American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez’ burst onto the opening day of the Sundance Film Festival on Thursday, reclaiming Latino identity in the United States at a critical time for migrant communities through the cultural and political legacy of the iconic Chicano playwright.
“It has always been a problem to be Latino, to be an immigrant in this country. There has always been resistance. That’s what Luis has addressed throughout his career and that’s what this film is about,” director David Alvarado told EFE moments before the premiere of his film at the latest edition of the festival, which has been held in Park City, Utah, for more than 40 years.
American Pachuco: The mythical story of Luis Valdez
The documentary filmmaker worked for three years on this project that presents the mythical story of Valdez, director, playwright and activist, who changed the history of Latino representation in the U.S. through theater and film, giving voice to a community historically invisible and subjected to exploitative working conditions.
Alvarado, the son of a Mexican father and American mother, met Valdez as a student during a visit by the playwright to his school. The story of the creator of ‘Zoot Suit’ and the film ‘La Bamba’ immediately resonated with him and that inexplicable sense of shame inherent in the Latino community, marking the beginning of his interest in portraying his life.
“It is no coincidence that Latinos and other immigrants constantly feel that they have to prove that they belong here, that they have to fight for the right to belong,” said the director, who notes with concern how history repeats itself in the streets of the country, with the persecution of immigrants by the authorities.
The documentary was produced thanks to the rescue of more than 24 kilometers of over 50 years of film from Valdez’s archive and the University of California, Santa Barbara.
It is narrated by Edward James Olmos, who relived his role as El Pachuco that made him a benchmark in Chicano theater, and traces Valdez’s childhood, his first contact with theater, and his closeness with farm workers thanks to his parents.
The film also addresses his evolution as an activist in the United Farm Workers Union (UFW), the creation of the Teatro Campesino and his close collaboration with César Chávez in the historic struggle for labor rights and the signing of the first union contracts for farm workers in the United States.
“A revelation of the documentary for me was that one of the most important weapons we have had with peasant theater is the use of taste, of joy,” Valdez, 85, told EFE.
Frustration with Trump
The playwright is frustrated that so many years later Latinos still have to fight to be recognized as part of a country that also belongs to them.
“Donald Trump really is a traitor to our humanity,” Valdez commented about the current president. “But we have to fight for that future with hope and with strength.”
Lou Diamond Phillips, who played the iconic Mexican-American musician Ritchie Valens in Luis Valdez’s ‘La Bamba’, believes that Alvarado’s documentary successfully revives the playwright’s story at a crucial political moment.
“Here we are, still fighting the same fight, still trying to say the same thing: that the American dream is for everyone…. Some people are trying to set us back not 40 years, but 100 years. We have to stand together and be proud of who we are,” the American actor of Filipino roots assured EFE.
For Olmos, being part of the documentary “was totally a dream,” the founder of Latino Public Broadcasting, which promotes Latino content on U.S. public TV, is proud of what his character achieved in the community with ‘Zoot Suit’.
He believes that interpretation “changed this country for everyone,” especially Chicanos. “The strength that this character and this kind of art has should continue to be used for the next 200 years,” he added.
The Sundance Film Festival runs through February 1 and will continue its first day with other Latin voices, reported Agencia EFE, including the Mexican film ‘The Huntress’ and the premiere of ‘Ha-chan, Shake Your Booty!’, which features Cuban actor Alberto Guerra.
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