FRESNO, Calif. (FOX26) \u2014 A Fresno filmmaker is bringing a deeply personal story to the big screen next weekend: one rooted in the fields of the Central Valley, and inspired by his own family\u2019s history.<\/p>\n
Gonzalo Alatorre, a Fresno native and the son of immigrant farmworkers, is premiering his short film The Chicano Story at the historic Crest Theatre on Saturday. February 21.<\/p>\n
Behind the scene from \u2018The Chicano Story’ (Courtesy: Gonzalo Alatorre)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The film follows three generations of Mexican farmworking families in the Central Valley, spanning the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Alatorre says the project reflects both his upbringing and the lived experiences of thousands of families across the region.<\/p>\n
\u201cI live here in Fresno and I saw all the workers and I used to be one of those workers when I was a little kid,\u201d Alatorre said.<\/p>\n
He currently works in concrete, but says filmmaking has always been his dream.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do concrete for a living, but that\u2019s not my dream,\u201d he said. \u201cSo I wanted to do a story on my culture.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alatorre says the goal of The Chicano Story is to preserve a history he believes is often overlooked.<\/p>\n
A lot of us drive around here, and there\u2019s fields, and there\u2019s people working but nobody takes a look at them,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s where I wanna come in and tell their story and tell our story.<\/p>\n
The film highlights the migration of Mexican families to the Central Valley and the agricultural labor that helped shape the region\u2019s economy and identity.<\/p>\n
My father, myself and my grandfather they all worked the fields here in the Central Valley,<\/p>\n
Alatorre said.<\/p>\n
To me, this is Fresno history, and I don\u2019t want them to be forgotten.<\/p>\n
The project was produced entirely in Fresno, featuring local actors and filmed at locations across the city. Production was based out of a small Fresno studio, where Alatorre worked alongside producer Khetphet \u201cKP\u201d Phagnasay.<\/p>\n
Phagnasay, a Fresno based actor and studio owner, says the film\u2019s themes of family and perseverance resonate beyond one community.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone thinks I gotta move to L.A.,\u201d Phagnasay said. \u201cBut I wanna show people you can do it as long as you can do the work.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis isn\u2019t just Mexican-American history, this is American history,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The Chicano Story premieres Saturday at the Crest Theatre in downtown Fresno. The event is free to the public. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRESNO, Calif. (FOX26) \u2014 A Fresno filmmaker is bringing a deeply personal story to the big screen next…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172996,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":{"0":"post-172995","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fresno","8":"tag-fresno","9":"tag-fresno-headlines","10":"tag-fresno-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}