Spirit of My Mother (1999)

Sonia, a young Garifuna woman from Honduras, leads a troubled life as an immigrant housekeeper in Los Angeles as she struggles to care for her infant daughter. She is plagued by haunting memories of her daughter's father (an American soldier) and her recently deceased mother who appears in her dreams with a sacred request. Sonia searches for answers among the mundane city landscape, but finds few, until she realizes she must journey back to the North Coast of Honduras (La Mosquitia) to comply with her mother's request. She learns from elders in her homeland how she must honor her mother so she may rest in peace. The result is much more than that, as Sonia begins to embrace her own nearly forgotten and stunningly rich cultural roots, as well as her identity as a mother to a daughter of her own. Set amidst the lush Honduran landscape and punctuated by traditional Garifuna music, El Espiritu de mi Mama is a story about one woman's transformation as she learns to embrace the past and move gracefully into the present.