Te llaman las olas (The Waves Call You)

My mother is a seamstress, a brilliant one at that, living in Puerto Rico. She’s made all of my important dresses – prom dresses, bridesmaid dresses, graduation dresses – and I hope she continues to do so.

The event industry her work hinges on has never been the same since Hurricane Maria in 2017 all the way up to the COVID-19 pandemic. She often finds herself in an extremely delicate place both economically, and personally. She knows her work is worth more than she is charging for it, but her clients are not often willing to pay the price. So, she either rejects the offer for work and receives no money at all, or she eats it. And takes the job. And makes almost nothing.

I made this film to try to answer a question I have for my mother: Why stay when it’s so hard? Why won’t you come live with me in the United States?

I’ve seen many movies about quinceañeras: a beautiful young girl, a classic coming of age story. But, with this project, I wanted to turn the camera down to look at the woman hemming the dress. What does she want? Why is she where she is? Why doesn’t she want to leave? If there's anything I hope the audience takes away from the film, it's the complexity of the answers to these questions.

I see this film as a way to honor my mother’s hard work. As a single parent, she always encouraged me and my sister to follow our passions to the ends of the earth, because she does this every day. She struggles for her work, because of her work, but she will die knowing that she never took a job she couldn’t find the passion for, even on an island that doesn’t give much back to her.