Ernesto Gomez-Gomez, a teenage boy with two names, two identities, two families, and three nationalities, his is a true story of love & loss, of adoption & family, of freedom & colonialism, of political prisoners & their children, and of growing up from boy to man.
This above clip is the opening of the award-winning PBS documentary about him. Length: 2:29
Summary: At age 15, Ernesto begins a 5 year journey, from Mexico to California to Puerto Rico, trying to get to know for the first time his biological mother Dylcia Pagan who is in jail in California. She is a Puerto Rican activist serving a 55 year prison sentence for her political beliefs. The documentary follows his journey as he learns to speak English, takes on the name he was born with, and through weekly visits to prison to see his mother, he learns about his own heritage for the first time. The completed film received nearly a dozen “best documentary” awards at film festivals, was nominated by the Directors Guild of America for Outstanding Documentary Directing, and was broadcast on the prestigious PBS non-fiction showcase series, POV.
The film was also screened by the White House General Counsel and directly contributed to the decision by President Clinton to sign an official Act of Clemency which freed Ernesto’s mother Dylcia and 11 other Puerto Rican political prisoners. The current DVD of the film ends with the moment of Ernesto driving to the prison (accompanied by yours truly, we film makers) and picking up his mother to take her to freedom after over 19 years of incarceration.
Reviews & Articles
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“…a moving depiction of a family torn apart by political belief and then stitched back together, in a fashion, by loyalty and love.”
“By all accounts, Ernesto Gomez Gomez was a happy boy growing up in Chihuahua, Mexico. He did well in school, was popular with his classmates and played in the local Little League. But all that ended the day his parents took him aside and told him his whole life had been a lie.
And for five years, Ernesto tried to ignore his past. When that didn’t work, he decided to confront it, setting off on an emotional quest in search of both his true identity and the mother who had abandoned him. His troubled journey of self-discovery will be told tonight at 10 on KCET-TV in “The Double Life of Ernesto Gomez Gomez,” a striking self-portrait that not only explores the costs of profound political idealism in one family but that also touches on such issues as immigration, adoption, colonialism and love.”
from LA Times review, Kevin Baxter, “Teen’s Hesitant Search for His True Identity”
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“RIVETING … This documentary illustrates the fine line between filmmaker and subject, and how those boundaries can bleed over and turn into real relationships. ”
“LO MAS INTERESANTE … Este documental representa la relación entre el cinematógrafo y el tema y como esa relación puede sangrar y convertirse en una verdadera amistad.”
El Tecolote Review, in English and Spanish
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“Film makers Update”, 9 years after broadcast:
“On July 27, 1999, our film, The Double Life of Ernesto Gomez Gomez, premiered on POV. Let it never be said that TV accomplishes nothing. Less than two months later, Ernesto’s mother, Dylcia Pagan, received executive clemency from President Clinton and she walked out of the U.S. federal prison, a free woman, after having been incarcerated for 19 years of her 55-year sentence…”
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POV announcement and description of film:
“The Double Life of Ernesto Gomez Gomez is a striking self-portrait of the costs of profound political idealism in one family. It confronts issues of adoption, immigration, colonialism, and love merged into a single mesmerizing teen odyssey. The film combines interviews and archival footage with more expressionistic sequences in which Ernesto/Guillermo tries to communicate the feeling of being catapulted from one reality into another.”
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“… a glimpse into one of the deeply personal, agonizing effects of colonialism, rarely dealt with in film.” Filmakers Library
“This high quality production is recommended for all collections…” Library Journal
“This true story of a Puerto Rican boy, born Guillermo Morales but raised in Mexico under another name, raises issues of identity, immigration and cultural conflict as well as concerns about the justice system.” from “S.F. Couple’s Documentary Uncovers a Gripping Story of social injustice. “
“The experience was unforgettable, seared into my memory, and it remains to this day a high point of my life and of my lifelong commitment to activism and media. We had begun this work with hope, but without a real expectation of victory. We had begun as a matter of principle, to fight the good fight: for the rights of political prisoners, for the rights of prisoners victimized by injustice in general, for the principle of self-determination of peoples, causes so noble and worthwhile that we never believed with certainty that we would achieve a victory.
That it came to be makes it all the more worthwhile to look at the reasons why… from “Case Study: Changing the World, One Documentary at at Time”
Directors Guild of America nomination announcement
“Nominees for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentaries”
Cover story, International Documentary Magazine
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Catherine Ryan, producer of The Double Life of Ernesto Gomez Gomez, as profiled in New York’s Irish Voice.
“Double Dipping” Catherine Ryan and Gary Weimberg Have Landed PBS and Network Slots this Summer” , by Sura Wood. From Release Print Magazine. June 1999. (Click article title for PDF)
En Español
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“Este documental es un revelador autorretrato de los
costos del profundo idealismo político de una familia.”
-Hoy, Julio 22, 1999
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“Aprendí todo lo de su historia y su cultura,
pero aunque realmente soy puertorriqueño,
me siento mexicano, fue allá donde me crié.”
-Ernesto Gómez Gómez,
La Opinion, Julio 27, 1999
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