Following the screening of “Las Marthas” will be an audience Q&A and panel discussion with:
Director of the film and Educator Cristina Ibarra
Folklorist and Educator Dr. Maribel Alvarez
Documentary Filmmaker, Author, and Educator Jacob Bricca
LAS MARTHAS
A film by Cristina Ibarra
(USA, 2014, 68 min. In English and Spanish, with English subtitles)
In 1939, the Society of Martha Washington was founded to usher each year’s debutantes (called “Marthas”) into proper society at the Colonial Pageant and Ball in Laredo, Texas. Celebrated as “a striking alternative portrait of border-town life” (The New York Times), the film follows two Mexican-American girls carrying this gilded tradition on their shoulders during a time of economic uncertainty and tension over immigration. Cristina Ibarra’s landmark documentary, winner of the Cinema Tropical Award for Best U.S. Latinx Film, offers an intimate exploration of identity, belonging, and the contradictions of heritage in a community shaped by both sides of the border.
