Annette Salas, FCLC '26

Major: Political Science & English

Bio: Annette Salas is a senior at Fordham University majoring in Political Science and English, with a minor in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. A New York City native with experience in nonprofit & advocacy work, her film explores the intersections of migration, gender, and intergenerational trauma through both policy research and creative storytelling. Outside of academic and professional settings, she enjoys creative outlets such as film, writing, and music.

Title of Research: Las manos de mi abuela

Mentor: Casey Ruble, Visual Arts

Abstract: This project is a short documentary centered on the life of my grandmother, Lupe, examining how she has lived, embodied, and navigated the cultural script of “simpatía”—a gendered expectation of kindness, emotional labor, and self-sacrifice shaped by histories of colonization, migration, and family obligation. The purpose of the film is to understand how these inherited expectations take form within one woman’s life, using Lupe’s experiences as a lens to explore broader questions of identity, womanhood, and intergenerational trauma. Grounded in Latinx feminist and postcolonial research, the film focuses closely on her personal history, from her life in Cuba to her migration to the United States, and the ways these transitions have shaped her relationships, sense of duty, and understanding of love.

The film employs a poetic, non-linear method, combining in-depth interviews with observational footage of Lupe’s daily routines such as cleaning, cooking, traveling through the city, alongside ambient sound and intimate visual detail to capture both what is said and what remains unspoken. 

Rather than offering a definitive solution, the film concludes by positioning Lupe’s life as both deeply specific and widely resonant, illustrating how intergenerational patterns are carried, questioned, and sometimes reimagined. By documenting her story with care and attention, the project challenges the underrepresentation of Latina women’s emotional lives in both research and media, ultimately inviting viewers to consider how histories of love, sacrifice, and survival shape their own definitions of liberation .