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Dreams of Chonta

View on the Pragda STREAM site

New York is the promised land for musicians, welcoming outstanding and virtuoso performers from every corner of the world hoping to find success. Diego Obregón, an Afro-Colombian musician, leaves his family behind on the Pacific Coast of Colombia, with this in mind. In New York, Obregón endures a solitary life as an undocumented immigrant and a minimum-wage job at a cemetery all to become an ambassador of his music and culture. His journey reflects both the challenges immigrants face in the United States and how vital they are to it, taking viewers beyond the headlines and the stereotypes into the dynamic and diverse experiences of Latinx people.

With unprecedented access to New York’s underground Latinx music scene, Dreams of Chonta (2020) takes us to where the greatest musicians from around the world blend to create, perform, live, and breathe music. Through his legacy and impressive performances, Obregón honors the richness and waves of change that immigration produces.

Dreams of Chonta will not only inform students about Afro-descendent music, culture, and immigrants in the US, but it will also encourage conversations on where we need to stand in this battle for immigration rights and what immigrants represent in society. This easy-to-watch documentary would be an excellent choice for Hispanic Heritage Month programming and film collections focusing on Latin America, Afro-Latin, Music, and Migration studies.
 

* Spanish language audio description is available via the ALL4ACCESS App and/or .wav file when purchasing a DSL license.

Accessibility for these films was created by DICAPTA and funded under a grant from the U.S. Department of Education- Office of Special Education-OSEP, project “Enhanced Access to Video for Students with Sensory Disabilities through Emerging Technology,” TV Access H327C210001.

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