Independent Lens Presents Los Trabajadores

It's 1999, and the city of Austin, Texas, is growing — thanks in part to men like Ramon Castillo Aparacio of Mexico and Juan Ignacio Gutierrez of Nicaragua. They work difficult jobs in an America that wants their labor as long as they go back to their home countries when they're done. Through the two men's lives and a battle over Austin's controversial day labor program, the award-winning documentary Los Trabajadores reveals the contradiction of America's dependence on and discrimination against immigrant labor.

Sounds and images of manual labor and construction set the scene of a city developing at the hands of those who have been excluded from the prosperity they help to create. As Gutierrez says, "They say Austin is growing, or this country is growing, but thanks to whom?"

Los Trabajadores airs Monday, March 31, at 9pm on WGBH 44.

–Los Trabajadores on the Web

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On Tuesday, March 11, at 6:30pm, Ford Hall Forum is presenting a free public screening of Los Trabajadores followed by a discussion about immigrant labor in the US, which will be Webcast on the WGBH Forum Network.

Moderating the discussion is Joseph Tovares, filmmaker and managing producer of La Plaza, WGBH's 25-year-old weekly series that focuses on Latino life and issues.

The screening and discussion take place at the Raytheon Amphitheater of Northeastern University's Egan Center at 120 Forsyth Street in Boston.