This short documentary (30 minutes) is uplifting and inspiring. Don Sergio Castro has dedicated his life to helping poor indigenous people of the southern state of Chiapas in Mexico. Six and a half days a week, he holds free clinics for people, many of whom are burn victims. The people he helps are too poor to afford doctors.
Don Sergio was trained as an agricultural engineer and veterinarian. He speaks Spanish, French, Italian, English, Tzotzil, Tzeltal and Lacandón Maya. What he speaks best, however, is the language of compassion. In this, he is not just a healer of wounds but also a healer of souls. He says that, in order for people to heal, they have to trust.
Don Sergio maintains a small ethnographic museum in the city of San Cristóbal de las Casas, which depends upon the donations of tourists. He uses the donations he gets there to pay for his humanitarian causes.
Unfortunately, beginning with the swine flu fears in 2009, and then fears of violence in the last two years, the number of tourists going to Chiapas has dropped, meaning that even the small amount of money that Don Sergio receives in donations for medicines and supplies, is threatened.
El Andalón gives viewers a glimpse of the lives of indigenous people in Mexico, helps us to understand their struggles, and also see how just one person can make a tremendous difference.
Recommended for low-intermediate levels and up.
Veremos Productions, Santa Cruz, CA 2010
For more information on Don Sergio Castro’s mission, go to
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