189.9 Miles
Experimental film
Standard definition digital video with audio
English | 7:16 min | 2023
My mother speaks of plants. To her, we are created with roots that snake down into the deep dark earth inserting themselves like veins into our hearts, into our souls. For her, this is truly home. We all have a soul home. And hers has never been Texas.
My mother was uprooted. Her soul home is Puerto Rico, the place she only remembers as a small child when everything is towering, and colors are the most vivid. Her roots tore as she boarded a plane at eight years old, never to come back. She speaks of unlived lives in the lush watery world where she last thrived.
My father spoke of God. To him, Texas was God’s Country and there could be no other place in the world more important. Texas was his soul home. He died here, having fully rooted himself into the semi-arid soil.
I speak of juxtapositions, and insertion. My mother and father now occupy parallel existences of time while I insert myself into their memories, dredging the hot earth for a glimpse of their life together.