Huaraches are simple leather sandals that Mexican families have worn for centuries. Let’s just say you wouldn’t want to run a marathon in them, but some people have to run. In Huaraches in 5K, director Juan Diego Ramirez grabs his camera as the 2025 ICE raids hit Southern California and asks a simple question: What happens when a scared community decides to run toward each other instead of hiding?
Juan Diego Ramirez is a guy who would much rather do his regular LA Dodgers livestreams than be inundated by footage of the federal ICE raids that have been invading Orange County, California. When the raids began, his community in Santa Ana started to feel weird. One morning, a box sits at his door with his friend’s belongings inside and a pair of huaraches on top. Then comes a phone call from his friend saying he’s leaving for Mexico.
Later, his Dodgers livestream is interrupted by his need to explain how weird things have gotten: watching a Kristi Noem PSA encouraging undocumented immigrants to self-deport, then the empty streets and stores of downtown Santa Ana, and finally on-the-ground footage of the actual ICE raids, featuring agents en masse and in masks arresting “illegals.”
Juan Diego Ramirez speaks to his livestream audience in Huaraches in 5K.
“One morning, a box sits at his door with his friend’s belongings inside and a pair of huaraches on top.”
Ramirez can’t help but call out how strange the ICE activity has become, which leads to an important rally in Old Town Tustin for the Huaraches, combining a 5K run with an anti-ICE protest.
The ICE raids in California have been a hot-button issue in the Latino communities here in Orange County. The raids themselves have had a chilling impact, and documentarian Juan Diego Ramirez expresses his outrage in Huaraches in 5K.
Ramirez uses his Dodgers livestream to say that, as much as he loves the Dodgers, other matters take priority. Covering the first two weeks of the raids, Huaraches in 5K captures a subtle emotional intensity that hasn’t faded. Ramirez interviews people affected by the raids, and the film ends on the 5K rally itself.
As Ramirez creates a narrative around his livestream, Huaraches in 5K shows the power and importance of citizen journalists covering a story the mainstream media either refuses to touch or covers only to exploit the tribulations of on-the-ground warriors for views.
"…Let's just say you wouldn't want to run a marathon in them..."
