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A New Mexico PBS documentary features Prep students' powerful Border Doors projects inspired by their emotional experiences meeting with migrant families.

The documentary aired on June 10 and can be viewed on YouTube here.

Each year, Claudio Perez’s Heritage Spanish 3-5 and Spanish 5 students students embark on a trip to El Paso, Texas, where they explore the border. They then paint doors to represent the issues they've studied.

The focal point of this year's art projects was the complex theme of the union and separation of families as they migrated to the United States. Students employed symbolic elements such as safety pins, scissors, needles, and thread to express this sensitive issue visually. These objects served as powerful metaphors, effectively capturing the heart-wrenching realities and emotions of family separations.

In the documentary, students explain their paintings and share their eye-opening experiences of hearing first-hand about the challenges immigrants face.

Kiarra Rodriguez ’23 said she thought she was knowledgeable about immigration because her family members are all immigrants themselves. “I thought I had seen it all with my family, and I thought that I didn’t really need to learn anything else because my family are all immigrants. But whenever I went over, I realized how much sacrifice goes into families coming over and taking their kids, taking their entire family, leaving everything that they had.”

She met a family who had a good life in Colombia but left everything to come to the United States for their children’s safety. “And now they basically have nothing and they were living in a church," she said. "It was very powerful to see how much sacrifice and how much loss you can go through just for the people that you love.”

Sonya Patel said ’23 called her border experience “life changing.”  

“You actually get to hear everyone’s stories, and it really made me realize how painful immigration can be. You don’t always have all these opportunities that you think you do when you come to the United States," she said. "Family reunification is possible but it’s also really, really hard. It made me realize how much strength it takes to endure all of that.”

Abigail Hanosh ’23 explained the poem she wrote for her door that was inspired by a man she met at the border. “He was so optimistic, and he was so grateful to be in the United States, and he gave up his own company, his entire life to be here,” she said. “I wanted to portray the feelings that I felt about meeting him and his family and how the United States kind of failed them, but I also wanted to show how there’s still hope that we can do better, that we can help them.”

She said she also saw herself and her family reflected in his story. “It could have been me in a different life,” she said. “How would I want someone in my shoes to react?”

Perez said he was proud of the documentary and his students. “Our students showcased their impressive knowledge of immigration issues,” he said.

The documentary also features captivating segments Lucy Steele ’23 filmed for her Capstone Project.