{"id":565161,"date":"2026-03-27T21:20:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T21:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/565161\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T21:20:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T21:20:11","slug":"campeon-gabacho-explores-identity-belonging-through-boxing-lens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/565161\/","title":{"rendered":"Campe\u00f3n Gabacho Explores Identity, Belonging Through Boxing Lens"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you think you’re about to sit down and watch another boxing movie, think again. Campe\u00f3n Gabacho<\/a> is about much more than an underdog rising through the ranks to prove their worth in the ring.<\/p>\n

The new drama, which stars former Batgirl lead Leslie Grace<\/a>, uses boxing as just one piece of a much larger, more emotional story about identity, belonging, and the immigrant experience. Directed by Jon\u00e1s Cuar\u00f3n and based on Aura Xilonen’s novel, the film tells the story of Liborio, an endearing and mischievous young migrant whose only talent is “taking punches.” After crossing the Rio Grande to escape a harsh reality in Mexico, he makes it to the United States, settling in the Latino barrio in New York City, where he’s determined to make a better life for himself in an unknown land. And while he faces challenges \u2014 and prejudices along the way \u2014 it’s in this new home that Liborio finds community, love, and purpose, becoming an unlikely boxer and a symbol of resilience against adversity.<\/p>\n

ScreenRant’s Ash Crossan spoke with Cuar\u00f3n and some of the film’s cast at SXSW<\/a>, in Austin, Texas, last week, where they emphasized that while boxing may be the hook, Campe\u00f3n Gabacho is ultimately about something far deeper<\/a>: a coming-of-age journey shaped by community, chosen family, and the power of telling stories on your own terms. <\/p>\n

Jon\u00e1s Cuar\u00f3n: Well, Campe\u00f3n Gabacho is the story of an immigrant kid living in New York trying to find his place, and he finds it through boxing, but mostly through the community and family he builds along the way. So it’s based on a novel by Aura Xilonen. She wrote it when she was just 18 and invented a new language for the novel, which she called Ingle\u00f1ol. It’s a mixture of English, Spanish, and made-up words. And I found this language very lyrical and exciting. And so it inspired me to make a movie that was fun, dynamic, and imaginative. But I was also inspired that it approached the subject of immigration from a very human perspective. At the end, it’s a coming-of-age story, the story of a teenager trying to define himself.<\/p>\n

I’ve always connected a lot with stories about immigration, but I found this a very refreshing take. It really stops approaching the idea of an immigrant as a concept, and it really brings us inside his head, and shows us a teenager who just wants to dream and be in love. And I think it’s a very emotive movie.<\/p>\n

For Rub\u00e9n Blades, who plays Abcuc<\/a>, boxing was just a vehicle to advance Liborio’s story, with his character serving as a mentor to the young immigrant, as he encourages him to pursue boxing \u2014 but much more than that, helps him find his purpose.<\/p>\n

Rub\u00e9n Blades: Actually, I thought the script was very, very intelligent to be made, because the movie’s not what people expect. And this is important because people may assume that Campe\u00f3n Gabacho is just a movie about boxing, and it is not. It’s just immense \u2014 part of the evolution of life in this particular take. This young man, who all of a sudden ends up where he ends up just by chance. And my character was very interesting, because immediately when I read the script, I built a background story, and I wanted to have this man \u2014 he’s got a funny name, Abacuc. He had a background of difficulty, and had probably been abused when he was a child, and he had a rough life, and he ended up creating this place where he gave shelter to abandoned children, and treated them with the respect and the attention that they needed, and they probably did not have, and wanted when he was younger. And then they bring an older kid [Liborio] to his shelter for children, and then he finds in the kid, sort of a reflection of himself when he was younger, and then he tries to give him the benefit of his own experience and pain, to see if he can help and find his way. So it was a really wonderful, wonderful character possibility.<\/p>\n

Campe\u00f3n Gabacho also marked the first time Blades said in his decades-long career that he’s spoken Spanish in a film, something he told ScreenRant he felt “very, very, very happy about.”<\/p>\n

Rub\u00e9n Blades: I’m very grateful to Jon\u00e1s and the team, because it was really wonderful … one of the problems that we’ve had is that, and mostly in colonized countries, countries that suffer colonization, is to break away from it, and see ourselves for what we are, and not through what other people expect us to be. And one of the things that we can find that is very helpful in unlearning colonization complexes is to think about how we express who we are, and one way to do it effectively is through film. Instead of waiting to have Hollywood call us to do an English movie, which probably will never happen, not at the level of attention our stories deserve, then we should create our own stories and present them, and not be thinking of Oscars and Emmys and stuff, but just look at what we do, and then have people support that.<\/p>\n

A lot of people see a movie in Spanish, and they’d rather see one in English for some reason. I look at movies in English, in French, in German, in whatever language… and so we should tell our own stories. It is very important that people like Jon\u00e1s are doing that.<\/p>\n

Everything The Campe\u00f3n Gabacho Cast & Team Said About The Film<\/p>\n

\"Campeon
\n Campeon Gabacho cast at SXSWScreenRant<\/p>\n

ScreenRant: I want to kind of get a rundown of the characters, and just tell me who they are and what you connected with about the story. <\/p>\n

Leslie Grace: Well, I got to play Irene, who becomes really good friends with Liborio. She has a tough exterior at times in the film, especially when you first meet her, but you find out that she’s very vulnerable. She’s going through some hard things with her family at the point that we meet her. And I think that kind of bit of a moment of questioning why certain things are happening in her life, allows her to have empathy for Liborio when they do meet, and creates a space for them to have a friendship where they get to kind of escape a lot of the hard things that they’re going through at that particular point in time, and just kind of imagine a place for themselves.<\/p>\n

And I personally, just really connected to her, because I felt that there are a lot of times all of us have to kind of build certain masks to move through the world, and get through things that come with life that might not be so easy, but there’s a gift in friendship where, if you have good friends, you get to put those masks down, and put those shields down, and imagine something a little more simple for yourself in those small moments.<\/p>\n

Juan Daniel Garc\u00eda: I was telling Jon\u00e1s that when I watched the movie, I thought of myself. I identified with myself, because I come from a small barrio in Monterrey, and I thought of my own migration. I connected most again with the migration I made from Monterrey to Mexico City to make my first movie, and there I found people asking me what I thought, what I felt, celebrating me as a person, and this was new for me. It’s like a little bit of what happens to Liborio in the movie, where he finds his own language.<\/p>\n

Jon\u00e1s Cuar\u00f3n: I think for me, as I said, the movie was inspired a lot by this idea of the Ingle\u00f1ol, the language Aura created in her novel, which is a mixture of English and Spanish. And so to me, I’ve always been very interested in how rich the U.S. is in the language sense, and how the immigrant community, at the end, brings a lot to that richness. So, in developing the movie, the movie has a lot of English and Spanish, and I really wanted to showcase that. And so, when I started working with Rub\u00e9n, we debated whether that character would speak in English or Spanish. And since it is the point in the movie where Liborio starts finding a home, we wanted to showcase in that realm, the Spanish. In the same way, there’s just a really beautiful relationship between the two of them, where Leslie speaks in English, and he responds in Spanish, and they both understand. So, I really wanted this movie to show the fluidity of the language.<\/p>\n

ScreenRant: Absolutely. We are here at SXSW. It’s the intersection of movies and music. Have you been able to kind of pop around at all? Is there anything you’ve gotten to do, eat, see?<\/p>\n

Jon\u00e1s Cuar\u00f3n: I think this festival, the musical aspect of this festival, the movie has a very unique soundtrack, and that’s one of the things that \u2014 I came to this festival once 18 years ago, and I became enamored by how vibrant and how rich the audience is, but I also thought that it was very special that this year it collided with music, because it’s a movie where music plays a really important part. I really wanted to showcase this idea of a Latin neighborhood in the U.S. through its rich musical culture.<\/p>\n

Campe\u00f3n Gabacho premiered March 17 at SXSW. As of now, there’s no official theatrical release date yet.<\/p>\n

\"SXSW<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tLocation \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAustin, Texas<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tDescription \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe SXSW Conference is an annual event held in Austin, Texas, that celebrates the convergence of technology, film, music, education, and culture. It features a diverse range of programming, including keynote speeches, panel discussions, exhibitions, networking events, and live performances, attracting professionals, creators, and innovators from around the world to explore new ideas and emerging trends.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tDates \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMarch 12\u201318, 2026<\/p>\n

Be sure to dive into some of ScreenRant’s other SXSW coverage with:<\/p>\n

The Sun Never Sets Review<\/a><\/p>\n

The Fox Review<\/a><\/p>\n

I Love Boosters Review<\/a><\/p>\n

Dead Eyes Review<\/a><\/p>\n

One Another Review<\/a><\/p>\n

Kill Me Review<\/a><\/p>\n

Ready or Not 2: Here I Come Review<\/a><\/p>\n

The Saviors Review<\/a><\/p>\n

Family Movie Review<\/a><\/p>\n

Seekers of Infinite Love Review<\/a><\/p>\n

Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice Review<\/a><\/p>\n

Over Your Dead Body Review<\/a><\/p>\n

Sender Review<\/a><\/p>\n

Normal Review<\/a><\/p>\n

Brian Review<\/a><\/p>\n

Phoenix Jones: The Rise and Fall of a Real Life Superhero Review<\/a><\/p>\n

Dakota Fanning reacting to All Her Fault’s record-breaking success<\/a><\/p>\n

Sydney Chandler sharing her ideal Alien: Earth season 2 story for Wendy and the Lost Boys as production ramps up<\/a><\/p>\n

Robin Tunney weighing in on a Mentalist revival after its Netflix resurgence<\/a><\/p>\n

Yul Vazquez explaining why he has yet to return to Severance<\/a><\/p>\n

Jake Johnson on the chances of Peter B. Parker getting a Spider-Verse live-action spinoff<\/a><\/p>\n

Elijah Wood teasing that his mysterious Ready or Not 2: Here I Come character may be immortal<\/a><\/p>\n

Wood on reuniting with his Faculty co-star Shawn Hatosy in the Ready or Not sequel<\/a><\/p>\n

The Ready or Not 2: Here I Come director and cast on the sequel’s new cabal of wealthy Satanists<\/a><\/p>\n

Jessica Rothe on the ongoing wait for Happy Death Day 3 to close out the Blumhouse franchise<\/a><\/p>\n

BenDavid Grabinski on how Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice breaks a classic sci-fi time-travel trope<\/a><\/p>\n

Grabinski and Vince Vaughn on the accidental Dodgeball reunion in Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice<\/a><\/p>\n

John Goodman responding to Monsters Inc. 3 reports<\/a><\/p>\n

Kevin Hamedani sharing how the Adam Scott and Danielle Deadwyler-led The Saviors was inspired by both The Twilight Zone and The X-Files<\/a><\/p>\n

Emily Browning on how Hulu’s Prison Break reboot will be different from the original series<\/a><\/p>\n

Raviv Ullman on the chances of a Phil of the Future revival<\/a><\/p>\n

Jamie Lee Curtis sharing why she ultimately didn’t play One Piece season 2’s Dr. Kureha after fan campaigning<\/a><\/p>\n

Barbara Crampton on her goal to become “the Betty White” of the horror genre<\/a><\/p>\n

Jorma Taccone and Brian McElhaney on how the Timothy Olyphant-starring Over Your Dead Body remake is gorier than the original<\/a><\/p>\n

Taccone confirming his, Akiva Schaffer and Andy Samberg’s Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping won’t get a sequel<\/a><\/p>\n

Leighton Meester reacting to the new Blair Waldorf-focused Gossip Girl book<\/a><\/p>\n

Riz Ahmed explaining why Andor didn’t bring back his Star Wars character, Bodhi<\/a><\/p>\n

Adam Scott teasing the “terrific” scripts for Severance season 3 as he confirms filming begins soon<\/a><\/p>\n

Kelly Marie Tran reflecting on how Star Wars: The Last Jedi opened the door for her to make everything from The Wedding Banquet remake to Rock Springs<\/a><\/p>\n

Derek Kolstad on how Bob Odenkirk’s Normal differs from their Nobody movies<\/a><\/p>\n

Kolstad offering a disappointing update on his Streets of Rage movie adaptation<\/a><\/p>\n

Bob Odenkirk on how his remake of The Room connects to Tommy Wiseau’s cult classic, and reflecting on its lack of a release<\/a><\/p>\n

Graham Parkes on how Lewis Pullman and Maya Hawke’s Wishful Thinking puts a dark twist on a 20-year-old book<\/a><\/p>\n

Aimee Garcia on Lucifer’s ongoing global impact five years after fans fought for Netflix to renew it beyond season 6<\/a><\/p>\n

Cassidy Freeman on Smallville’s global Netflix resurgence as the sequel show awaits a greenlight<\/a><\/p>\n

Chandler, Takehiro Hira, Maximilian Lee Piazza and Brian Tetsuro Ivie talk Anima’s experimental filming<\/a><\/p>\n

The cast and producer of I Love Boosters hype Boots Riley & Keke Palmer’s “unapologetic” new crime movie<\/a><\/p>\n

David E. Kelley, Elle Fanning and the Margo’s Got Money Troubles cast on their Apple TV comedy and why Michelle Pfeiffer was the only choice to help lead it<\/a><\/p>\n

The AI Doc: Or How I Became An Apocaloptimist team breaking down just how extensive their research was<\/a><\/p>\n

Dakota Fanning, Joe Swanberg, Jake Johnson and Cory Michael Smith on the bizarre experience filming The Sun Never Sets<\/a><\/p>\n

Brea Grant and her Grind team on how they turned a short film into a DIY horror hit<\/a><\/p>\n

Uma Thurman and the Pretty Lethal team on mixing R-rated ballet-fu action with a touching central message<\/a><\/p>\n

Kathryn Newton on still not being used to watching people blow up after reuniting with Radio Silence on Ready or Not 2<\/a><\/p>\n

Adam Scott and Damian McCarthy on how Hokum gives the star a return to a rare villain-like role<\/a><\/p>\n

BenDavid Grabinski and the Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice cast on how the sci-fi action comedy is like two movies in one<\/a><\/p>\n

Kevin Hamedani on how Adam Scott and Danielle Deadwyler’s Saviors casting specifically is meant to go against audience expectations<\/a><\/p>\n

Lucy DeVito, Danny DeVito, Lizzy Caplan and the rest of the Drag team sharing how their thriller offers a new twist on Home Alone<\/a><\/p>\n

Jessica Rothe, Caleb Phillips and Yul Vazquez recalling the house they filmed Imposters in was “150% haunted”<\/a><\/p>\n

Luchina Fisher on how her award-winning short The Dads became a Dwayne Johnson-produced feature<\/a><\/p>\n

Bob Odenkirk, Derek Kolstad, Ben Wheatley and Marc Provissiero on how Normal almost cut one of its funniest jokes from a brutal fight scene<\/a><\/p>\n

Rachel Mason on how My Brother’s Killer solved a brutal murder 30 years later<\/a><\/p>\n

The Bacon family talking how Family Movie proved to be a dream scenario to shoot<\/a><\/p>\n

Lewis Pullman and his Wishful Thinking team recalling how Kerri Kenney-Silver was hospitalized on the first day of shooting<\/a><\/p>\n

Finn Wolfhard and the Crash Land team on Jackass influences and how it’s a big pivot from Stranger Things<\/a><\/p>\n

Ben Wang and the Brian cast and director talking the coming-of-age movie and how it’s a perfect follow-up to Easy A for one key reason<\/a><\/p>\n

Barbie Ferreira and the Mile End Kicks team on how the film chronicles being “completely imperfect” in one’s 20s<\/a><\/p>\n

Ryan Simpkins and the Ugly Cry team on their timely body horror movie and how it was the culmination of their 10-year friendship with writer\/director\/producer\/star Emily Robinson<\/a><\/p>\n

Rob Riggle and the Pirate King team on the dramedy and how it hit him harder emotionally than many of his projects<\/a><\/p>\n

David Dastmalchian and the Sender team on the psychological thriller and how it gave the DC Universe vet a career-first<\/a><\/p>\n

Jorma Taccone and the Over Your Dead Body team on adapting the acclaimed comedy and watching Jason Segel “get beat to s–t”<\/a><\/p>\n

Olivia Colman and The Fox team on the unique origin story behind the fantasy comedy<\/a><\/p>\n

The Edie Arnold is a Loser team on how a Chris Evans box office flop inspired their film<\/a><\/p>\n

The Dark Wizard team on how their four-part HBO Max series tells the deeper story of its infamous climber subject<\/a><\/p>\n

Riz Ahmed on Bait and how his Prime Video comedy was able to pull off its James Bond connection<\/a><\/p>\n

Kelly Marie Tran and Vera Miao on Rock Springs and the horror film’s multiple-timeline structure<\/a><\/p>\n

The Forbidden Fruits team on their new cult horror movie and its sheer range of genre influences<\/a><\/p>\n

Leighton Meester and the Basic team explaining why the social media-driven comedy leaves out one specific element<\/a><\/p>\n

John Carney on Power Ballad and how the Paul Rudd and Nick Jonas-led comedy continues a 19-year tradition for him<\/a><\/p>\n

John Goodman and the Chili Finger team on their wild new comedy and how filming it proved surprisingly relaxing<\/a><\/p>\n

Joe Bird and Adrian Chiarella on how their acclaimed new film Leviticus is more than just a horror movie<\/a><\/p>\n

Josh Holloway details his movie return after over a decade with He Bled Neon<\/a><\/p>\n

The Chasing Summer team shares how their Iliza Shlesinger-led small town comedy balances laughs with heartstring-pulling drama<\/a><\/p>\n

How Daniel Diemer’s baseball body horror warns of the dangers of steroid use in competitive sports<\/a><\/p>\n

Zazie Beetz details her grueling They Will Kill You schedule: “no days off”<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you think you’re about to sit down and watch another boxing movie, think again. Campe\u00f3n Gabacho is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":565162,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-565161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=565161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/565162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=565161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=565161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=565161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}