By Ana Perez

Chelsea Hernandez grew up surrounded by two things: media and the ever growing Texas skyline.  The Mexican-American filmmaker entered the world of media at a young age. At just nine years old, Hernandez co-hosted and co-produced a children’s educational show with her mother.  Since then, Hernandez continued to pursue media attending the University of Texas at Austin where she was the first in her family to receive a degree, a Bachelor of Arts in Radio and Television.

Hernandez experienced Texas’s boom by watching the skyline change dramatically, but what she was initially unaware of was the amount of people dying to make those buildings a reality. Throughout her school years, Hernandez met other filmmakers and began experimenting and finding her style of storytelling as well as ideas for future projects, including the idea for her film Building the American Dream.

Building the American Dream follows undocumented construction workers in Texas as they fight the injustices of wage theft and unsafe working conditions.  “When I was going to school in 2009 there was a pretty bad construction accident,” Hernandez said. “Three construction workers fell to their death building a luxury condominium.”

The experience was a wake up call for Hernandez, but she didn’t jump on the project right away because she felt that she wasn’t ready to take on a project of that magnitude.  “The accident was eye opening,” Hernandez said. “I had become numb to the growth, people were dying to build my hometown.”

After the incident, Hernandez found the Workers Defense Project, an organization that helps and defends low-income workers.

“It was the only worker center potentially in the state at the time to help,” Hernandez said. Though there were advocates for change, no one broke the story.

“I thought to myself ‘oh surely someone is going to make this movie,’” Hernandez recalled. “But, a couple of more years passed, more accidents, but no one had done a film yet. I got tired of hearing about accidents, so I thought ‘How can I make a film that uncovers this story?’”

Hernandez began filming in 2013. Though the undocumented workers faced the harsh realities of wage theft and hazardous working conditions, Hernandez wanted her film to show the power behind them as well.

“Overall, we see films that show Latinos as victims,” Hernandez said. “As much as that helps in lending to why the audience should have empathy, my goal was to show that there was solidarity, a fight, they were standing up and they weren’t scared.”

Building the American Dream gave undocumented workers such as Claudia Golinelli and her husband Alex an opportunity to walk others through their story as they fought to recover thousands of dollars in unpaid wages.

However, unfair labor practices aren’t all there is to fear. During the production of Building the American Dream, Claudia was pulled over and detained by ICE. The documentary follows Claudia’s experience of having to check in with ICE regularly with the potential of being deported each time she goes in.

As Claudia prepares for her check in, she walks her husband Alex with  what needs to be done in case she is deported. She reminds him to spend time with their children if the worst happens because she knows the pain it will cause them.

Even through the insurmountable pain, Hernandez beautifully captures the strength and bravery within each of the individuals she features, especially with the Granillo family.

Randy Granillo died after trying to power through and work in the unforgivable Texas heat without a break. Since his death, the Granillo family has advocated for a new law that would provide workers with a 10-minute break for every four hours of work.

The Granillo family’s fight was not easily won. There was push back by groups that believed imposing the rule would make Texas unappealing to contractors who were helping the state expand. Tensions and emotions were at an all-time high during production, but Hernandez offered a safe environment.

“I think right off the bat there was just a cultural understanding of each other,” Hernandez said. “My co-producer is of Mexican descent and we had a largely predominant Latino crew which allowed people to be honest on camera to share their story.”

“It has been an interesting time for this film to come out to the national audience considering the pandemic that we’re in,” Hernandez said. “Now construction workers are deemed essential workers, if they didn’t have proper safety precautions before, it’s not surprising they’re one of the COVID clusters now.”

Although Hernandez’s documentary is just about to hit the national audience, the Emmy-award winning filmmaker is already developing her new documentary film that will be about student loan debt in which she will also utilize a new form of storytelling.

Hernandez has officially tackled podcasting. This time, Hernandez will be sharing her own experience with her podcast Deferred Dreams which is produced by Make Every Media. Hernandez is simultaneously working on the documentary.

“I realized talking about student loan debt with others, we would find so many similarities [with each other],”  Hernandez said. “There was almost a sense of relief between us.”

The podcast will feature other people’s student loan debt stories as well as provide solutions for paying off the debt. “It’s such a giant issue,” Hernandez said. “The thought of cancelling debt is being brought up in national conversations.”

Hernandez’s projects continue to highlight prominent topics that affect the Latino community tremendously.

Mark your calendars and get ready for Hernandez’s national debut. Hernandez will introduce you to a gut-wrenching reality through her lens.

Deferred Dreams is now available to stream on iTunes, Spotify, Soundcloud and Stitcher.

Building the American Dream will be available on PBS, pbs.org and the PBS video app beginning on September 15th.

The post Chelsea Hernandez’s Road To A National Audience first appeared on .

Latino Public Broadcasting (LPB) today announced that VOCES, the acclaimed PBS documentary series exploring Latino arts, culture and history, will premiere two new films this fall on PBS.

Premiering on Tuesday, September 15th is Chelsea Hernandez’s Building the American Dream follows immigrant construction workers in Texas fighting for justice in an industry rife with exploitation. Building the American Dream takes viewers to Texas, the site of a massive construction boom. Its dirty secret: the abuse of immigrant labor. The film captures the rise of a workers’ movement fighting widespread construction industry injustices. Grieving their son, a Mexican family campaigns for a much-needed safety law that would allow workers 10-minute breaks for every four hours of labor, while a Salvadoran couple of skilled electricians owed thousands in back-pay fights for their children’s future. A story of courage, resilience and community, the film reveals eye-opening truths about the hardworking immigrants who build our American Dream.

Hernandez (See the Dirt, An Uncertain Future) is an 8-time Emmy award-winning director, producer and editor. She is a Mexican-American filmmaker based out of Austin, Texas. Hernandez began her career in media at age nine as a co-host and producer for a local children’s educational TV show with her mother, but began her documentary career right after college.

Premiering on Tuesday, October 6th is Bernardo Ruiz’s Latino Vote: Dispatches from the Battleground which follows the high-stakes effort to mobilize the burgeoning Latino electorate in this year’s pivotal election. In the upcoming presidential election, nowhere are the stakes higher for both political parties than in the nation’s swing states. There, community organizers, local activists and political operatives are targeting Latino voters, projected to be the largest eligible bloc of non-white voters this year. But operatives seeking to woo this diverse electorate using a “one size fits all” strategy do so at their own peril. Taking an immersive approach, Latino Vote delves into the campaigns in the battleground states of Nevada, Florida, Texas, and Pennsylvania to explore how Latino voters are poised to shape not only the upcoming election but the future of the country.

Ruiz (The Infinite Race, Harvest Season, Reportero) is a two-time Emmy award-nominated documentary filmmaker. He has directed and produced four feature documentaries and a host of nonfiction programming for a variety of outlets including PBS, HBO, ESPN and Facebook Watch.

“We’re proud to present these two timely documentaries in what has become a uniquely challenging year for the Latino community,” said Sandie Viquez Pedlow, executive director of LPB and executive producer of VOCES. “Building the American Dream shines a light on the important role Latinos play in essential jobs such as construction, but also reveals how immigrants often work in dangerous conditions and are denied benefits to which they are entitled. Latino Vote: Dispatches from the Battleground provides a fascinating, in-depth look at the lead up to the presidential election in battleground states around the country. With Latinos poised to be the largest non-white voting bloc in November, it’s more important than ever that the concerns of our community be a part of the national conversation.”

 “As one of the nation’s most trusted sources for news and public affairs programming, PBS is pleased shine a light on the important role this community will play in our upcoming democratic process,” said Perry Simon, PBS Chief Programming Executive and General Manager of General Audience Programming. 

Part of the PBS election and democracy special programming premiering this fall, both films will be available on PBS, pbs.org and the PBS Video app.

The post PBS Releases Two Important Documentary About Immigrants and The Latino Vote first appeared on .