National Hispanic Heritage Month is observed each year from September 15 to October 15 and honors the histories, cultures and contributions of U.S. citizens whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America. It begins mid-month to coincide with the Independence Day anniversaries of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua on the 15th. Mexico and Chile celebrate their independence on September 16 and 18, respectively. The commemoration continues through mid-October to include Día de la Raza (October 12), a Mexican holiday that recognizes the mixed indigenous and European heritage of the country and because many Mexicans object to paying homage to the controversial Christopher Columbus.
This year, the theme of Hispanic Heritage Month is “Pioneers of Change: Shaping the Future Together,” an apt perspective for TCM’s September 24, five-film tribute to cinema about the Chicano (also Chicana, Xicano/a, Xicanx) community, long known for its activism in championing progressive change and empowering identity. Originally a pejorative term for people of Mexican descent born and living in the U.S., it was appropriated in the 1960s by the burgeoning Chicano movement as a symbol of pride, a political and cultural response to years of oppression and discrimination.
Three of the films featured in this program have a strong socio-political edge. Another leans more toward exploitation in its look at violent gang life in Los Angeles. And the last is just a fun comic riff on Mexican history by an acclaimed Chicano director.
The Milagro Beanfield War (1988) concerns a struggle between a Latino farming community in New Mexico and the corporate moguls who want to build a huge luxury resort on the land. Like the 1974 source novel of the same name by John Nichols, the film comes down squarely on the side of the locals, but there was actually very little Chicano participation in the production. It was directed by Robert Redford from a script by Nichols and David S. Ward. The major cast includes a Panamanian (Rubén Blades), a Brazilian (Sônia Braga), an Italian-American (Chick Vennera) and several non-Latino actors playing, thankfully, non-Latino characters (Christopher Walken, Melanie Griffith, Daniel Stern). Nevertheless, the movie, which was not a hit on its release, has an enchanting magical realist quality (“milagro” means miracle) and a great sympathy for underdogs fighting a corrupt capitalist system. It may not ultimately add up to the fully developed fable it intended to be, but there are many beautiful, sometimes funny moments. The original score by composer-musician Dave Grusin (Georgian-American) won an Academy Award.
Zoot Suit (1981) is an independent musical drama adapted from the Broadway play of the same title. Set in the Los Angeles barrios in the early 1940s, it is a fictionalized account of the notorious Sleepy Lagoon trial, in which a group of Mexican-American youths were charged with murder. The verdict set off the Zoot Suit Riots, a series of attacks by American servicemen against Chicano residents of the city, particularly targeting those who wore zoot suits. The clothing, a highly exaggerated and colorful form of dress suit, was popular among young African-American men and adopted by Chicano youth as an important symbol of cultural pride and defiance of oppression.
The film features music by Lalo Guerrero, considered the father of Chicano music, and Daniel Valdez, one of the film’s stars and brother of Luis Valdez, who wrote and directed both the play and the picture (more about him below). Valdez shot most of the story as a movie but also included stage-bound segments that depicted audiences watching the show and actors occasionally performing among them. The multiple award-winning film-stage-television actor Edward James Olmos, a highly respected activist on behalf of the Latino community, heads the largely Chicano cast. In 2019, Zoot Suit was selected for preservation in the Library of Congress National Film Registry as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”
Salt of the Earth (1954) is a true landmark — an independent film made by several artists blacklisted due to alleged Communist connections and featuring a strong feminist socio-political perspective. The story is a slightly fictionalized version of an actual event, the 1950-1952 strike against a New Mexico mining company, Empire Zinc. Mexican star Rosaura Revueltas plays the wife of a miner jailed for his part in the strike. Carrying her infant child, she leads a group of women on the picket line, over objections by their husbands and the mine union. Only five professional actors were cast; the rest were locals from Grant County, New Mexico, where it was produced. Many of them had been involved in the real-life strike.
Not surprisingly, given the McCarthyism and anti-communist witch-hunts prevalent at the time, the film was denounced by the U.S. House of Representatives for its leftist, collectivist sympathies. The FBI investigated the production’s financing, and the American Legion called for a national boycott. In the 1960s, the film began to reach wider audiences through screenings at union halls, women's associations and cinema schools. In 2004, there were a number of conferences devoted to commemorating its 50th anniversary. A pro-labor institution was founded in Tucson, Arizona, and named the Salt of the Earth Labor College, which holds lectures and forums related to unionism and economic justice. Salt of the Earth has been preserved by New York City’s Museum of Modern Art and the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.
Boulevard Nights (1979) joined the spate of gang films released in 1979 (The Warriors, Walk Proud, The Wanderers, Over the Edge) and got caught up in the controversy surrounding gang-related violence at screenings, notably incidents during showings of The Warriors. Shortly before its release, Warner Bros. offered theaters extra security at the studio’s own expense; few took them up on it, but the film did get pulled from two California drive-ins after reported violence at screenings in those locations. The filmmakers and producers tried to distance themselves from the controversy, insisting the story was not so much about gangs but a family drama. The plot does center on a single fatherless Mexican-American family living in East Los Angeles and the challenges they face when a younger brother is attracted to gang life hoping to find a place to belong and a sense of identity.
Initially panned on its release for borrowing elements from any number of other ghetto-based coming-of-age stories, Boulevard Nights has earned more respect in the years since. It was selected for preservation by the National Film Registry in 2017. A 40th anniversary event in 2019 at Sonoma State University honored “the impact of this ground-breaking film” and included a panel discussion featuring several of the principal cast members. Organizers also put together a car show featuring vehicles from the Sonoma Lowrider Council and local car clubs.
“This was the first time a major studio film featured low-riding at the heart of its story, which represented a significant breakthrough in sharing a key part of the Latinx experience,” remarked Dr. Wm. Gregory Sawyer, vice president of Student Affairs at Sonoma State. A low rider is a customized car that first became popular among Chicano youth in the 1940s. It has remained a part of the culture while its appeal has expanded globally.
The last film in the night’s program is a departure from the social themes of the other screenings. The Cisco Kid (1994) is a comic Western based on a character that has seen numerous iterations throughout all entertainment media. When the author O. Henry introduced him in his 1907 short story “The Caballero’s Way,” he was a young desperado and relentless killer in the Texas-Mexico border country. The story was first adapted for the screen in 1914, but by the time of the first talkie version, In Old Arizona (1928), The Kid had morphed into a positive figure, well on the way to becoming the hero we know from multiple movies and serials, comic books, radio shows and television series.
In the latest and, to date, last film version, he’s played by Jimmy Smits, an American actor of Puerto Rican and Dutch (Surinam) descent. The Kid’s adventures with his faithful sidekick Poncho (Cheech Marin) revolve around their efforts to thwart the imperial French, who had invaded Mexico and ruled there for a few years in the 1860s. The humorous take on the long-running character still leaves plenty of room for suspense and action, including sword fights and gun battles. The film received good reviews for its tongue-in-cheek approach, and Smits was praised for playing the role with what the Los Angeles Times called “easy swagger and light romantic panache.”
The picture was written (with Michael Kane) and directed by Zoot Suit creator Luis Valdez. A playwright, screenwriter, actor, director and activist, Valdez was born in California to Mexican migrant farm worker parents. After graduating from San Jose State University, he spent some time with the San Francisco Mime Troupe, his introduction to political theater and Italian commedia dell’arte. In the 1960s, he was involved in Cesar Chavez’s work to unionize farm workers. In the midst of that, Valdez founded El Teatro Campesino, a troupe of students and agricultural workers who toured migrant camps and farming communities with short, often humorous plays meant to educate and inform other workers and the general public.
One of the leading lights in Chicano arts, Valdez broke through to mainstream audiences with the biopic La Bamba (1987), about the Chicano rock and roll star Ritchie Valens. Among his many accolades are Golden Globe nominations, a Peabody Award, the Hispanic Heritage Award in Literature and the honor of a National Medal of Arts.
