Home > Outreach Case Studies > Señorita Extraviada

Señorita Extraviada (2002)

By Lourdes Portillo

In this Case Study
Introduction
Partnerships
Resource Materials
Promotion

Partnerships

COMMUNITY-BASED PARTNERSHIPS

Over 200 people attended a screening of Señorita Extraviada hosted by the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center. Filmmaker Lourdes Portillo participated in the post-screening panel discussion along with activists Elvia R. Arriola of Women on the Border, Patricia F. Castillo from the P.E.A.C.E. Initiative, and English Professor Lisa Sánchez González from the University of Texas at Austin. Several audience members recorded Talking Back Video Letters, one of which opened the Talking Back segment that aired after the national broadcast on PBS. Vicki Grise, Esperanza's Art Escuela Coordinator, reports:

"About 250 people attended our screening, with more being turned away...This event really galvanized our community to pool our resources so we can protest this atrocity. Our screening spurred two additional screenings in town and for the rest of the month our phone was ringing off the hook from other community organizations in southern Texas that wanted to screen the film. Due to the incredible success of our event, our youth were further inspired to create guerilla street theatre about the murders and organize local componenets of a national campaign of protests to bring awareness to the situation."

PUBLIC TELEVISION STATION PARTNERSHIPS

KUHT hosted a screening and discussion event in collaboration with the Houston Area Women's Center, Nuestra Palabra, and Hispanic Women In Leadership. The goals of the events were to stimulate dialogue about U.S. corporate and Mexican law enforcement authorities' responsibility to protect citizens of Mexico, increase viewership, and spark community activism surrounding the issue of these unresolved disappearances and deaths. Estella Jones, KUHT's Outreach Project Coordinator, provided the following feedback:

"Attendees were glued to the screen. We anticipated and prepared for 50 people and were extremely pleased to have to set up chairs for the overflow as another two dozen or more individuals arrived. The screening/discussion extended past the two-hour allotment, with attendees clustering in small groups afterwards to continue their own private discussions. Representatives included, Latino community leaders, FBI-Houston, Independent School Districts, activitists such as Cissy Farenthold, and concerned individuals from the community. Señorita Extraviada was also chosen as HoustonPBS' Encore, which offers viewers the opportunity to select their favorite show of that week for rebroadcast."

As a result of the screening, two local coalitions are being formed in Houston: one to support the families affected and the other to protest the killings of women in Juárez, Mexico.

Next: Resource Materials »

TOP OF PAGE