Memories of a Penitent Heart by Cecilia Aldarondo (review)

In recent years, films have dealt with how Latina/os negotiate their sexual identities when their heritage expects them to abide by heteronormative standards. Memories of a Penitent Heart by Cecilia Aldarondo addresses the issue of family conflict surrounding the memory of a deceased relative. In this personal biographical documentary, Aldarondo acts as the family archivist by filling in the gaps of the life and memory of her deceased gay uncle Miguel Dieppa.

A native Puerto Rican, Dieppa migrates from the island to the mainland, settling in New York. Although Dieppa purportedly died of cancer, Aldarondo examines his true cause of death and other gaps evident in his remembrance. Relying heavily on the testimony of his mother, grandmother, former lover Robert, and friends involved in Miguel's life, Aldarondo pieces together the parts of her uncle's life that have been omitted by members of his bloodline.

Aldarondo intersperses interviews with Miguel's grandmother, a staunch Catholic, throughout the documentary as she discusses the matriarch's inability to accept her grandson fully as he was. At the beginning of the film and throughout the unraveling of its plot, his grandmother is shown uncomfortable with her grandson's sexuality and former partner. As Aldarondo interviews her, the older woman expresses her desire to remember only the "beautiful part" of her family. She even claims that she does not remember Robert's last name. The clash of religion and sexual identity becomes evident in the interviews conducted between Aldarondo and Miguel's Puerto Rican relatives.

Aldarondo, then, reconstructs the forgotten side of Miguel through interviews with Robert, his former lover and present-day priest. Robert's voice is channeled through letters that Miguel wrote to him. In one particularly poignant moment of the film, Robert reads an excerpt in which Miguel offered to bequeath his own heart as a token of his love to his partner. By including letters in this personal documentary, Aldarondo captures the previously hidden side of Miguel Dieppa; his authentic self is revealed through his epistolary voice. He pleads with his mother not to judge him, seeking her approval until the day he died. As close-ups of Miguel are shown, the audience hears him narrating the letters he wrote. Thus, Aldarondo succeeds in situating him at the center of his life story.

Other cinematic techniques include clips of home movies from Miguel's childhood in Puerto Rico and close-ups of photos of Miguel as an adult. The musical score adds a hauntingly beautiful element that complements the characters' nostalgia for Puerto Rico and the emotional turmoil evident due to unresolved conflict among the Dieppa family. Music and emotions merge to capture the sentimentality of a man's struggle to live his life in a family that wanted to revise his biographical narrative.

Aldarondo captivates the audience of her film by revealing the untold side of her family history. In an unexpected turn of events, she reveals that Miguel spotted his own father in a gay bar. This adds another layer of complexity to the documentary and makes the audience wonder about other untold secrets of the Dieppa family. Memories of a Penitent Heart makes the case that loved ones deserve to be remembered as they were, not the way others wish they had been.