Will Ramirez

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Salvadoreño (Documentary)

Santa Ana Cathedral, El Salvador

My family left El Salvador in 1987 in the middle of the Civil War that claimed the lives of 75,000 Salvadorans. Though I personally have no memory of the conflict, distance and time could not erase the effects of a long and violent struggle. Some have called the experience of Salvadoran immigrants, an “inexplicable conflict.”

This is why I made this film.

An excuse to dig into my own heritage, my family’s history, and deal with some of the questions I dare not ask my parents about.

The answers I found while making this short documentary were surprising. From the extent of US intervention in the civil war, to some violent family history I had previously never known. This is my story. An immigrant who has received infinite opportunities in Canada, but still exists in an identity crisis between the culture and heritage he was born into and the culture he has had to navigate throughout his life.

Though I am now and always will be Canadian, the fact remains I will always be Salvadoreño.