Year: 2013 | Country: Mexico | Duration: 90’ | Director: Armando Croda y Lindsey Cordero.
The Firme Rydaz are a group of mostly undocumented Mexican immigrants and Chicanos who have left loved-ones behind and come to the Bronx in search of better economic opportunities. They form what is often referred to as an urban tribe: a group of friends and family who live by their own rules, codes, and attitudes. The Rydaz mostly make a living working as car mechanics, in restaurants, construction, or as tattoo or airbrush artists. And they have one thing in common: they are incredibly nostalgic for their queridisimo México. They miss traditions and family and all that remains across the border. They feel that maintaining closeness with their Mexican heritage is vital to their survival and they cling to their heritage as a result of being labeled illegal and having faced discrimination and racism from neighboring Black and Puerto Rican communities. The Firme Rydaz have built a new kind of community in the Bronx where they can express their identity and collective imagination and are respected and looked up to by the younger Mexican generations.