Their Story Didn’t Die With Them

She begins the interview happily describing how her husband had serenaded her at 2 that morning with his guitar. Elizabeth Rivas continues with a strong NuYorican accent, “I saw the buildings, they were falling down.... I said look! They are falling down! Where’s Moises? Where’s Moises?” Her head finally drops, her cracking voice betraying her pain. “He never came back. It’s been three months.”

Rivas is one of several Sept. 11 widows and family members interviewed in David Koff’s documentary “Windows.” The 20-minute film, shot in December, is a tribute to the 43 workers who perished at the World Trade Center restaurant Windows on the World on Sept. 11.

“Windows,” and more than 70 other feature films, documentaries and shorts, will be screened at the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival, which begins today and continues through July 28. The sixth annual festival, at the Egyptian Theater, will open tonight with a period drama from Spain, “Juana La Loca.”

The documentary opens with 1998 footage of a restaurant once full of life--as the elevator numbers blink up to the 106th floor, the doors open to restaurant maitre d’s smiling at the camera, handsome in their gray uniforms. The camera weaves through the restaurant, showing sous-chefs chopping parsley in the kitchen, busboys pushing carts and waving hello.

While most media attention was focused on the heroic efforts of New York City firefighters and police, other blue-collar workers and undocumented laborers who died at the World Trade Center were, for the most part, merely footnotes in the Sept. 11 coverage. Nobody who was at Windows on the World that morning made it out alive.

The loss suffered by the widows and relatives of some of those workers was compounded by their illegal immigrant status--nearly half of the restaurant union members were not legal residents. (Proof of citizenship or legal residency is not required to belong to the union.) Because of their immigration status, most of the victims’ survivors are not eligible for Social Security, unemployment or Federal Emergency Management Agency benefits. Some were afraid to ask for help for fear of being deported. Many do not speak English and have been unable to find employment. However, legislation passed early this year--called the Patriot Act--included specific provisions for undocumented immigrants who were victims of terrorist attacks to become residents.

Koff said he hopes the documentary, which will premiere at the festival Saturday at 11 a.m., sheds light on the hardships faced by a group of people below the media radar.

“We wanted to communicate who these people were,” said Koff, who is a senior research analyst with the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees union. “Immigrant workers and undocumented workers are hidden. They live in the shadows.”

The documentary is part of a broader union push to bring the immigration issue back to the forefront of the national agenda. Indeed, the film serves as propaganda for the union’s efforts, with some of the widows making a public appeal for legal residency in the United States. In the months before Sept. 11, the Bush administration had explored the possibility of giving legal status to millions of undocumented immigrants--mainly of Mexican heritage. After the terrorist attack, all plans ground to a halt.

Union leaders are now trying to revive the issue by organizing a massive immigrants’ rights march to Washington, D.C., in the spring. In hopes of increasing public awareness, Koff has made another documentary--on the labor movement’s mobilization of Latino voters in last year’s mayoral race--and plans to make another one on the immigrant rights rally. “Windows” will be screened for Los Angeles elected officials Aug. 8.

“A system that punishes people because they don’t have a certain piece of paper is unjust and intolerable,” said Koff, 62.

“Windows,” which was produced by DSG Productions, cost about $50,000 and was financed entirely with donations from nonprofit organizations. Koff said it was difficult to convince some of the widows, who were deeply fearful, to take part.Eventually, a few of them decided to speak out about their husbands in the hope of helping change federal immigration laws. One widow, Carmen Mejia, went from living in hiding after the tragedy to becoming the keynote speaker at the AFL-CIO’s national convention in Las Vegas in December. Still, none of the widows has applied for legal residency. However, they are eligible to receive compensation through the Sept. 11 federal relief fund.

The documentary does not focus solely on the undocumented. “Miss Lucy,” ne Lucille Virgen Francis, who was a U.S. citizen, was known to everyone at the restaurant for her ready smile and helpful advice. Her son, Joseph Francis, also worked at the restaurant. Miss Lucy had retired but was so bored that she asked her son to find a job for her. He found her a place as the restaurant housekeeper--a job essentially created for her. In the documentary, Joseph speaks about how his mother would pass him a $50 bill or $20 bill here and there, even though she could barely make ends meet. The pain of losing his mother was magnified for Joseph by the tremendous guilt he felt about finding her that job. He was not scheduled to work that morning.

Koff, who earlier made several documentaries, including the 1976 Academy Award-nominated story of nomadic people in Iran, “People of the Wind,” said he wanted to return to film because it can be such a powerful medium.

“The film can be used to make real change,” he said. “This film was made specifically because the union knows that it has a responsibility to make changes in immigration law.”

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For film schedule information see www.latinofilm.org or call (323) 469-9066.