Dear Homeland is the lyrical story of Mexican singer/songwriter Diana Gameros, who left Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, to pursue her musical dream in Michigan. Arriving legally but unable to extend her stay as an international college student, she becomes an undocumented immigrant who can’t return to her beloved homeland and family for fear of not being able to re-enter the United States. Moving to San Francisco, she finds community, realizes her musical gift and becomes an advocate for Dreamers and immigrant communities while struggling to change her own status.

Told in Diana’s own voice and through her mesmerizing, poetic music — and featuring footage of her life in Mexico, Michigan, San Francisco and on stage — Dear Homeland is a love letter to Mexico and to her family — full of sadness, longing and, in the end, hope and love.

THE TEAM

ABOUT DEAR HOMELAND

Dear Homeland is a feature-length documentary film produced by KQED and directed by Claudia Escobar about undocumented Mexican singer Diana Gameros and her immigration journey from Ciudad Juárez to San Francisco, California. It’s a deep reflection on family, resilience, and the meaning of home.

IMPACT GOAL

Our goal is to bring people together at each screening who have a shared experience of migration and longing for a home they can’t freely visit, and to engage in communal conversations through art.

“The number of undocumented artists ready and eager to hone their practice has created a great demand for opportunities, with not enough supply.”

- Favianna Rodriguez from “Investing in Immigrant Artists is a Cultural Imperative”

“It’s still ‘surprising’ for migrant communities to be seen as creatives and able to imagine for themselves.”

- Guiñansaca from “Allowed to Imagine: What We Lose When Migrant Folks Aren’t Able to Create”

“There needs to be an investment in migrant storytellers who are the only ones who can write about us in all of our complexity.”

- Guiñansaca from “Allowed to Imagine: What We Lose When Migrant Folks Aren’t Able to Create”

“It touched my heart, spirit, and mind.”

“The strength was the show of a family's love separated by distance, but the bonds of love persist and vanquish the circumstances that are the context causing the separation.”

“The explanation of home and homeland made me think about how I see the concept of home."

”Que filme tan hermoso, tantas emociones, me enchinaste la piel, plasmaste lo que cantas en imágenes imborrables y que trascienden el alma.”

"HOME, donde vive el corazón."

"This film reminds me of my first years in America. Now, I have difficulties relating to the ‘homeland,’ since I no longer have a homeland that I am able to relate to.”