November 2006
 Yolanda
Cruz (Chatin) directs documentaries about indigenous
Oaxacans living in the United States and Mexico, for which she
has received support from The Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller
Foundation. Cruz was the California community liason for Video
México Indígena/Video Native Mexico, a national
video tour organized by NMAI's Film and Video Center in 2003.
She is the author of Oaxaca Sabores Simples: A Culinary Voyage
through Indigenous Communities of Oaxaca, Mexico. She received
an MFA from the school of Theater, Film, and Television at UCLA.
Her thesis film Guenati'za (The Visitors) told the story
of an indigenous man working as a gardener in Los Angeles and
his return home to the mountains of Oaxaca. Cruz received a BA
from Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. She was born
in Cieneguilla, Oaxaca, and is fluent in Chatin, Spanish, and
English.
"I like to encounter histories in the kitchen, in the country,
in the streets. I believe that dialogue is important to be able
to be understood by the rest of the world. Visual language is
universal."
Screened by NMAI
For More Information
Image credit:
Yolanda Cruz - courtesy of the filmmaker; Yolanda Cruz
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