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This essay reflects on teaching college students to use the medium of film/video to explore contemporary issues that affect the everyday lives of Latinx populations in the United States. Drawing on experiences with (mostly Latinx) students in a documentary filmmaking class at Rutgers University, as well as on my own visual, documentary, and ethnographic practice at the intersection of Latinx studies and visual anthropology, I discuss the distinct representational techniques, dilemmas and possibilities that different storytelling strategies in ethnographic and documentary films hold for representing and knowing Latinx social experiences, as well as some of the steps to follow when contemplating the use of film and video in the context of ethnographic projects in Latinx communities. In doing so, I address some key issues that have shaped past and current debates about the visual representation and circulation of Latinx communities, both in Latinx studies and in visual anthropology.

En noviembre de 2016, el 26% del padron electoral de Estados Unidos voto por el entonces candidato a la Presidencia Donald Trump, quien dirigio una campana electoral con base en la retorica anti-inmigrante que prometia deportar a 11 millones de indocumentados y construir un enorme muro a lo largo de la frontera sur, para lo cual obligaria al Gobierno mexicano a pagar por la construccion del mismo. Al llegar a la Casa Blanca, Trump no perdio tiempo: el 27 de enero de 2017 firmo una orden ejecutiva titulada “Mejorar la seguridad publica en el interior de Estados Unidos”. Esta orden amplia significativamente la categoria de “extranjeros removibles” (Removable Aliens) y senala que los no ciudadanos que han entrado a Estados Unidos cruzando la frontera sin documentos o que han entrado con visas que luego expiraron representan una “amenaza significativa” para la seguridad nacional y la seguridad publica. La orden ejecutiva de Trump y la guia adjunta del Departamento de Seguridad Nacional (DHS, por sus siglas en ingles) eliminan las prioridades establecidas por el expresidente Barack Obama y ordenan a las agencias federales que empleen “todos los medios legales” contra “todos los extranjeros removibles”, incluyendo a aquellos acusados que no han sido condenados (MPI 2017).

Since the 1980s, political instability and national and global economic crisis have increasingly undermined the ability of the Peruvian state to maintain a viable national economy and sustain its population. The past decade has seen efforts by the state to reclaim emigrant citizens and facilitate their incorporation into a redefined Peruvian nation that extends beyond the country’s borders. Examination of two instances of the struggle over extraterritorial membership and the processes of inclusion and exclusion emerging from this struggle suggests that by extending both symbolic and material membership to the emigrant population the Peruvian state is restructuring and reconceptualizing itself in the context of a changing global economy.