Preview | Ruben Salazar: Man in the Middle
This documentary examines the life and death of pioneering Mexican-American journalist Ruben Salazar. At the heart of the story is his transformation from a mainstream, establishment Los Angeles Times reporter to a supporter and primary chronicler of the radical Chicano movement of the late 1960s. Killed by a law enforcement officer in 1970, Salazar became a martyr to the Latino community.
Trailer | Adios Amor - The Search for Maria Moreno
See how the discovery of lost photographs sparks the search for a hero that history forgot: Maria Moreno, an eloquent migrant mother of 12 who became an outspoken leader for farmworker rights. Her legacy was buried – until now.
Maria the Intrepid
With home videos recorded in the 1980s, Maria Moreno’s daughters describe the anti-poverty mission that the family built on the U.S.-Mexico border, and how nothing would stop Maria from pursuing her passionate ministry, even if it meant hitchhiking to get to her next church service where she was a sought-after speaker.
Family Life Following the Crops
Maria’s eldest son Abel talks about growing up working in the fields and following the crops all the way from southern California through Arizona, Colorado and Idaho. He describes how the whole family was involved in farm labor, and how his sisters and brothers were made fun of by the local kids for bringing burritos to school.
Going Home
Maria’s daughters Elizabeth and Martha sing in a car and talk about their desire to “see this thing through.” They arrive at the County Clerk’s office in Karnes City, Texas and find their mother’s birth certificate.
Millions of Unorganized Workers in America
Maria Moreno is elected to represent her union at the 1961 conference of the AFL-CIO, a national federation of labor unions. President John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Eleanor Roosevelt and Walter Reuther are the main speakers, but Maria gets a chance to deliver an address on behalf of farmworkers, pleading for industrial workers to support their struggle for justice.
Truth Been Hidden
In her first recorded speech in October 1959, Maria Moreno testifies before the California Industrial Welfare Commission, describing the challenges faced by her family and other farmworkers who harvest the food on our nation’s tables while their own children go hungry.
Hearing Maria’s Voice for the First Time
We hear Maria Moreno’s voice for the first time when her former co-worker, Henry Anderson, finds an old audiotape in which Maria testifies about the poverty and discrimination her family faced while harvesting food for a wealthy nation. She is joined by other farmworkers, whose voices evoke a lost past whose traces emerge in the abandoned shacks and overgrown fields of California’s Central Valley.
Preview | VOCES 2019
Devoted to exploring the rich diversity of the Latino experience, VOCES presents new and established filmmakers and brings their powerful and illuminating stories to a national audience. The four documentaries in the 2019 season of VOCES showcase people who dared to speak out and make a difference, whether it was on the stage, the streets, the farm fields or along the border.
Sowing the Seeds of Racial War Across U.S.-Mexico Border
With people lacking basic infrastructure in West Texas, the isolated region was very much perceived as the Wild West. When Texas declared independence from Mexico in 1936, it set the stage for a clash between Mexican and Anglo cultures. A decade later, Mexico lost half of its territory in the Mexican-American War, sowing the seeds of a racial war as Mexicans became Americans overnight.
They Lost Their Land Through Murder and Theft
During the early 1900s attorneys, land promoters and developers enticed Anglo newcomers to stake land claims and fence off land along the Texas-Mexico border. As land values and property taxes rose, many Mexican-American farmers lost their land through murder, theft or swindling, forcing them to become laborers because they had no other way to make a living.
Trailer | Porvenir, Texas
Discover the true story behind the 1918 massacre of 15 Mexican men in this tiny border town. 100 years later, the film asks what led to the events of that fateful night and reveals the tensions that still remain along the border a century later.
The Sixties and In Search of Identity
Explore the first meeting and the wild relationship between Oscar Zeta Acosta and Rolling Stone journalist-provocateur and "Hells Angels" author Hunter S. Thompson in 1967. During a time of immense social unrest nationwide, and a culture of white supremacy and societal racism, Acosta continues searching for his self-identity.
Trailer | The Rise and Fall of the Brown Buffalo
This is a fresh and genre-defying film about the life of radical Chicano lawyer, author and countercultural icon Oscar Zeta Acosta — the basis for the character Dr. Gonzo in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, written by legendary journalist-provocateur Hunter S. Thompson.
The Chicano Rights Movement
Explore the historic 1968 “Walkouts” when tens of thousands of Mexican American and Chicano students walked out of five East Los Angeles high schools, protesting academic prejudice, dire school conditions, and demanding systemic reform. Oscar Zeta Acosta emerges as the main spokesman and celebrity attorney for the mushrooming “Brown Power” movement, defending the jailed organizers of the revolt.
Social Justice Attorney
Explore Oscar Zeta Acosta’s brief stint as a legal aid attorney in Oakland, California’s poverty program in 1966, and his commitment to battling social injustice and racial/economic discrimination on behalf of the underprivileged. After a mental breakdown, depressed, and hooked on meds, Acosta leaves Oakland, California for Aspen, Colorado in search for his self-identity.
Filmmaker Phillip Rodriguez On Activist Oscar Zeta Acosta
Filmmaker Phillip Rodriguez explains the artistic direction behind "The Rise and Fall of the Brown Buffalo" and bringing Oscar Zeta Acosta's story to life.
Trailer | Willie Velasquez: Your Vote is Your Voice
With his rallying cry of “SU VOTO ES SU VOZ," — your vote is your voice — Willie Velásquez started a grassroots movement that would change the nation’s political landscape and pave the way for the growing power of the Latino Vote.
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