Published: April 13, 2009 12:00 am      

Film spotlights village immigrants

The story of an immigrant population living in Delaware County is being told by Jessica Vecchione in the documentary "Bienvenidos a Fleischmanns _ An Immigrant Community in Rural America."

And on Saturday, two free screenings of the film about the Hispanic immigrant population in Fleischmanns will be held in the dining room of La Cabaña Restaurant on Main Street in Fleischmanns.

The first screening will be at 1 p.m. The second showing, which begins at 8:30 p.m., will be followed by a Mexican dance party featuring music by DJ Sonido Escandaloso, playing cumbia, ranchera, Duranguense, bachata, reggaeton and salsa.

Vecchione said the film is an intimate portrait of the Hispanic immigrant population, which comprises more than 30 percent of the full-time residents in Fleischmanns.

According to the U.S. Census, in 2000, the most-recent year available, Hispanics made up 19.6 percent of the village. The estimated total population was 328 as of July 1, 2007.

Vecchione said she first became acquainted with migrant workers when she worked and lived with them in the late 1980s and early 1990s, picking organic lettuce in Orange County.

"I got to know their language and their stories because I lived in a house with two families," she said.

After traveling to Mexico many times and living in the Western states, Vecchione said she moved to Delaware County and was astounded to discover the Mexican community in Fleischmanns.

"This is a very unusual part of the country because there is very little ethnic diversity. It is one of the last areas that are still homogenous," Vecchione said. "I was very intrigued by the Hispanic community because there didn't seem to be any economic opportunities for them."

Vecchione said she went back to school at the State University College at Oneonta to finish a Spanish degree she started 30 years ago. She also become interested in producing and editing videos.

"I talked my professors into letting me take the last five credits I needed to finish my degree by making a short documentary about the Hispanic population in Fleischmanns," she said. "I thought it would be 20 minutes long, but when I began editing, it became an hour long."

Vecchione said she received a $300 grant through SUNY Oneonta to produce the film, which will be shown at the college and distributed for educational purposes.

She said she will also be producing copies of the video for the Fleischmanns residents who appear in it.

"I would also like to use it to get more grants to make more films about Mexican issues," she said.

Vecchione said she began the filmmaking process by researching how the immigrants got here and then how they survived.

She said the first Mexican immigrants arrived in Fleischmanns in 1986. After 22 years, they have developed a thriving community and have begun several businesses.

"Around the country, Hispanics are invigorating dying towns," Vecchione said. "They are moving in, opening businesses and the young families are having children."

Vecchione said Fleischmanns is such a small village, it is a different example than larger places where the Hispanic community remains separated from the English-speaking community.

"In Fleischmanns, everyone gets to know each other, and the Americans get to see what the Mexicans are really like," she said. "I am hoping this little movie will help people get to know them, too. People can gain so much by being open to what's around them."

Martin Morales is the owner of the Mexican grocery store Mi Lupita and a Fleischmanns village trustee.

He said when he first met Vecchione, "She was on an investigation and she was planning the movie, but later on it began taking her to someplace else because she was getting to know us."

Vecchione "did a great job," he said. "I never thought about the community the way I see it now. To us it is an honor that she did this. She did something great.

"On April 18 when she comes to the Cabana, I would like to say thanks in front of everybody," Morales continued. "(The film is) good for the Mexican community and an excellent way for the American community to get to know us a little bit better. It was a very unique idea."

Vecchione said the film looks at the challenges faced by these families in their work, education and assimilation into rural American culture.

She spent the last year investigating the origins of the community and traced the movement of the first families.

They migrated to Newburgh from a small town in Puebla, Mexico, in the 1970s, then to Hubble Hill in Margaretville in 1986.

The film runs 60 minutes and is in English and Spanish with English and Spanish subtitles.

The movie trailer can be viewed at www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_hzTweJ5L8.

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Patricia Breakey can be reached at 746-2894 or at stardelhi@stny.rr.com.