This week, Cine Las Américas finishes its series “Transitions in Spanish Cinema: Spain from the 1930’s to the Present” with the 2010 documentary Visa al Paraíso (Visa to Paradise). The film will be screened tonight at 7 p.m. at the Jones Auditorium in St. Edward’s University.
Visa al Paraíso focuses on the end of the Spanish Civil War in 1939, when tens of thousands of families were forced to leave Spain. When Mexican President Lázaro Cárdenas ordered his diplomatic corps to help the Spanish refugees, Gilberto Bosques—the Mexican ambassador to France—engaged in a personal mission to rescue hundreds of exiles, offering protection to start a new life in México. Visa Al Paraíso includes interviews with Gilberto Bosques when he was 100 years old and testimonies from Spanish survivors and family members of the exiled community in México.
The screening will be followed with a Q&A with director Lillian Lieberman. The film screening is free and open to the public, and the film will be in Spanish with English subtitles. The Jones Auditorium at St. Edward’s University is located at 3001 S. Congress Ave.
Watch the trailer for Visa al Paraíso below.