WEBVTT - Hector Galán: A Life Documenting Marginalized Stories 0:00:00.560 --> 0:00:02.080 Hey, hey, hey, hey, get us. 0:00:02.720 --> 0:00:07.200 Latino USA is celebrating thirty years today, Ain't that amos? 0:00:07.280 --> 0:00:09.160 And we would love to hear from you. 0:00:09.200 --> 0:00:12.520 Dear listener, Do you want to share with us exactly 0:00:12.560 --> 0:00:14.960 what Latino USA has meant to you? Do you have 0:00:15.000 --> 0:00:18.400 a birthday wish for us? Leave us a voicemail at 0:00:18.520 --> 0:00:22.239 six four six five seven to one one two two four. 0:00:22.600 --> 0:00:26.840 That's six four six five seven to one one two 0:00:26.880 --> 0:00:29.600 two four, and we might feature your message in an 0:00:29.680 --> 0:00:31.639 upcoming show grass Yas. 0:00:32.400 --> 0:00:35.519 This is Latino USA, the Radio Journal of News and 0:00:35.640 --> 0:00:39.000 Kurture's Latino USA, latin Us, Latino USA. 0:00:39.240 --> 0:00:42.839 I'm Maria Inojosa. We bring you stories that are underreported 0:00:43.159 --> 0:00:44.440 but that mattered. 0:00:44.080 --> 0:00:46.199 To you, overlooked by the rest of the media, and 0:00:46.240 --> 0:00:48.000 while the country is struggling. 0:00:47.560 --> 0:00:49.559 To deal with these we listen to the stories of 0:00:49.600 --> 0:00:50.600 black and Latinos. 0:00:50.600 --> 0:00:52.760 Studios United, Latino Front. 0:00:52.680 --> 0:00:57.000 A cultural renaissance organizing at the forefront of the movement. 0:00:57.720 --> 0:00:59.920 I'm Maria Inojosa, nose Bayan. 0:01:02.520 --> 0:01:05.280 One thing that's very important to me is that I 0:01:05.440 --> 0:01:10.959 have captured our experience Latino, not just Chicano, but Latino 0:01:11.040 --> 0:01:13.640 experience across the country. I think I'm the only one 0:01:13.680 --> 0:01:17.720 that has anything to that degree of our culture and history. 0:01:19.480 --> 0:01:23.280 From Fudro Media and PRX. It's Latino USA. I'm Maria 0:01:23.319 --> 0:01:23.840 Ino JSA. 0:01:24.040 --> 0:01:28.120 And today we continue to celebrate our thirtieth anniversary. We're 0:01:28.120 --> 0:01:31.080 bringing you conversations with some of the most influential Latinos 0:01:31.120 --> 0:01:34.199 and Latins of the last three decades, and this time 0:01:34.440 --> 0:01:38.160 filmmaker Ektor Galan, who for over forty years has been 0:01:38.200 --> 0:01:45.360 documenting our Latino communities. Since the late nineteen seventies, Ektor 0:01:45.440 --> 0:01:49.560 Galan has stood behind the camera, featuring the stories of 0:01:49.560 --> 0:01:52.080 the people he didn't see in mainstream media. 0:01:52.560 --> 0:01:56.800 It was the summer of nineteen fifty five a Hollywood 0:01:56.800 --> 0:01:59.559 film crew and the biggest movie stars of the era 0:02:00.120 --> 0:02:03.200 descend upon the small, dusty town of Marfa, Texas. 0:02:04.440 --> 0:02:08.280 His film documentaries explore a wide range of subjects. 0:02:08.320 --> 0:02:13.280 Two thousand years ago, the world changed forever. It all 0:02:13.320 --> 0:02:17.320 began with the birth of a baby boy. 0:02:16.440 --> 0:02:19.400 From the history of the Chicano Movement, Mexican Americans in 0:02:19.480 --> 0:02:24.359 Crystal City created their own political party, La Rasa Univa. 0:02:24.760 --> 0:02:27.200 We no longer accept the fact that we are powerless 0:02:27.240 --> 0:02:29.840 and need to be complaining about our powerlessness. 0:02:30.440 --> 0:02:31.079 We know we're. 0:02:30.960 --> 0:02:34.880 Powerful and life in the Colognas along the Texas border. 0:02:35.480 --> 0:02:37.880 The Rio Grande Valley in South Texas is one of 0:02:37.960 --> 0:02:40.320 the oldest settled regions in America. 0:02:40.440 --> 0:02:44.040 To the rise of Conjunto music and the origin of 0:02:44.120 --> 0:02:45.440 the accordion. 0:02:45.320 --> 0:02:48.600 One of the last of the Conjunto pioneers, Juan Lopez, 0:02:48.639 --> 0:02:52.560 helped define a unique musical tradition that still exists today. 0:02:55.360 --> 0:02:59.880 As one of the first Latino filmmakers in public television, 0:03:00.520 --> 0:03:03.240 Ecdo paved the way for any of us, and in 0:03:03.320 --> 0:03:07.120 nineteen ninety three Latino USA's first year on the air, 0:03:07.880 --> 0:03:09.400 we invited Ecdor to the. 0:03:09.360 --> 0:03:15.680 Show with us from Austin, Texas, the director of The 0:03:15.760 --> 0:03:19.800 Hunt for Panchovilla, Ektor Galan, Welcome to Latino USA, Ecdor. 0:03:19.480 --> 0:03:20.760 Thank you, Leria Ekdor. 0:03:20.880 --> 0:03:25.360 What Ekdod was doing in documentary film resonated with the 0:03:25.400 --> 0:03:29.160 mission we had established for Latino USA to highlight that 0:03:29.200 --> 0:03:33.559 the Latino experience is also the American experience. 0:03:34.040 --> 0:03:37.800 We're Latinos, you know, we're Chicanos, and at times we're 0:03:37.840 --> 0:03:40.440 looking at it from American perspective, and at other times 0:03:40.480 --> 0:03:44.320 we're looking at it from a Mexican historical perspective as well. 0:03:45.120 --> 0:03:49.480 Throughout the years, Ecdod built a production company, received many 0:03:49.480 --> 0:03:54.440 awards and recognitions, and mentored students and aspiring filmmakers, and 0:03:54.600 --> 0:03:58.160 all along the way, he would return to Latino USA. 0:03:59.040 --> 0:04:03.080 Accordion Dreams, produced and directed by independent filmmaker Ektor Galan, 0:04:03.320 --> 0:04:06.760 who has documented many aspects of Latino life for public television. 0:04:07.000 --> 0:04:10.480 He joins us now on Latino USA and Ector, why 0:04:10.560 --> 0:04:11.560 conjunto music? 0:04:11.640 --> 0:04:13.360 Why the Accordion? Why now? 0:04:13.800 --> 0:04:14.080 Well? 0:04:14.080 --> 0:04:17.719 I think Conto is an extraordinary music that I wanted 0:04:17.720 --> 0:04:20.440 to be able to bring about in a film to 0:04:20.480 --> 0:04:21.719 share with the rest of the country. 0:04:25.240 --> 0:04:28.039 But after all of these years, I realized that I 0:04:28.160 --> 0:04:32.760 had actually never sat down with Ector to talk not 0:04:32.880 --> 0:04:36.440 about his latest project, but about him. How he grew 0:04:36.480 --> 0:04:38.919 up in a small town in West Texas, how the 0:04:39.000 --> 0:04:43.960 Chicano movement pushed him into filmmaking, and what stories are 0:04:44.040 --> 0:04:47.040 still left for him to tell. We're going to get 0:04:47.040 --> 0:04:50.320 into all of that and more today in a conversation 0:04:50.440 --> 0:04:58.560 that is west long overdue. Hello, Ector, Hello, Mariainosa. Ector Galan, 0:04:59.440 --> 0:05:04.440 the man, the father, the husband, the producer, the media entrepreneur, 0:05:04.839 --> 0:05:07.159 the luchadorl Kenosernde. 0:05:07.680 --> 0:05:10.120 Well, thank you Marie, that's true. 0:05:10.440 --> 0:05:11.479 I'm still going at it. 0:05:11.560 --> 0:05:15.320 You know. It's been I guess now, oh jee, about 0:05:15.320 --> 0:05:17.720 thirty five forty years that I've been doing this. 0:05:18.360 --> 0:05:21.080 You were actually one of the very first guests that 0:05:21.120 --> 0:05:24.760 we ever had on the first year of Latino USA, 0:05:24.839 --> 0:05:28.400 when we went on the air back then nineteen ninety three, 0:05:29.320 --> 0:05:31.679 you were about to premiere The Hunt for Buncho Villa. 0:05:32.480 --> 0:05:35.279 That film would go on to win multiple awards. It 0:05:35.360 --> 0:05:37.640 was going to be shown on PBS for the American Experience, 0:05:37.640 --> 0:05:40.440 the first Latino to ever direct an American experience. 0:05:41.360 --> 0:05:44.919 What inspired you and and writer Paul Espinosa to develop 0:05:45.120 --> 0:05:47.799 this project, The Hunt for Bunchovilla and to add even 0:05:47.800 --> 0:05:51.240 more information about this mystique of the character bunch of Villa. 0:05:51.640 --> 0:05:54.280 Back in college or even in our homes, we all 0:05:54.320 --> 0:05:57.640 had posters and the Banchovia who represented something to us 0:05:57.680 --> 0:06:01.479 as Chicanos. Some of us do you understand and know 0:06:01.560 --> 0:06:04.440 a little bit of the story of his life, but 0:06:04.520 --> 0:06:07.840 to most people in America it's more of a caricature. 0:06:09.160 --> 0:06:14.120 You were directing a national film, correcting the narrative on 0:06:14.400 --> 0:06:20.760 this legendary Mexican revolutionary to a mainstream public television US 0:06:20.880 --> 0:06:27.520 audience told by a Mexican American proud Chicano from Texas. 0:06:27.720 --> 0:06:30.440 Vian is just one person that can point at but 0:06:30.560 --> 0:06:32.960 a lot of the feelings along the border against Mexicans, 0:06:33.000 --> 0:06:37.600 you know, weren't They had their own stereotypical negative views 0:06:37.600 --> 0:06:39.800 of Mexicans. And we know that as a story too, 0:06:39.880 --> 0:06:43.480 so as as Chicano's US. It was very, very interesting 0:06:43.520 --> 0:06:44.720 to go through that process. 0:06:44.960 --> 0:06:47.800 The premiere of The Hunt for Punchovilla will be on 0:06:47.839 --> 0:06:49.160 November third on public. 0:06:48.880 --> 0:06:50.520 Television stations across the country. 0:06:50.520 --> 0:06:56.599 Did us, Yes, that was a long time ago, but 0:06:56.640 --> 0:06:58.839 that was the first time that I interviewed you for 0:06:58.920 --> 0:06:59.680 Latino USA. 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:00.960 Remember anything about that? 0:07:01.279 --> 0:07:02.400 I remember that interview. 0:07:02.520 --> 0:07:03.440 Oh my gosh, I. 0:07:03.400 --> 0:07:05.919 Remember where I went where Latino USA used to be 0:07:05.960 --> 0:07:08.800 here in Austin. And that's been many years now, you know. 0:07:08.880 --> 0:07:11.360 With me, I like to tell stories like Pancho Viar, 0:07:11.480 --> 0:07:14.960 stories that aren't really known. They need to be accessible 0:07:15.200 --> 0:07:18.520 to the mass audience, and that was my goal with 0:07:18.640 --> 0:07:20.400 these stories. You know, that was only one. I did 0:07:20.400 --> 0:07:24.040 two American experiences. The other one was called Los Minetos. 0:07:23.920 --> 0:07:25.280 No Strive on Them. 0:07:29.800 --> 0:07:32.080 This is a story of men who came to work 0:07:32.120 --> 0:07:35.920 in a foreign landge the story that has never been told. 0:07:37.880 --> 0:07:41.360 They brought us from Mexico to work the couple minds 0:07:41.360 --> 0:07:45.800 of Arizona Beautiful film. 0:07:46.000 --> 0:07:47.120 A lot of these stories. 0:07:47.160 --> 0:07:49.680 I like to shine a light on us so that 0:07:50.360 --> 0:07:52.840 the rest of America can understand us a little bit better. 0:07:53.240 --> 0:07:57.040 So speaking about that, you know, it was a particular 0:07:57.120 --> 0:08:01.239 thing for you a Latino public television to be talking 0:08:02.120 --> 0:08:06.280 to a show called Latino USA on public radio. I'm 0:08:06.280 --> 0:08:09.720 wondering because we were one of the places where you, 0:08:09.720 --> 0:08:13.040 you know, we're basically like tks. We know you, we 0:08:13.160 --> 0:08:15.720 get what you're doing with your work. But I'm wondering, 0:08:15.840 --> 0:08:17.240 do you have recollections about that? 0:08:17.560 --> 0:08:19.680 Well? I think that the most important thing that there 0:08:19.960 --> 0:08:24.680 was a program called Latino USA. I mean, to me, 0:08:25.120 --> 0:08:28.200 that's extremely important. And to have it on NPR and 0:08:28.280 --> 0:08:30.640 be out there, I mean I was doing that interview 0:08:30.760 --> 0:08:32.079 was just it. 0:08:32.000 --> 0:08:34.680 Was an honor, And for me it was an honor 0:08:34.679 --> 0:08:47.560 because I was like midiastick ching on. Let's get to 0:08:47.600 --> 0:08:50.360 the fact that by the time you are assigned that 0:08:50.440 --> 0:08:54.480 American experience very big deal, you had actually been working 0:08:54.480 --> 0:08:57.360 in television for over two decades. So I want you 0:08:57.440 --> 0:08:59.000 to take me back to there. 0:08:59.360 --> 0:08:59.880 Where is it? 0:09:00.000 --> 0:09:03.320 How long you growing up in San Angelo, Texas where 0:09:03.320 --> 0:09:05.800 you're just like, no, bis bis, I'm just gonna be 0:09:05.800 --> 0:09:07.920 a gamogna for I'm just like, how does that happen? 0:09:08.000 --> 0:09:10.840 Well, it's really funny, Maria, that question, because when I 0:09:10.880 --> 0:09:14.160 graduated high school, court college didn't even come into the 0:09:14.200 --> 0:09:17.679 equation because nobody in my family or anybody my extended 0:09:17.720 --> 0:09:19.040 family had been to college. 0:09:19.080 --> 0:09:21.640 So it was not like, Okay, you're attorney eighteen, they 0:09:21.720 --> 0:09:22.880 asked Parloni or see that. 0:09:22.920 --> 0:09:25.080 It was you turn eighteen, you need a job. 0:09:25.440 --> 0:09:27.480 Yeah, I'm good to be a truck driver or whatever. 0:09:27.559 --> 0:09:30.880 But I wanted to work in radio. So now what's 0:09:30.880 --> 0:09:33.920 interesting is that I grew up in West Texas, San Angelo. 0:09:34.360 --> 0:09:37.600 We still had remnants of Jim Crow and nothing compared 0:09:37.640 --> 0:09:40.640 to what my parents went through, but we still had 0:09:40.800 --> 0:09:43.240 a little bit of that, and some jobs in that 0:09:43.440 --> 0:09:46.920 town just weren't for Mexicans, you know. But there was 0:09:46.960 --> 0:09:49.760 this opportunity that came up at the local one local 0:09:50.160 --> 0:09:55.000 CBS affiliate station for a cameraman studio cameraman, and I said, 0:09:55.040 --> 0:09:57.840 what the heck and I applied. I went to the 0:09:57.920 --> 0:10:01.360 TV station and there were all these Anglo young Anglos applying, 0:10:01.440 --> 0:10:04.280 and there was me with my hair down to my shoulders. 0:10:05.160 --> 0:10:06.559 My father let me grow my hair long. 0:10:07.640 --> 0:10:09.040 We definitely need a picture of that. 0:10:09.600 --> 0:10:12.880 And I went in and lo and behold the person 0:10:12.920 --> 0:10:15.839 interview and me also had long hair. And I'm talking 0:10:15.920 --> 0:10:20.960 seventy two, nineteen seventy two long hairs. Whether you're Mexican 0:10:21.080 --> 0:10:23.160 or Anglo or whatever, we were all brothers. 0:10:27.880 --> 0:10:29.760 Can you tell me what it was like to work 0:10:30.080 --> 0:10:33.320 in a tiny television station in West Texas in the seventies. 0:10:33.880 --> 0:10:37.800 That's really where I got the bug for television, because 0:10:37.840 --> 0:10:40.720 even though I got real good at running the studio camera, 0:10:41.120 --> 0:10:43.480 I wanted more. I could hear the director in the 0:10:43.480 --> 0:10:46.080 control room, I could hear the tape room, and because 0:10:46.080 --> 0:10:48.160 we're all hooked up on headsets, and I said, I 0:10:48.200 --> 0:10:50.400 want to do that, And that's what started me. So 0:10:50.440 --> 0:10:54.360 I left that station to a junior college in Colleen. 0:10:54.960 --> 0:10:57.440 I met a professor there who thought I had a 0:10:57.480 --> 0:11:00.480 lot of potential, and he said that he would starting 0:11:00.480 --> 0:11:04.560 a program at Texas Tech in Lubbock called mass communications, 0:11:05.040 --> 0:11:07.000 and he encouraged me to go. So I went, and 0:11:07.040 --> 0:11:09.920 I started a four year and I started working TV there. 0:11:09.960 --> 0:11:13.320 There's where I got the bug to start producing, because 0:11:13.400 --> 0:11:16.960 you have to remember, around that time was when these 0:11:17.000 --> 0:11:19.559 cameras started to come out, they call them mini cams, 0:11:19.640 --> 0:11:21.440 and we were able to use these cameras in the 0:11:21.440 --> 0:11:24.120 field because shooting film was just too expensive. 0:11:24.280 --> 0:11:26.840 But they were still weighing what thirty pounds more or less? 0:11:26.840 --> 0:11:30.240 Oh yeah, right, So just to work there you had. 0:11:30.120 --> 0:11:33.240 To drag like a wheelchair, you know, with a power unit. 0:11:34.320 --> 0:11:36.080 But that's what got my start. 0:11:36.240 --> 0:11:39.960 And then at that point I decided because I met 0:11:40.000 --> 0:11:42.839 so many people that were part of the Rasso Nita 0:11:43.000 --> 0:11:47.679 party and involved in protesting police brutality that Mexican America 0:11:47.720 --> 0:11:50.559 and Chicanos were facing at the hands of police here 0:11:50.600 --> 0:11:53.680 in Texas, all the marches. I started filming all of that. 0:11:54.000 --> 0:11:59.760 So your introduction as a documentarian was because you were 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:07.000 documenting the civil rights movement of Chicanos and Chicanas chican 0:12:07.120 --> 0:12:13.200 ecks in Texas. And you were not only documenting it firsthand, 0:12:13.200 --> 0:12:15.880 but you were also like yotamien ZOI prout Chicano. 0:12:16.240 --> 0:12:19.120 That's right, you know, I became part of the Rasonita Party. 0:12:19.160 --> 0:12:20.920 I became part of the Chicano movement. 0:12:20.960 --> 0:12:21.600 I met my. 0:12:21.640 --> 0:12:25.800 Early friends like Assustravigno and people like that from California, 0:12:26.400 --> 0:12:30.160 because the winds of change were blowing from California to Texas. 0:12:30.160 --> 0:12:33.319 But we had our own organizing going on in Crystal 0:12:33.360 --> 0:12:35.320 City for the Rasonia Party. 0:12:35.480 --> 0:12:37.520 And you know, in the nineteen seventies here in New 0:12:37.600 --> 0:12:40.880 York City, Puerto Rican activists actually took over Channel thirteen, 0:12:40.920 --> 0:12:43.840 which is the public television station of New York se 0:12:43.920 --> 0:12:49.000 to Maron Lasoficinas, demanding that there'd be more Latino representation 0:12:49.120 --> 0:12:52.560 in public media across the board. So you were a 0:12:52.600 --> 0:12:57.880 part of a historic wave of politically conscious, politically engaged, 0:12:58.200 --> 0:13:04.559 unafraid to say we are radical media producers. Deal with it, 0:13:04.960 --> 0:13:05.720 am I right. 0:13:05.720 --> 0:13:07.960 You're absolutely correct. One of the first things that we 0:13:08.040 --> 0:13:11.120 did when I was out with the mini camps because 0:13:11.160 --> 0:13:14.560 now I got hired as a producer instead of a director, 0:13:14.800 --> 0:13:16.439 and I created a program called. 0:13:16.600 --> 0:13:22.839 Slan well like as the programa the alolos Sados and 0:13:22.920 --> 0:13:26.840 Labola said competo agrado. 0:13:27.040 --> 0:13:29.800 And we decided to do it in Spanish because they 0:13:29.800 --> 0:13:32.400 didn't know what we were talking about. Otherwise it take us. 0:13:32.280 --> 0:13:37.640 Off the air Elasamana Kendra programa Conbindo Porrama Happenings and 0:13:37.679 --> 0:13:39.640 on the senas La. 0:13:43.760 --> 0:13:45.920 But you know, that's how we spread the world. 0:13:46.080 --> 0:13:48.520 And every week we would would would try to educate 0:13:48.559 --> 0:13:54.040 the community about what's going on in voting, police brutality, education, representation, 0:13:54.760 --> 0:13:57.240 all of that. We were covering stuff that they wouldn't 0:13:57.520 --> 0:14:00.120 even get to, and that's what gave me that verve. 0:14:04.640 --> 0:14:08.040 In prepping for this interview, I didn't realize that you 0:14:08.120 --> 0:14:11.199 were really part of that first class of frontline. 0:14:11.520 --> 0:14:11.800 It was. 0:14:12.000 --> 0:14:14.800 It's really funny, you know, because I was working on 0:14:14.880 --> 0:14:18.280 a major series called Checking It Out with one of 0:14:18.360 --> 0:14:21.720 my mentors, Ada Baretta. She was an early pioneer. I 0:14:21.840 --> 0:14:25.680 was working doing this series for Hispanic teenagers at the time. 0:14:25.760 --> 0:14:27.960 I got recruited out of Lubbock to work on this 0:14:28.080 --> 0:14:31.040 film series being shot on sixteen, So that took me 0:14:31.120 --> 0:14:33.200 all over the country and I did a film on 0:14:33.280 --> 0:14:34.040 getting violence in. 0:14:34.120 --> 0:14:37.440 Chicago that was very powerful and it was very very 0:14:37.520 --> 0:14:37.960 tough for me. 0:14:38.160 --> 0:14:41.360 It was very very scary time, but I was able 0:14:41.400 --> 0:14:43.240 to get in and did a very powerful look at 0:14:43.240 --> 0:14:45.120 what's going on and why is there so much violence 0:14:45.560 --> 0:14:48.760 in our community. That series ended and I went to 0:14:48.920 --> 0:14:53.840 Dallas to work on a first major cable facilities called Cube. 0:14:54.280 --> 0:14:56.760 At that time, I had sent some tapes out to 0:14:57.000 --> 0:14:59.960 WGBH that I had read that were looking for people 0:15:00.320 --> 0:15:02.920 this proud you never heard from him back then for us, 0:15:03.040 --> 0:15:05.720 a three quarter inch tape a dove was expensive. So 0:15:05.800 --> 0:15:09.000 I called him and then they said what's your name? 0:15:09.640 --> 0:15:14.800 Said Hector Gon, We've been looking for you acid. Oh really, yeah, 0:15:14.920 --> 0:15:16.720 hold on, and then they put me on the line 0:15:16.800 --> 0:15:20.160 with this new guy that was starting this new series 0:15:20.280 --> 0:15:24.400 called Primetime USA that eventually became Frontline. 0:15:24.720 --> 0:15:28.560 And so Frontline again was very upstart. It was we're 0:15:28.600 --> 0:15:31.320 going to do our long documentary films. We're going to 0:15:31.360 --> 0:15:36.200 be uninterrupted by any commercials. The idea of Frontline hiring 0:15:36.360 --> 0:15:41.160 this radical Chicano producer and having him move from Texas 0:15:41.520 --> 0:15:42.760 to Boston. 0:15:42.520 --> 0:15:45.960 To WGBH, I mean, that was a huge move. It 0:15:46.120 --> 0:15:49.440 was a huge feather in your cap. Again. We saw 0:15:49.560 --> 0:15:51.800 you as somebody who was breaking down these doors. 0:15:52.920 --> 0:15:55.280 But it was difficult, right because you had not left 0:15:55.360 --> 0:15:57.920 Texas in that way before. Can you tell me a 0:15:57.960 --> 0:16:00.800 little bit about moving to Boston and working at a 0:16:00.880 --> 0:16:02.080 place like WGBH. 0:16:02.600 --> 0:16:06.440 First of all, the people at GBH really didn't understand Chicano's. 0:16:06.760 --> 0:16:09.080 I mean, they didn't have anything against us, don't get 0:16:09.120 --> 0:16:13.479 me wrong, but they didn't know much about Latinos in America. 0:16:13.560 --> 0:16:16.840 Believe it or not, Boston has its issues around race 0:16:16.960 --> 0:16:21.200 and segregation, and there's always been a Latino Latina presence, 0:16:21.320 --> 0:16:23.200 but it is Yeah. 0:16:23.560 --> 0:16:25.800 I did the third front line of the first season 0:16:26.200 --> 0:16:29.320 on Marion Barry, the Mayor of Washington, DC, and then 0:16:29.360 --> 0:16:32.440 I did Sanctuary, and then I did Chasing the Basketball Dream. 0:16:32.480 --> 0:16:34.520 And at that point I said, look, I've got to 0:16:34.600 --> 0:16:37.520 go home. I really missed home. I missed Texas. I 0:16:37.640 --> 0:16:40.240 felt like a fish out of water in Boston. It's 0:16:40.280 --> 0:16:43.480 a beautiful town. I mean it's great, but I kind 0:16:43.520 --> 0:16:46.920 of felt like an oddball. And right before that, I 0:16:47.040 --> 0:16:50.120 was starting to move more into the indie world. I 0:16:50.280 --> 0:16:54.000 did an independent documentary, my first one really for National 0:16:54.040 --> 0:16:57.240 Consul in La Rasa. The first documentary that I did 0:16:57.720 --> 0:16:59.600 that aired on PBS was on Cuba. 0:17:00.520 --> 0:17:05.159 Fidel Castro marches triumphantly into Havana. It's a popular victory, 0:17:05.720 --> 0:17:08.359 a time of great hope, of great expectations. 0:17:09.200 --> 0:17:12.840 I followed an exile back it's called Cuba Personal Journey. 0:17:13.080 --> 0:17:16.240 My name is Antonio Gernica. I've lived in this country 0:17:16.320 --> 0:17:19.360 for more than twenty years. When I left Cuba as 0:17:19.359 --> 0:17:22.879 a child, I never really said goodbye. I thought I 0:17:22.920 --> 0:17:23.800 would soon return. 0:17:24.560 --> 0:17:27.080 And I turned thirty in Cuba. This was in nineteen 0:17:27.119 --> 0:17:28.240 eighty three, believe it or. 0:17:28.240 --> 0:17:32.359 Not, after twenty two years in exile, on returning with 0:17:32.560 --> 0:17:35.960 memories of yesterday's Cuba and meeting for the first time 0:17:36.280 --> 0:17:37.280 the Cuba of today. 0:17:38.720 --> 0:17:42.960 At that point, David Fanning had seen my independent documentary 0:17:43.200 --> 0:17:45.119 and he said, Hector, why don't you work for us 0:17:45.200 --> 0:17:48.040 from Texas. I said, man, that would be great. So 0:17:48.119 --> 0:17:50.480 I came to Texas and I, did you know, eight 0:17:50.600 --> 0:17:53.840 more documentaries through my production company for Frontline. So really, 0:17:54.320 --> 0:17:56.720 Frontline me got me started. 0:18:00.160 --> 0:18:01.159 Up on Latino USA. 0:18:01.680 --> 0:18:05.960 Ektor Galan goes independent, creating his own production company and 0:18:06.040 --> 0:18:09.000 in the process making way for a new generation of 0:18:09.119 --> 0:18:10.320 diverse filmmakers. 0:18:10.800 --> 0:18:11.800 Stay with us, not. 0:18:12.200 --> 0:18:36.040 Yes, Hi. My name is Barbara Dolinsky in Simsbury, Connecticut. 0:18:36.400 --> 0:18:40.600 So I only started to listen to your program about 0:18:40.720 --> 0:18:43.440 two and a half years ago. I just felt it 0:18:43.680 --> 0:18:48.640 was right and special because even though it's Latino USA, 0:18:49.359 --> 0:18:53.919 it's for everybody. I'm very grateful I picked you up 0:18:54.160 --> 0:18:58.600 on the radio and thank you, thank you. Just stay safe. 0:19:04.640 --> 0:19:05.560 Hey, we're back. 0:19:06.520 --> 0:19:10.879 As part of our thirty year anniversary celebration, we're catching 0:19:11.000 --> 0:19:13.080 up with some of our favorite guests from the past 0:19:13.160 --> 0:19:17.800 three decades, and today a conversation with Ecdor Galan, who's 0:19:17.840 --> 0:19:21.080 an award winning documentarian who just before the break was 0:19:21.160 --> 0:19:23.359 telling us how he got his start in the business. 0:19:24.160 --> 0:19:27.240 Now Ekdor shares what it's taken for him to continue 0:19:27.280 --> 0:19:31.000 making films about the subjects he's passionate about for over 0:19:31.200 --> 0:19:31.879 forty years. 0:19:32.600 --> 0:19:34.240 Here's the rest of our conversation. 0:19:36.520 --> 0:19:40.360 So, Ector, in nineteen eighty four, you decide that you're 0:19:40.359 --> 0:19:43.160 going to go fully independent and you decide to found 0:19:43.200 --> 0:19:44.000 your own company. 0:19:44.440 --> 0:19:48.399 It's called Galan Productions. So what about that moment? 0:19:48.720 --> 0:19:51.720 How did you decide to come to this place of 0:19:51.800 --> 0:19:54.240 doing something entirely independently and on your own. 0:19:54.640 --> 0:19:57.200 When I was doing these documentaries, I was doing it 0:19:57.359 --> 0:20:00.960 for the public good and trying to get themes and 0:20:01.040 --> 0:20:03.800 ideas out that I felt were very important for people 0:20:03.880 --> 0:20:06.199 to know. But then I did a film in nineteen 0:20:06.240 --> 0:20:09.720 ninety five called Songs of the Homeland, which was about 0:20:09.840 --> 0:20:13.920 Tehano music, the history of Tehano music, past hundred years, 0:20:14.000 --> 0:20:17.119 and all of a sudden that year, I started getting 0:20:17.680 --> 0:20:21.439 calls and letters of people wanting to buy the documentary 0:20:21.680 --> 0:20:23.920 all around the country. And it's proved to me that 0:20:24.320 --> 0:20:27.879 Texans or Tehano's being part of the migrant workers stream 0:20:28.200 --> 0:20:30.280 were all over the country. And that's why I called 0:20:30.320 --> 0:20:33.760 it Songs of the Homeland because it's Texas the homeland. 0:20:34.040 --> 0:20:36.160 And all of a sudden, I realized that I could 0:20:36.240 --> 0:20:38.480 make a lot of money selling these things. So at 0:20:38.520 --> 0:20:41.560 that point, instead of just raising money for the shows, 0:20:41.960 --> 0:20:45.399 making money for the shows both in schools and DVDs, 0:20:45.720 --> 0:20:50.560 So you start to learn that business too. So one 0:20:50.640 --> 0:20:53.359 thing led to the other, you know, and that's what's 0:20:53.480 --> 0:20:56.720 kept me alive and still at it all these years, 0:20:56.800 --> 0:21:00.400 you know, because you got two revenue streams, and that's 0:21:00.520 --> 0:21:03.679 very important for entrepreneurs and for young filmmakers. 0:21:04.040 --> 0:21:07.040 And I'm wondering what this meant for you personally, and 0:21:07.160 --> 0:21:08.560 it may have meant that it was the thing that 0:21:08.680 --> 0:21:10.840 gave you the life to be able. 0:21:10.680 --> 0:21:12.840 To be a parent. It can also take a lot 0:21:13.080 --> 0:21:13.840 from our families. 0:21:14.280 --> 0:21:17.320 I literally some mornings I'd wake up, you know, after 0:21:17.560 --> 0:21:19.480 having kids in over there, and say, what the hell 0:21:19.520 --> 0:21:23.359 am I doing because you're always worried about your next film, 0:21:23.560 --> 0:21:26.920 your next project, because you have to raise the money 0:21:27.000 --> 0:21:31.960 for it, and that's a very very difficult thing to do. Unfortunately, 0:21:32.080 --> 0:21:35.480 a lot of my colleagues people that started, you know, 0:21:36.080 --> 0:21:37.639 trying to do the same thing, and just. 0:21:38.160 --> 0:21:38.760 Couldn't take it. 0:21:38.800 --> 0:21:40.879 And I don't blame them, because you have to be 0:21:41.200 --> 0:21:44.080 very thick skinned and it's feast and famine. 0:21:44.240 --> 0:21:45.360 But I think what really. 0:21:45.320 --> 0:21:48.520 Grounded me was what we we're talking about. It was 0:21:48.560 --> 0:21:54.639 that period, that decade plus that I truly found my identity, 0:21:55.000 --> 0:21:57.959 who I am in this country and what it all means. 0:21:58.240 --> 0:22:02.159 And I still believe that that's the most driving force 0:22:02.440 --> 0:22:03.240 for everything that I do. 0:22:03.760 --> 0:22:07.119 You become the series producer for Chicano, which is of 0:22:07.240 --> 0:22:10.560 series at premier on PBS Primetime, nineteen ninety six. But 0:22:10.680 --> 0:22:14.520 it was very important because you were controlling the narrative. 0:22:14.640 --> 0:22:17.360 It was the film about the Mexican American civil rights 0:22:17.400 --> 0:22:19.320 movement of the nineteen sixties and seventies. 0:22:19.960 --> 0:22:22.920 In the nineteen sixties, a new generation of Mexican Americans 0:22:22.960 --> 0:22:26.600 created a militant social movement in response to the anger 0:22:26.680 --> 0:22:29.639 and frustration that had been building for so many years 0:22:29.720 --> 0:22:30.640