Let’s Talk About Religion: Interview with directors Maya Cueva and Leah Galant

On the Divide premiers March 17th as part of the “Human Rights Watch Film Festival”. The feature-length documentary follows the life stories of Mercedes, Denisse and Rey in McAllen, Texas, a small town in the Rio Grande Valley, bordering Mexico where one of the last accessible abortion clinics in the State is located. The lives of Rey, the clinic’s security guard and devoted Catholic, Denisse, the clinic’s volunteer escort and mother of three and Mercedes, a mother trying to fight a difficult past and make a better future, are all intertwined. We speak to directors Maya Cueva and Leah Galant who masterfully explore topics such as human rights, dignity, emotions, religion and spirituality, choice, survival and community.

by Marianna Civitillo

In the notoriously conservative state of Texas, one of the main arguments against abortion touches on religious beliefs and God. To many, God is the only entity that can ever be allowed to end or take a life. Abortion is viewed as immoral because it is the “ending of a life” by the hand of someone who is not God himself.

I find myself pondering on the double-standards that is glaringly obvious to any observer: with the death penalty being such a big part of the penitary system in Texas, how can people talk about immorality when talking about abortion?

With the film posing the question on choice, or better, what does choice mean when you are not afforded many options – the directors hope to open up dialogue in the hope to reach a time when we don’t have to talk about these topics anymore, as every woman will have a choice on her body, and every human life will gain the dignity and the choice it deserves. In the film we see and you get to understand what control and manipulation mean and look like.

Filmed over a period of seven years. These very diverse characters with very diverse views interact with one another, with the crew and with the directors. Maya and Leah were always open…to people, to understanding how each and every person that crossed paths with them came to their personal beliefs and opinions, asking people about their stories or the stories that they hadn’t been told, teaching and learning every day for seven years.

LatinoLife: Through the seven years of filming, did anything change (other than what we can see in the film?)

Maya and Leah: There are a lot of issues when it comes to abortion in Texas. Clinics just kept closing down daily across the state and it just worst with time. The Southern State made it illegal to get an abortion after the sixth week of pregnancy through the 2021 “Texas Heartbeat Act” However, even if you do get there in time, to quote Denisse “Just because abortion is legal, it doesn’t mean that it’s accessible”. The financial side of an abortion makes it extremely hard (if not impossible) for low-income communities to access medical services – an abortion can cost anywhere between 800 and 1,500 USD. People, communities are still fighting to make sure laws get passed and dignity is given back to human bodies and lives.

LatinoLife: Religion, Foundation of the Northern American Society and one of the central topics in the film – How does closeness to God affect the way people live and experience themselves and their environment? How do you make choices based primarily on faith?

Maya and Leah: Religion can be a beautiful thing. It’s a place where people find community, peace and love, but it is also something that politicians have used for manipulation and political purposes. The film shows religion as both a world of love and opportunities and an environment of manipulation and misleading preaches.

The directors also say how there is an introspection with religion and the ideas and feelings towards abortion, especially in the Latinx community and how it is used as a sort of weapon. The film does not try to demonise religion and it shows through the beautiful shots of churches, prayers and iconography. There are a lot of deeply religious people who are also pro-choice (Rey for example) – demonstrating that there can be a unification of the two worlds that are too often considered polar opposites.

The complex issue of choice is shown clearly in “On the Divide”, with Maya and Leah offering an original and emotional take on the topic. They were keen to remind us how it is possible in a society to have different views, both personal and political, but at the end of the day it all comes down to personal, individual choice and what it means to live in a body that doesn’t have a choice. Reproductive justice means letting people have agency over their bodies and lives.

What does it mean to have a change of heart, a change of mind? What does it mean to have the whole community against you? How does faith affect our lives? How does religion affect our lives? What can we do to help? What does Pro-Choice mean? And Pro-Life? Where do the lines blur? What is Reproductive Justice?

All of these questions are answered in On the Divide, screening today https://ff.hrw.org/film/divide?city=London

Maya and Leah are working with the “Impact Campaign” is working with an org. called “Catholics for Choice” where the aim is community outreach.

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