La Manplesa: An Uprising Remembered

On May 5th, 1991, people took to the streets of Washington D.C.’s Mount Pleasant neighborhood to protest the police shooting of Daniel Gomez, a young man from El Salvador. Through testimony, song, poetry, and street theatre, La Manplesa: An Uprising Remembered (2021) weaves together the collective memory of one of D.C.’s first barrios, and dives into the roots of the ‘91 rebellion. These formerly untold stories shed light on the impetus behind resistance movements and the complicated relationships between people marginalized by our systems and the police. La Manplesa explores the deep historical connections between immigration, multicultural communities, gentrification, displacement, and the long and deep relationship between art and activism.
Poet and artist Sami Miranda and filmmaker Ellie Walton joined Ben Olguín (English, UCSB) for a post-screening discussion of this powerful documentary.