The United States invaded Iraq in 2003 promising democracy.
Iraqis who fled to El Cajon, California are questioning whether they can find democracy there.
“People come here, they think that this country has a lot of democracy. ‘We can talk. We can express.’ There are different kinds of democracy here.” Dilkhwaz Ahmed said. “So here we have freedom of expression, but my voice will not go out of the door.”
The documentary “Baghdad, California” follows her efforts to get her fellow Iraqis counted by the 2020 U.S. Census.
Though El Cajon had rapidly and visibly changed, transforming into what some community members call “Little Baghdad,” Ahmed said the local government believed Kurds only made up 2.3% of the county’s population. She thinks it’s more.
A lot was at stake, she told one mosque.
“If we don’t prove our real percentage in El Cajon,” the translation reads, “they will not provide us any services.”
Services like English as a second language and citizenship classes, or more funding for women’s shelters, said “Baghdad, California” co-director Rahmah Pauzi.
“These resources are not given to them because they simply, on paper, do not exist,” Pauzi said. “But on paper, those who exist are the ones with power, the ones with money.”
Census numbers don’t just determine how the government allocates resources and funding, but also where they draw political districts — lines that determine whether minority communities can elect someone who represents them.
The documentary says El Cajon District 4 — where many of the city’s immigrant communities live — has never been represented on the city council by a woman of color.
Ahmed was trying to change that. But COVID-19 interrupted the 2020 census.
Reports say minorities were even more undercounted than they were in 2010.
The city council said El Cajon’s demographics didn’t change enough. It kept its old political map.
The events take place years ago, but co-director Diego Lynch said the documentary is just as relevant this November.
“It’s not just a film about the systems the Iraqi-Americans are captured in. It's about the system of American democracy and the challenges we all face to, you know, have our voices matter,” he said.
The documentary will have two screenings:
