Justus Documentary Trailer

Struggles of the Mestizo culture of Northern New Mexico

JustUs Documentary

JustUS is a 25 minute documentary film produced by Touch Point Productions documenting the existential struggle of the Mestizo culture of Northern New Mexico.  They are Hispanic by way of the Spanish Colonizers who settled around Ohkay Owingeh in 1598.  This caused conflicts with the Indengious Peoples, many Pueblo tribes.  After years of oppression there was an uprising in 1680 and most of the priests were killed.  The remaining Hispanics formed a lay ministry that operates today known as the Penetentes. From the beginning the colonizers took Indian women as their wives sometimes forcibly. Today most of the people have Spanish surnames and speak Spanish though many Pueblos live on reservations and identify as Catholic speaking a mix of Pueblo, Spanish and English.  Needless to say, the collision of cultures and the annexation of New Mexico by the United States has been one in which many of these people have suffered historic traumas.  Add to this the lowest educational achievement and worst educational system, poverty, and the influx of drug related gangs financed by Mexican Cartels and we see the widespread eradication of a unique culture.

Read the review of the documentary JustUs by Ana Malinalli X Gutierrez Sisneros, Ph.D.

JustUs is available for community screenings and institution purchases