theriveroakstheatre.com<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cIt was good to come back to Texas,\u201d says\u00a0Alvarado, 42, during an online call from Los Angeles. \u201cThat 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Also in attendance was his father, who told his son about his ties to Houston. \u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
A ‘social arsonist’<\/p>\n
Alvarado will be back in H-Town to once again screen \u201cPachuco,\u201d this time at the River Oaks Theatre on Aug. 13. The film has\u00a0Alvarado chronicling the life and career of Luis\u00a0Valdez, the Chicano actor\/playwright\/filmmaker who rose to prominence when he brought his musical Chicano tribute \u201cZoot Suit\u201d to the stage (where it had runs in Los Angeles and on Broadway) and, eventually, to the big screen. (This year\u2019s HLFF also held a 45th anniversary screening of \u201cZoot Suit\u201d at the River Oaks.)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Valdez also brought the music of the late Chicano rock-and-roller Ritchie Valens back to life with the 1987 biopic \u201cLa Bamba.\u201d 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\u2019t become a hot commodity after that. As much as Alvarado lionizes Valdez in \u201cPachuco,\u201d he sadly reminds audiences how Latino voices were just as under-appreciated then as they are now.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe can’t overlook that the context of his success is a travesty,\u201d he says. \u201cThe 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\u00a0overlook that. But I did want to give people some strength and hope. So, that’s why we made it that way.”<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The Cesar Chavez controversy<\/p>\n
Coincidentally, the doc opened up\u00a0HLFF on the same day The New York Times broke the news of Chavez\u2019s sexual abuse allegations. After the screening, both Alvarado and the audience dealt with the elephant in the room.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe took it as an opportunity to have a discussion with the audience,\u201d he remembers. \u201cLike, what’s next? The Cesar\u00a0Chavez 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.\u201d (Alvarado eventually added a mention of Chavez\u2019s allegations in the film.)<\/p>\n
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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 \u201cPachuco,\u201d showing audiences why a pioneering minority artist like Valdez deserves all the flowers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope that there’s more recognition for his name,\u201d he says. \u201cBut, 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\u00a0Olmos 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd, you know, I want that to happen for the next generation,\u201d he adds. \u201cAnd, 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, \u2018Hey, maybe I can make movies or write poetry or become an influencer.\u2019 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.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Filmmakers Luis Valdez, left, and David Alvarado pose for a portrait in San Rafael, Calif. on Thursday, May…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":402553,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":["post-402552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}