SF-based documentary series ‘Mundo Maya’ explores the Maya immigrant experience

Like millions of other young adults, Cindy and Kenny Dzib Tuz had moved back in with their parents to wait out quarantine during the pandemic. Kenny, 21, had been attending film school at Cal State Los Angeles and his older sister Cindy, 27, was working in communications. The Dzib Tuz kids grew up in San Francisco’s Mission neighborhood and their parents, Rafael and Rita, emigrated from Oxkutzcab, Yucatán, Mexico, in the late 1980s, arriving in San Francisco just before the Loma Prieta earthquake. The whole family identify as indigenous Maya, but even in a place as diverse as the Bay Area, they didn’t always feel represented, even within their neighborhood.  

“You don’t really notice growing up,” Kenny says from his home in the Mission, “but even within our own Mexican community, even if we identify as Mexican Americans, we don’t always feel Mexican.”