language learning, and identity.  She co-produced and directed Living Undocumented: High School, College and Beyond, a short documentary that presents the experiences, aspirations, and struggles of undocumented youth navigating the immigration and education system in New York.  

William Perez – Producer

William (Ph.D., Stanford University) one of the nation’s leading academic experts on undocumented students, is an Associate Professor of Education at Claremont Graduate University. His research focuses on the social and psychological processes associated with academic success and higher education access among immigrant Latino students. In 2009, he received the Mildred Garcia Prize from the Association for the Study of Higher Education for his book, We ARE Americans: Undocumented Students Pursuing the American Dream. He has been interviewed or quoted as an academic expert in various media outlets including NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, Telemundo and Univision national evening news, Despierta America, CNN en Español, the Chicago Tribune, the LA Times, La Opinion, Hispanic Magazine, and NPR’s All Things Considered. In 2010, he received the Stanford University Distinguished Scholar Alumni Award and Alma Magazine named him as one of four Lo Mejor de Nosotros (One of Our Best) in its 50th Anniversary Hispanic Heritage Month Edition. His most recent book, Americans by Heart: Undocumented Latino Students and the Promise of Higher Education, was selected for the 2013 Critics Choice Award by the American Educational Studies Association.

Rafael Vásquez – Producer

Rafael (Ph.D., Claremont Graduate University) is a Mellon Social Justice Initiative Visiting Assistant Professor of Chicana/o and Native American Studies at the University of California, Davis.  He is an education scholar whose work focuses on social factors that shape Latino students’ education and examines how educational institutions influence these students’ experiences in secondary schools and higher education.  Recently, he has been researching indigenous immigrant youth.  As result of his efforts to make indigenous immigrant youth issues visible, his research received early commendations when he was awarded the Pamela M. Mullin Dream and Believe Award—Claremont Graduate Universities’ highest student honor—and when he was invited to discuss his research by various media outlets. His forthcoming co-authored book with William Perez, Indigenous Mexican Students in U.S. Schools: Ethnicity, Multilingualism, and Academics by Oxford University Press, will address how these students undergo education.


 

Teacher’s Guide 

The Guía de Apoyo a Docentes con Estudiantes Transfronterizos: Alumnos de Educación Básica y Media Superior [Guide to Support Teachers of Transborder Students: Primary and Secondary Students] is a resource for teachers in Mexico.  

The guide includes four sections:

1. New Dreamer Stories

2. Socio-emotional Support

3. Spanish Pedagogy

4. English Growth

The guide was created in collaboration with the New Dreamers from CETis #124 High School in Tlacolula, Oaxaca and graduate students from the Critical Languages Program at The Benito Juárez Autonomous University of Oaxaca (UABJO).

UPCOMING AND PAST EVENTS:

Melchor, Sharely and Brayan are the three students who formed the group called The New Dreamers in Una Vida, Dos Países. We have been asked by people who’ve seen the film how they can help, so we have set up a New Dreamers Go Fund Me page to help Melchor achieve his dream of continuing his studies and to support Sharely and Brayan to complete high school and go on to college.  All donations go directly towards the students’ education.