Film Description

A personal look at the orchestrated backlash against an immigrant rights activist reveals fierce conflict in California’s Orange County over what it means to be American. Once regarded as a wealthy, white, conservative enclave, Orange County is becoming less predictable, less tidy, more diverse, more interesting. In a word: Mexican. But this is where the immigrant backlash of the 1990’s first caught fired and, for some continues to burn – even within the Latino community.

Documentary filmmaker Mylène Moreno recalls her experiences growing up as the daughter of immigrants in California’s Orange County and returns to see how much things have changed since she left. Moreno follows a fierce battle against a controversial immigrant rights activist and discovers as much division within the Latino community –between recent and assimilated immigrants – as between the traditional establishment and the county’s increasingly vocal newcomers. It was to this Orange County, in the midst of dramatic change, that Moreno’s family moved in 1976, giving her a unique vantage point from which to examine the political fight that forms the basis of this documentary.