Watching: Banana Plant

Overview

A Puerto Rican family living in Rochester, New York, takes great care of the banana trees in their garden. When winter arrives, they dig up the plants and bring them indoors to protect them from the cold. With the arrival of spring, the trees return to the earth, creating a cyclic ritual that repeats itself year after year. Through this caring activity, Migdalia and Fernando maintain a living link with their roots, and their work becomes both an act of resilience and a way of dealing with their diasporic identity.