Filmmakers Luis Valdez, left, and David Alvarado pose for a portrait in San Rafael, Calif. on Thursday, May 1, 2026. Valdez is featured in Alvarado’s film “American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez,” a documentary
Yalonda M. James/S.F. Chronicle
Filmmaker David Alvarado poses for a portrait in San Rafael, Calif. on Thursday, May 1, 2026. He directed the film “American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez,” a documentary which will be released later this summer. Alvarado is documentarian who went to Stanford.
Yalonda M. James/S.F. Chronicle
Filmmaker David Alvarado poses for a portrait in San Rafael, Calif. on Thursday, May 1, 2026. He directed the film “American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez,” a documentary.
Yalonda M. James/S.F. Chronicle
Director David Alvarado’s documentary “American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez”
Elizabeth Sunflower / Retro Phot/Insignia Films
“American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez”
Courtesy Houston Latino Film Festival
An audience member asks about “the elephant in the room,” Cesar Chavez’s legacy, during a Q&A after a screening of “American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez” during the Houston Latino Film Festival on March 18, 2026.
Houston Latino Film Festival
Edward James Olmos starred as ‘Pachuco’ opposite Daniel Valdez in ‘Zoot Suit’
COURTESY PHOTO
Earlier this year, filmmaker David Alvarado was in Houston to screen “American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez” at the Houston Latino Film Festival.
Fresh from winning the U.S. Documentary Audience Award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, “Pachuco” was selected to kick off the festival as the opening-night film. It was a homecoming of sorts for Alvarado, who was born and bred in Dallas.
When: 7:15 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 13
Where: The River Oaks Theatre, 2009 W. Gray St.
Details: $16; 713-496-3456; theriveroakstheatre.com
“It was good to come back to Texas,” says Alvarado, 42, during an online call from Los Angeles. “That was the first time I came to Texas with this film. So, as a native Texan, it was incredible to bring the film back home.”
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Also in attendance was his father, who told his son about his ties to Houston. “We were walking around the streets in Houston that evening, and he told me the story that Houston was actually the first place he went after he came over the border, and he was there for a few weeks.”
A ‘social arsonist’
Alvarado will be back in H-Town to once again screen “Pachuco,” this time at the River Oaks Theatre on Aug. 13. The film has Alvarado chronicling the life and career of Luis Valdez, the Chicano actor/playwright/filmmaker who rose to prominence when he brought his musical Chicano tribute “Zoot Suit” to the stage (where it had runs in Los Angeles and on Broadway) and, eventually, to the big screen. (This year’s HLFF also held a 45th anniversary screening of “Zoot Suit” at the River Oaks.)
Valdez also brought the music of the late Chicano rock-and-roller Ritchie Valens back to life with the 1987 biopic “La Bamba.” Even though both the movie and its soundtrack (which featured Chicano rock legends Los Lobos covering the Valens songs) were major mainstream successes that year, Valdez unfortunately didn’t become a hot commodity after that. As much as Alvarado lionizes Valdez in “Pachuco,” he sadly reminds audiences how Latino voices were just as under-appreciated then as they are now.
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“We can’t overlook that the context of his success is a travesty,” he says. “The context is that he is not given a stage, and he is not given opportunities, and that’s why what he’s done has been so impressive and powerful. We cannot forget the reality of what he faced then and what we still face now. It’s hard, and I don’t want to overlook that. But I did want to give people some strength and hope. So, that’s why we made it that way.”
Alvarado includes interviews from the man himself, along with friends, family, and famous collaborators like ‘Zoot’ star Edward James Olmos (who also narrates the film) and Lou Diamond Phillips, who became a rising star after playing Valens in “La Bamba.” “Pachuco” also covers Valdez’s early days as a “social arsonist,” using his theatrical skills to stage agit-prop skits, alongside Cesar Chavez and his crw– during the Delano grape strike of the 1960s.
The Cesar Chavez controversy
Coincidentally, the doc opened up HLFF on the same day The New York Times broke the news of Chavez’s sexual abuse allegations. After the screening, both Alvarado and the audience dealt with the elephant in the room.
“We took it as an opportunity to have a discussion with the audience,” he remembers. “Like, what’s next? The Cesar Chavez that we once thought we knew turns out to be somebody else. So, it became a really long and ultimately, I think, empowering conversation about where to go next.” (Alvarado eventually added a mention of Chavez’s allegations in the film.)
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While the film recently had a rollout in theaters in New York and throughout Southern California, Alvarado continues to tour the country with “Pachuco,” showing audiences why a pioneering minority artist like Valdez deserves all the flowers.
“I hope that there’s more recognition for his name,” he says. “But, in some ways, I didn’t make this film just to make sure that people know who he is. I mean, I really made the film for other kids like me, because I benefited so much from hearing his story and seeing his strength and his power and his opening the door. I mean, he discovered Edward James Olmos and Lou Diamond Phillips and Esai Morales. And so, you know, he’s done so much to bring people in and left the door open behind him.
“And, you know, I want that to happen for the next generation,” he adds. “And, so, if he can’t go to every college and give that talk he gives, maybe this film can go to every college and inspire some other kid to say, ‘Hey, maybe I can make movies or write poetry or become an influencer.’ Whatever it is they want to do, they need to have that path to see it. So, that’s who this film is really for.”