TESORO

ROXANNA DENISE STEVENS IBARRA
Director’s Statement

You know, I had a very hard time formulating a concept that I forgot to realize that I could tell the story I’ve lived through generationally. The stories flow through my veins as water does through roots. They grow. The stories were memories told by my tata while my tios sang about lost loves, they were newspaper clippings my nana saved about 60’s Chicano culture, they were my Mami’s stories about my Tata working in the fields and sending money to his brothers, mama and tia at the age of fifteen. The miscarriages. The romance. The cars. These were snippets of the stories I was told, lived through, and strung together to give as a love letter to my community. To tell the stories I’ve never seen on television or on the big screen, but have heard more than I would have asked to. I had to make this movie so that these stories would not die with each generation of my Mexican American familia.

My process involved lying in the sun with my dog and my boyfriend, talking about my nanas y tatas, and how their stories cannot be beat by anything I could come up with. Once this finally got through my dense skull, I made a timeline. My family got excited and told me about when certain events happened, what they were listening to and how they felt when they were in their youth. I looked up statistics of deaths and rights during that time and the movement Cesar Chavez sparked. I drove around the parts of Tucson that felt like home and wrote the script based on excerpts of these experiences.

I was massively influenced by my community. No doubt about it. The film was influenced by the stories, the style and the music I’ve been raised with. There are semiotic indicators throughout the film that pay homage to that which I feel most influenced by.

Having never owned a camera nor having had any resources before coming into the university, it was astounding to see the resources available for the BFA Film and TV program at the School of Theatre, Film & Television. I felt filthy rich with the knowledge that was offered by the teaching and advising staff here. The environment of collaboration and collegiate experiences really allowed me to grow as a creative and establish a voice. The guidance provided on how to structure a good story and how to become a storyteller that is relevant to current events cannot be valued or appreciated enough. However, the most vital learning experiences have been in the failure of doing those things, even with the guidance provided, as it allowed me to make mistakes while I still can, and establish my style even further.