STUDY GUIDE
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Using the film to explore your own story

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This is a guide for discussion and reflection about ideas from
Discovering Dominga. It is especially designed for people who come from another country, or whose families have come here to make a new life. We invite you to use the film as a starting point to explore how Denese’s story may help you understand your own family’s journey from one culture to another.

If there are more than two persons looking at this study guide together, it is a good idea to have a “facilitator,” who can lay down ground rules for respecting each others’ comments and privacy and keep the discussion on track.

One way to start is to ask: What is there that I can understand in a special way about Denese’s story because of my own personal experience?

Section 1: Explore your own identity
Section 2: Explore your memories
Section 3: Explore how you are part of history
Section 4: Think about your future
Section 5: Activities

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Section 1: Explore your own identity

Who we think we are can be connected to how we think of our family, or where we identify as “home,” or what we do as our work. Sometimes one of these feels more important than another to answering the question, “Who am I?” There may be other things that help us answer the question too.

  1. How did Denese in the film discover who she is?

  2. What are some things that help you answer the question “Who am I”?

  3. In the film, Denese says she does not have an answer to the question of whether she is more “the American Denese or the Guatemalan Dominga.” What do you think she means?

  4. Do you have feelings about being two different people who belong to two cultures? How does that affect your life?

  5. If you were born in another country, what are some ways you cope with being separated from your relatives and friends? What do you miss about home?

  6. What are some of the obstacles you have faced in coming to the United States? How have you overcome them?

  7. If your parents or grandparents are immigrants, what do you know about why your family came to this country? Did they come for economic or political or other reasons?

  8. How do these experiences affect you? How do they affect who you think you are?

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Section 2: Explore your memories

Memory is our connection with our personal history. Memory can be lost or hidden. The film shows that for years Denese had nightmares about the violence she witnessed as a child. Denese did not face some of her worst memories about the death of her parents for many years, so she became anxious and even confused, and often felt sad and alone. When she finally told her story to her cousin Mary and her pastor, she learned that sharing her painful memories and asking for help was a healing process. That is why she finally undertook her journey to Guatemala.

Immigrants who fled war, violence or political conflicts might want to forget what happened, and governments and other groups often want to “erase” the past from a nation’s memory. In the film we saw Denese’s community create a museum with the photos and stories of people killed and disappeared in the Guatemala war. Denese and the survivors of Rio Negro would not rest until they found and honored their dead. They made sure the world knew what happened.

  1. What are some of your own painful memories? What are you able to do with those memories?

  2. Are there friends or family, or a priest or pastor, you can talk to about your memories?

  3. Why do you think it was so important for them to remember the past?

  4. Consider whether or not you agree with Denese when she says talking about the past “cleanses you, and if you feel you are carrying something heavy on your shoulders, it gets lighter.”

  5. Are members of your family or community willing to talk about the past, even if the memories are sad or difficult? Is there some way to help them feel comfortable in doing so?

  6. What do you think of this statement by a famous philosopher? “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

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Section 3: Explore how you are part of history

In the film we learn that Dominga’s life was changed by historical events beyond her family’s control. Her village was destroyed and her parents killed in a war that happened in part because of global events and the actions of the U.S. government. The lives of ordinary people are often affected by historical events—such as political conflicts, natural disasters or economic pressures.

Denese comes to understand that her memory of losing her family was not an isolated experience. It was part of a much greater policy of genocide to destroy Maya culture in Guatemala.

  1. What are some of your own painful memories? What are you able to do with those memories?

  2. How is your family’s story part of a bigger history?

  3. What were the reasons beyond your family’s control that may have forced them to leave their homes?

  4. Can you think of people in other parts of the world that may have had similar experiences?

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Section 4: Think about your future

In the film, Denese discovers that she is not alone. Together with the other Rio Negro survivors, she overcomes her fear in order to change the direction history is taking her people. They refuse to let the genocide succeed. They risk safety to work for justice in the case of their loved ones. And towards the end of the film Denese speaks of giving interviews and talks about sharing her story to educate others, support her people and build a better future for her community.

For Denese, the beginning of making changes came when she made the effort to learn the truth—from her family, from the priest, with the help of human rights lawyers.

  1. How are you an actor in your own history? Or are there ways in which you could be?

  2. Are there things in your community you would like to change, and are there ways you could work with others to make changes?

  3. Is there anything in your own family's history you would like to learn more about?

  4. Are there people, groups and organizations in your community who could help you learn more about your homeland?

  5. What are your own hopes for the future, and for the future of your family and children?

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Section 5: Activities

Here are some activities which can help you explore your own personal journey:

  • Start a notebook with all the information you can gather about your family’s story.

  • If your parents or grandparents are immigrants, sit down and talk to them about why they came to this country.

  • Find out about where your family lived and what their lives were like before they left the country where they were born.

  • If you have a tape recorder or a camera, record them or take their pictures.

  • If you are a parent, involve your children in creating your family’s story.

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