Freeing Juanita: Donate

Freeing Juanita / Liberando a Juanita

Logline: Ana and Pedro, a Maya Chuj couple from the highlands of Guatemala, must cross Mexico to free their niece, Juanita, who has been arbitrarily detained in Reynosa for more than seven years for a crime she did not commit.

Synopsis: Juanita has been unjustly detained in Reynosa, Mexico for over seven years, accused of a crime she didn’t commit and forced to confess in a language she didn’t understand. This intimate portrait follows Ana and Pedro, Juanita’s aunt and uncle, on their thousand-mile journey from the highlands of Guatemala. With the help of their Maya Chuj community and a network of Maya interpreters, they fight for Juanita’s freedom and demand justice from the Mexican authorities, a cause that became internationally recognized for its defense of migrants’ rights and language justice.

Context: In 2014 the United States gave Mexico millions of dollars as part of the “Plan Frontera Sur” to make it as difficult as possible for migrants to reach the border, resulting in an increase in human rights violations, arbitrary detentions, and forced disappearances. Juanita was detained that same year.

Juanita's case is one of the hundreds of thousands of migrant cases trapped within a system designed to criminalize migration.

Our goal is to share the story of the succesfull campaign for Juanita's freedom which became emblematic of the fight against linguistic discrimination and the injustices of a migrant 'containment' system imposed by our governments. It is crucial for us to show how the unconditional support of a community, combined with the efforts of international human rights networks, can resist and counteract these harmful policies.

Funding: We are still raising money to pay for the final expenses required to get this film out into the world to its intended audience. These many costs include festival submissions, legal fees, E&O insurance, closed captions, promotional materials, publicity, and editing a shorter version for public broadcast and educational screenings.

Impact Campaign: Freeing Juanita is partnering with organizations in the US, Mexico, and Guatemala to raise awareness about migrant rights and indigenous language justice, fostering transnational collaboration and solidarity in defense of migrants. In 2025 we are collaborating with Maya language justice collective Promotores de la Liberación Migrante (PLM) to organize a year-long film tour across Guatemala. We kicked off December 21, 2024 in San Mateo Ixtatán, the hometown of Juana and her family.

PLM's members across Guatemala want to bring the film to their communities to share the inspiring story of how mass community mobilization, family support, and transnational organizing can successfully combine to challenge the ever-worsening attacks on millions of migrants struggling to seek safety and live with dignity in Mexico and the United States.

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