A film with seven fathers and seven sons, almost an hour in length, a budget of $30,000, set in Oregon, Kansas City and California, but with one objective: to overturn the arguments of those who accuse Latin American immigrants to the United States of being homophobes.

“El Canto del Colibri” (The song of the hummingbird), by Mexican educator and attorney Marco Castro-Bojorquez, provides a voice for immigrant fathers who have had to accept their homosexual sons.

Covering the gamut of emotions from numbness to joy, the film delves into the lives of seven families from Mexico, Colombia and Venezuela who explain how they came to the United States and how parental love overcame the stereotypes of the Latino community as “anti-gay.”

“That’s enough about them saying that I’m homophobic because I’m Latino. The things they hang on Latinos in the U.S. are done because of lack of curiosity and to give them a label,” Castro-Bojorquez, who lives in Los Angeles and is of Mexican heritage, told EFE.

In the film, the parents and sons speak in Spanish with English subtitles about the prejudices, the problems and happy moments that fathers and sons have experienced from the time the heads of the household came to the United States until father-son love overcame sexual labels.

“It’s your son, first of all,” says a father, almost in tears, in one part of the documentary after confessing that it was tough to accept that his son “had come out of the closet.

Castro-Bojorquez admits that the idea for the film arose when he was working as an educator and he wanted to put a face on family acceptance of LGBT people.

“First, I made a short, 15-minute film entitled ‘Tres Gotas de Agua” (Three drops of water)” – which can be accessed on YouTube – “in which I told about three Latino mothers with the Somos Familia organization in San Francisco. The logical consequence was to do something longer with fathers.”

“These communities are like the hummingbird. There’s a pre-Hispanic story about the song of this bird that, although it has a fragile appearance, is strong like us,” he added.

Castro-Bojorquez confessed that filming the work over three years was a difficult but enriching personal experience.

Another thing the film deals with is the influence of the Catholic religion on the cultural life of Latinos in the United States. On being asked about that, Castro-Bojorquez said he found surprises and the idea for his next documentary.

“It seemed very interesting to see a father saying to his kids to leave religion behind, and they remain steadfast in their faith. … I want to do a short film (about it),” he said.

On the film circuit, “El Canto del Colibri” has been shown at more than 30 international festivals and – among other honors – has won the Best Documentary Prize at CinHOMO in Valladolid, Spain. EFE