These are the matriarchal memories, myths, and accounts I’ve learned about my mother, our mothers, the motherland, and myself. The painful tribulations and mesmerizing spells arriving from generational traumas, immigrant family dynamics, and the promise of a better life.

The title “Te Amo Tanto, Pero Eres Tan Difícil” is a message sent to me by my mother––and later unsent, during one of our many lulls and estrangements after our travels. An echoing sentiment felt during our delicate and complex period together, which promised to bring us closer but only drove us farther away.

This film is an ongoing work, testimony, and archival that mirrors the hunger for connection we hold for one another and ourselves. We aim to develop this short as a continuation of a 2019 road trip taken through Quisqueya but now as we expand within space and time.

This story starts after ten years of undocumentation prevented me from legally leaving the U.S.