Dear Homeland
- Directed by: Claudia A. Escobar
- Released: 2021 (educational)
- Year of Production: 2020
Dear Homeland is the lyrical story of Mexican singer/songwriter Diana Gameros, who left Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, to pursue her musical dream in Michigan. Arriving legally but unable to extend her stay as an international college student, she becomes an undocumented immigrant who can’t return to her beloved homeland and family for fear of not being able to re-enter the United States. Moving to San Francisco, she finds community, realizes her musical gift and becomes an advocate for Dreamers and immigrant communities while struggling to change her own status.
Told in Diana’s own voice and through her mesmerizing, poetic music — and featuring footage of her life in Mexico, Michigan, San Francisco and on stage — Dear Homeland is a love letter to Mexico and to her family — full of sadness, longing and, in the end, hope and love.
“Like millions of undocumented immigrants in the U.S., the apprehension involved her legal status, which [Diana] Gameros and award-winning Colombian documentary filmmaker Claudia Escobar aimed to bring closure to in “Dear Homeland.” – SF Chronicle
I am Claudia Escobar and I like creating and following stories, making things and trying to find where reality meets magic. I am the director of the documentary Dear Homeland, produced by KQED and getting born in March of 2020. I am curious about human migrations, in finding what is home as physical place or as state of being, as Diana Gameros says in the film. Currently I am producing a series with AJ+ Español about decolonization in Latin America together with it’s creator Paula Daibert, and In the past years I had been focused on making short documentary and experimental works about Bay Area artists and culture makers for KQED Arts. With the work I did with the arts team I had been nominated for three local Emmy's and I had won one, I had also won a Webby for the series I co-created together with Kelly Whalen, If Cities Could Dance. Before joining KQED, I directed, produced and edited short fiction films, fashion videos, stop motion animations, as well as non-fiction journalism work for AJ+, Common Sense Media, National Geographic, Mission Local, NBC’s former The Feast, and was the editor for the feature documentary “In The Red." directed bu Mimi Chakarova.
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