Quick Take
In “Las Mismas Manos,” co-directed by Consuelo Alba-Speyer, Watsonville native Martín Vargas-Vega goes from picking strawberries with his farmworker parents to working as a software engineer. The documentary looks at the money and isolation problems he faced in Silicon Valley, and at the community that backed him along the way.
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When documentarian Consuelo Alba-Speyer first met Martín Vargas-Vega in 2014, he was the student body president at Cabrillo College. However, he faced a key obstacle to his education: a laptop that barely worked.
In the footage, Vargas-Vega stands in his bedroom in Watsonville, explaining that every time he needed to do his homework, he held two wires together to create a spark and jumpstart his laptop. The video was for a project highlighting students’ need for better access to technology.
Both Alba-Speyer’s project and Vargas-Vega have come a long way since then.
Vargas-Vega now works as a software engineer and tech career mentor. His journey is chronicled in Alba-Speyer’s newest documentary, “Las Mismas Manos.” Her earlier project helped launch Digital NEST, which has now empowered thousands of young people from underrepresented communities to start their career in tech.
“Las Mismas Manos,” or “With These Same Hands,” will have its West Coast premiere on Saturday, Oct. 24, at New People Cinema as part of the San Francisco Latino Film Festival.
The film follows Vargas-Vega, the son of Watsonville farmworkers, as he navigates his journey to the tech industry. He describes picking strawberries with his parents as a kid, but dreaming of a different future for his hands.
“We grew up playing like any other kid, except for us, our playground was the fields of Watsonville,” he said in the film.
He cultivated his passion for engineering as a founding member of Digital NEST, eventually getting accepted to the Adobe Digital Academy in San Francisco. Although Adobe gave him a small stipend, Vargas-Vega had to resort to a GoFundMe to raise money to pay for meals.
Beyond financial barriers, Vargas-Vega struggled to find a sense of belonging in Silicon Valley. While Latinos make up one in five workers in the United States, they account for only one in 10 workers in the tech industry.
“There wasn’t a community that I could really reside in because no one had done it,” Vargas-Vega said. “If I mentioned Mexico or reggaeton or working in the fields, or even talking in Spanish, I didn’t find them.”
For Alba-Speyer, telling Vargas-Vega’s story meant capturing the barriers he encountered and the community that shaped him. Because “Las Mismas Manos” has a run time of 22 minutes, the filmmakers used original music and animated sequences to make each moment count.
Alba-Speyer, along with co-directors Brenda Ávila-Hanna and Eugenia Rentería, worked with composer Gerry Arrioja to create a soundtrack that reflected Vargas-Vega’s childhood in Watsonville: “Music people would hear at home or in their car,” Alba-Speyer explained.
Motion graphics coordinator Marcus Cisneros created video-game-inspired animated maps tracing Vargas-Vega’s journey from Watsonville to the Bay Area.
“People don’t know how close we are to Silicon Valley,” Alba-Speyer said. “We are so close and yet so far from opportunities.”
As the director of photography, Rentería took an observational approach to highlight Vargas-Vega’s genuine connection with his family and Watsonville.
“It really helped coming from the same community as Martín, and speaking the same language and knowing where he’s coming from or his family dynamics,” Rentería said. “I feel like we didn’t have to learn everything about Martín, because in a way, we are Martín.”
Even as organizations like Digital NEST help students enter the tech industry, structural inequalities and financial pressures can make it difficult for them to find their place in it.
“There’s a nonprofit organization supporting youth and developing their careers, but that doesn’t mean that all the systemic challenges disappear,” Alba-Speyer said. “The film shows the realities of what it means to come from a disadvantaged community, and the difficulties and the challenges and sacrifices and the joy of being on that path and bringing his family all along.”
Vargas-Vega’s journey also challenges conventional ideas of success: “Initially you walk into it thinking that success is buying a home or doing a TED Talk,” Rentería said. “But for Martín, success meant opening doors for his family and his community.”
“Las Mismas Manos” had its first premiere at the New York Latino Film Festival in September and will now make its West Coast debut. Rentería hopes audiences will recognize that talent alone can’t overcome lack of opportunities.
“There is so much talent and potential in communities like Watsonville,” Rentería said. “Sometimes what’s missing isn’t ambition or the ability to do something, but the access to opportunities.”
For Alba-Speyer, telling this story is also a way to help audiences see Watsonville beyond its agricultural economy.
“If you are eating strawberries, they probably come from Watsonville,” Alba-Speyer said. “We are a very small town. This is the story, our youth, our community. We are all connected.”
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