5 Films and Resources That Center Latino and Immigrant Stories of 9/11

Twenty-five years after the September 11 attacks, the nation continues to remember the 2,977 people killed that day. Latino and immigrant stories, though, remain largely missing from how that history gets told.

An estimated 250 Latinos died in the attacks, though the precise number remains uncertain because of how victims' backgrounds were recorded at the time. The National September 11 Memorial & Museum estimates that roughly 67 of the victims were undocumented immigrants. Many of them worked at Windows on the World, the restaurant that once sat atop the World Trade Center's North Tower. Behind every estimate was a worker, a parent, a partner, someone's whole life.

These five films, interviews and research projects work to put names and context back where the record left gaps.

Five Films and Resources That Tell Their Stories

Top of the World (2026) This new documentary short from CNN Films and TIME Studios, directed by Julie Cohen and Betsy West, tells the story of Windows on the World through the staff who worked there, drawn from more than 400 employees representing dozens of countries. The film centers Peruvian-born hostess Nathalie Tolentino and prep cook Sekou Siby. All 79 Windows on the World employees working that morning were killed, along with 91 guests. "Top of the World" premiered on CNN in September 2026.

Invisible Victims: 9/11 and Undocumented Immigrants Hosted by the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, this panel examines the difficulty of identifying undocumented victims and securing recognition for their families. Siby joined scholars Alexandra Delano and Benjamin Nienass to discuss how citizenship status complicated grief, compensation and public memory. The full conversation is free to watch on YouTube.

Windows on the World(2019) Directed by Michael D. Olmos, this drama stars Ryan Guzman as Fernando, a young man who travels from Mexico to New York searching for his father, an undocumented busboy who disappeared while working at Windows on the World. Edward James Olmos also stars. The bilingual film uses one family's search to explore migration, uncertainty and the unequal ways tragedy reaches undocumented families.

Latino Survivors, In Their Own Words Puerto Rican survivor William Rodriguez has recounted, in Spanish-language interviews including with CNN en Espanol, how his knowledge of the North Tower's stairwells helped him guide others to safety. The Smithsonian's "Hidden Stories, Hidden Voices: Latinx Empowerment After the Attacks widens that conversation to immigration policy, health consequences and the experiences of New York's Latino community in the years after 9/11.

A Read Beyond the Screen TIME's account of Ecuadorian immigrant Luis Alfonso Chimbo, who worked in the Windows on the World receiving department and was killed in the attacks, follows the fear his wife, Ana Soria, faced as an undocumented immigrant seeking compensation on his behalf. For the policy context, the Migration Policy Institute documents how 9/11 reshaped U.S. immigration policy around enforcement, detention and border security, a shift still shaping Latino and immigrant communities today.

Remembering 9/11 fully means remembering the workers, immigrants, families and survivors whose names and experiences belong in the American story too.