Film Screening: Santitos (Mexico, 1999)
May 8, 2026 - 6:00 pm
Segal Theatre
The Graduate Center, CUNY
Film screening followed by a Q&A Session
Blending magical realism, dark humor, and deep maternal devotion, Santitos is a poignant Mexican drama about faith, loss, and the lengths a mother will go for love. The film follows Esperanza Díaz, a humble laundress whose young daughter dies suddenly after a brief illness. Devastated and unable to accept the loss, Esperanza begins to experience visions and messages from saints—especially Saint Jude—who suggest that her daughter may, in fact, still be alive.
Clinging to faith as both compass and lifeline, Esperanza embarks on an unlikely journey from her small border town into the unfamiliar worlds of Tijuana and Los Angeles. Along the way, she encounters migrants, sex workers, and marginalized souls, each reflecting fragments of her own grief and resilience. What begins as a literal search for her child gradually transforms into a spiritual and emotional reckoning.
As Esperanza moves between devotion and doubt, miracle and reality blur. Her unwavering belief challenges conventional notions of sanity, holiness, and motherhood, revealing how faith can be both refuge and rebellion in the face of unbearable pain.
Tender, irreverent, and quietly powerful, Santitos explores the sacred within the ordinary, honoring the invisible bonds between mothers and children—and the miracles that arise when love refuses to surrender, even to death.
Jerry W. Carlson (Ph.D., University of Chicago) is professor and a historian of narrative forms with special expertise in narrative theory, the history of the novel, global independent film, and the cinemas of the Americas. From 2013 to 2022 he served as Chair of the Department of Media & Communication Arts at The City College CUNY. In addition, at the CUNY Graduate Center he is a member of the doctoral faculties of French, Comparative Literature, and Film & Media Cultures and a Senior Fellow at the Bildner Center for Western Hemispheric Studies. He has lectured at Stanford, Columbia, Escuela Internacional de Cine y TV (Cuba), the University of Paris, and the University of Sao Paulo, among others. His current research is focused on how film and prose fiction from the Global South portray the histories and legacies of slavery, imperialism and colonialism. Moreover, he is an active producer, director, and writer with multiple Emmy Awards. As a Senior Producer for City University Television (CUNY-TV), he created the series City Cinematheque about film history, Canapé about French-American cultural relations, and Nueva York (in Spanish) about the Latino cultures of New York City. As an independent producer, his work includes the Showtime Networks production Dirt directed by Nancy Savoca and Looking for Palladin directed by Andrzej Krakowski. In 1998, he was inducted by France as a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Palmes Academiques.
Curator & Moderator: Jerry W. Carlson, Senior Fellow, The Bildner Center for Western Hemispheric Studies & Professor, The City College & Graduate Center, CUNY
TO REGISTER send email to bildner@gc.cuny.edu
