Works in Progress
by Luis Valdovino
1990-1992, 14 minutes

Combining documentary interviews, folk ballads, animation and movie-clips, this video examines the conditions of Mexican undocumented workers and the formation of American attitudes toward those designed as "aliens." Work In Progress explores the effects of the 1986 U.S. Immigration Reform Law and individuals who did not qualify for amnesty under this reform, therefore remaining undocumented. The video explores the paradox of immigration laws, which in trying to help people, create a terminal disease of discrimination on foreign people in this country. The tape's thematic sections leave the door open for additional chapters in the diary of “melting pot” mythology.