“I was only 17 at the time that Esequiel Hernández was killed, but even people
older than me, people of my parents' generation, didn't know about his story...
and I started wondering why it was that his story had vanished."
— Kieran Fitzgerald, filmmaker
 
In 1997, U.S. Marines patrolling the Texas-Mexican border as part of the war on drugs
shot and killed Esequiel Hernández Jr. Mistaken for a drug runner, the 18 year old was,
in fact, a U.S. citizen tending his family's goats with a .22 rifle. He became the first
American killed by U.S. military forces on native soil since the 1970 Kent State shootings.
The Ballad of Esequiel Hernández, narrated by Tommy Lee Jones, explores Hernández's