First Voice Generation, directed and produced by Cynthia Martinez, follows the stories of three Latinx high school students in Holland, Michigan, during an unprecedented global pandemic year. Each student struggles with their identity growing up in a historically Dutch community, feeling that they don’t belong because they are children of Mexican immigrants. Watch as they grapple with virtual learning and other challenges while dreaming of being the first in their family to go to college.

Cynthia Martinez is a 2nd generation Mexican American born into a working-class family in Holland, Michigan. She is a mother, wife, writer, producer, and filmmaker. A graduate of Western Michigan University, she set out to work and realized she had stories to tell. With that passion, she enrolled in Columbia University’s Graduation School of Journalism, and completed her Master’s Program in 2012. Her experience includes working for Univision News in Miami and is currently engaged with directing and producing films and media that advocate social justice.

This film will be shown at the Knickerbocker Theater on the Hope College campus, 86 East 8th Street. The Holland Museum is proud to support the showing of this important locally produced film.