Speaker 1: Hey, hey, hey, hey, get us.
Speaker 2: Latino USA is celebrating thirty years today, Ain't that amos?
Speaker 1: And we would love to hear from you.
Speaker 2: Dear listener, Do you want to share with us exactly
Speaker 2: what Latino USA has meant to you? Do you have
Speaker 2: a birthday wish for us? Leave us a voicemail at
Speaker 2: six four six five seven to one one two two four.
Speaker 2: That's six four six five seven to one one two
Speaker 2: two four, and we might feature your message in an
Speaker 2: upcoming show grass Yas.
Speaker 3: This is Latino USA, the Radio Journal of News and
Speaker 3: Kurture's Latino USA, latin Us, Latino USA.
Speaker 2: I'm Maria Inojosa. We bring you stories that are underreported
Speaker 2: but that mattered.
Speaker 1: To you, overlooked by the rest of the media, and
Speaker 1: while the country is struggling.
Speaker 2: To deal with these we listen to the stories of
Speaker 2: black and Latinos.
Speaker 1: Studios United, Latino Front.
Speaker 2: A cultural renaissance organizing at the forefront of the movement.
Speaker 1: I'm Maria Inojosa, nose Bayan.
Speaker 4: One thing that's very important to me is that I
Speaker 4: have captured our experience Latino, not just Chicano, but Latino
Speaker 4: experience across the country. I think I'm the only one
Speaker 4: that has anything to that degree of our culture and history.
Speaker 1: From Fudro Media and PRX. It's Latino USA. I'm Maria
Speaker 1: Ino JSA.
Speaker 2: And today we continue to celebrate our thirtieth anniversary. We're
Speaker 2: bringing you conversations with some of the most influential Latinos
Speaker 2: and Latins of the last three decades, and this time
Speaker 2: filmmaker Ektor Galan, who for over forty years has been
Speaker 2: documenting our Latino communities. Since the late nineteen seventies, Ektor
Speaker 2: Galan has stood behind the camera, featuring the stories of
Speaker 2: the people he didn't see in mainstream media.
Speaker 5: It was the summer of nineteen fifty five a Hollywood
Speaker 5: film crew and the biggest movie stars of the era
Speaker 5: descend upon the small, dusty town of Marfa, Texas.
Speaker 2: His film documentaries explore a wide range of subjects.
Speaker 6: Two thousand years ago, the world changed forever. It all
Speaker 6: began with the birth of a baby boy.
Speaker 7: From the history of the Chicano Movement, Mexican Americans in
Speaker 7: Crystal City created their own political party, La Rasa Univa.
Speaker 8: We no longer accept the fact that we are powerless
Speaker 8: and need to be complaining about our powerlessness.
Speaker 7: We know we're.
Speaker 2: Powerful and life in the Colognas along the Texas border.
Speaker 8: The Rio Grande Valley in South Texas is one of
Speaker 8: the oldest settled regions in America.
Speaker 2: To the rise of Conjunto music and the origin of
Speaker 2: the accordion.
Speaker 4: One of the last of the Conjunto pioneers, Juan Lopez,
Speaker 4: helped define a unique musical tradition that still exists today.
Speaker 2: As one of the first Latino filmmakers in public television,
Speaker 2: Ecdo paved the way for any of us, and in
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety three Latino USA's first year on the air,
Speaker 2: we invited Ecdor to the.
Speaker 3: Show with us from Austin, Texas, the director of The
Speaker 3: Hunt for Panchovilla, Ektor Galan, Welcome to Latino USA, Ecdor.
Speaker 9: Thank you, Leria Ekdor.
Speaker 2: What Ekdod was doing in documentary film resonated with the
Speaker 2: mission we had established for Latino USA to highlight that
Speaker 2: the Latino experience is also the American experience.
Speaker 10: We're Latinos, you know, we're Chicanos, and at times we're
Speaker 10: looking at it from American perspective, and at other times
Speaker 10: we're looking at it from a Mexican historical perspective as well.
Speaker 2: Throughout the years, Ecdod built a production company, received many
Speaker 2: awards and recognitions, and mentored students and aspiring filmmakers, and
Speaker 2: all along the way, he would return to Latino USA.
Speaker 3: Accordion Dreams, produced and directed by independent filmmaker Ektor Galan,
Speaker 3: who has documented many aspects of Latino life for public television.
Speaker 3: He joins us now on Latino USA and Ector, why
Speaker 3: conjunto music?
Speaker 1: Why the Accordion? Why now?
Speaker 4: Well?
Speaker 10: I think Conto is an extraordinary music that I wanted
Speaker 10: to be able to bring about in a film to
Speaker 10: share with the rest of the country.
Speaker 2: But after all of these years, I realized that I
Speaker 2: had actually never sat down with Ector to talk not
Speaker 2: about his latest project, but about him. How he grew
Speaker 2: up in a small town in West Texas, how the
Speaker 2: Chicano movement pushed him into filmmaking, and what stories are
Speaker 2: still left for him to tell. We're going to get
Speaker 2: into all of that and more today in a conversation
Speaker 2: that is west long overdue. Hello, Ector, Hello, Mariainosa. Ector Galan,
Speaker 2: the man, the father, the husband, the producer, the media entrepreneur,
Speaker 2: the luchadorl Kenosernde.
Speaker 4: Well, thank you Marie, that's true.
Speaker 9: I'm still going at it.
Speaker 4: You know. It's been I guess now, oh jee, about
Speaker 4: thirty five forty years that I've been doing this.
Speaker 2: You were actually one of the very first guests that
Speaker 2: we ever had on the first year of Latino USA,
Speaker 2: when we went on the air back then nineteen ninety three,
Speaker 2: you were about to premiere The Hunt for Buncho Villa.
Speaker 2: That film would go on to win multiple awards. It
Speaker 2: was going to be shown on PBS for the American Experience,
Speaker 2: the first Latino to ever direct an American experience.
Speaker 3: What inspired you and and writer Paul Espinosa to develop
Speaker 3: this project, The Hunt for Bunchovilla and to add even
Speaker 3: more information about this mystique of the character bunch of Villa.
Speaker 10: Back in college or even in our homes, we all
Speaker 10: had posters and the Banchovia who represented something to us
Speaker 10: as Chicanos. Some of us do you understand and know
Speaker 10: a little bit of the story of his life, but
Speaker 10: to most people in America it's more of a caricature.
Speaker 2: You were directing a national film, correcting the narrative on
Speaker 2: this legendary Mexican revolutionary to a mainstream public television US
Speaker 2: audience told by a Mexican American proud Chicano from Texas.
Speaker 10: Vian is just one person that can point at but
Speaker 10: a lot of the feelings along the border against Mexicans,
Speaker 10: you know, weren't They had their own stereotypical negative views
Speaker 10: of Mexicans. And we know that as a story too,
Speaker 10: so as as Chicano's US. It was very, very interesting
Speaker 10: to go through that process.
Speaker 3: The premiere of The Hunt for Punchovilla will be on
Speaker 3: November third on public.
Speaker 1: Television stations across the country.
Speaker 2: Did us, Yes, that was a long time ago, but
Speaker 2: that was the first time that I interviewed you for
Speaker 2: Latino USA.
Speaker 1: Remember anything about that?
Speaker 9: I remember that interview.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, I.
Speaker 4: Remember where I went where Latino USA used to be
Speaker 4: here in Austin. And that's been many years now, you know.
Speaker 4: With me, I like to tell stories like Pancho Viar,
Speaker 4: stories that aren't really known. They need to be accessible
Speaker 4: to the mass audience, and that was my goal with
Speaker 4: these stories. You know, that was only one. I did
Speaker 4: two American experiences. The other one was called Los Minetos.
Speaker 9: No Strive on Them.
Speaker 7: This is a story of men who came to work
Speaker 7: in a foreign landge the story that has never been told.
Speaker 5: They brought us from Mexico to work the couple minds
Speaker 5: of Arizona Beautiful film.
Speaker 9: A lot of these stories.
Speaker 4: I like to shine a light on us so that
Speaker 4: the rest of America can understand us a little bit better.
Speaker 2: So speaking about that, you know, it was a particular
Speaker 2: thing for you a Latino public television to be talking
Speaker 2: to a show called Latino USA on public radio. I'm
Speaker 2: wondering because we were one of the places where you,
Speaker 2: you know, we're basically like tks. We know you, we
Speaker 2: get what you're doing with your work. But I'm wondering,
Speaker 2: do you have recollections about that?
Speaker 4: Well? I think that the most important thing that there
Speaker 4: was a program called Latino USA. I mean, to me,
Speaker 4: that's extremely important. And to have it on NPR and
Speaker 4: be out there, I mean I was doing that interview
Speaker 4: was just it.
Speaker 2: Was an honor, And for me it was an honor
Speaker 2: because I was like midiastick ching on. Let's get to
Speaker 2: the fact that by the time you are assigned that
Speaker 2: American experience very big deal, you had actually been working
Speaker 2: in television for over two decades. So I want you
Speaker 2: to take me back to there.
Speaker 1: Where is it?
Speaker 2: How long you growing up in San Angelo, Texas where
Speaker 2: you're just like, no, bis bis, I'm just gonna be
Speaker 2: a gamogna for I'm just like, how does that happen?
Speaker 4: Well, it's really funny, Maria, that question, because when I
Speaker 4: graduated high school, court college didn't even come into the
Speaker 4: equation because nobody in my family or anybody my extended
Speaker 4: family had been to college.
Speaker 2: So it was not like, Okay, you're attorney eighteen, they
Speaker 2: asked Parloni or see that.
Speaker 1: It was you turn eighteen, you need a job.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm good to be a truck driver or whatever.
Speaker 4: But I wanted to work in radio. So now what's
Speaker 4: interesting is that I grew up in West Texas, San Angelo.
Speaker 4: We still had remnants of Jim Crow and nothing compared
Speaker 4: to what my parents went through, but we still had
Speaker 4: a little bit of that, and some jobs in that
Speaker 4: town just weren't for Mexicans, you know. But there was
Speaker 4: this opportunity that came up at the local one local
Speaker 4: CBS affiliate station for a cameraman studio cameraman, and I said,
Speaker 4: what the heck and I applied. I went to the
Speaker 4: TV station and there were all these Anglo young Anglos applying,
Speaker 4: and there was me with my hair down to my shoulders.
Speaker 4: My father let me grow my hair long.
Speaker 1: We definitely need a picture of that.
Speaker 4: And I went in and lo and behold the person
Speaker 4: interview and me also had long hair. And I'm talking
Speaker 4: seventy two, nineteen seventy two long hairs. Whether you're Mexican
Speaker 4: or Anglo or whatever, we were all brothers.
Speaker 2: Can you tell me what it was like to work
Speaker 2: in a tiny television station in West Texas in the seventies.
Speaker 4: That's really where I got the bug for television, because
Speaker 4: even though I got real good at running the studio camera,
Speaker 4: I wanted more. I could hear the director in the
Speaker 4: control room, I could hear the tape room, and because
Speaker 4: we're all hooked up on headsets, and I said, I
Speaker 4: want to do that, And that's what started me. So
Speaker 4: I left that station to a junior college in Colleen.
Speaker 4: I met a professor there who thought I had a
Speaker 4: lot of potential, and he said that he would starting
Speaker 4: a program at Texas Tech in Lubbock called mass communications,
Speaker 4: and he encouraged me to go. So I went, and
Speaker 4: I started a four year and I started working TV there.
Speaker 4: There's where I got the bug to start producing, because
Speaker 4: you have to remember, around that time was when these
Speaker 4: cameras started to come out, they call them mini cams,
Speaker 4: and we were able to use these cameras in the
Speaker 4: field because shooting film was just too expensive.
Speaker 2: But they were still weighing what thirty pounds more or less?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, right, So just to work there you had.
Speaker 9: To drag like a wheelchair, you know, with a power unit.
Speaker 9: But that's what got my start.
Speaker 4: And then at that point I decided because I met
Speaker 4: so many people that were part of the Rasso Nita
Speaker 4: party and involved in protesting police brutality that Mexican America
Speaker 4: and Chicanos were facing at the hands of police here
Speaker 4: in Texas, all the marches. I started filming all of that.
Speaker 2: So your introduction as a documentarian was because you were
Speaker 2: documenting the civil rights movement of Chicanos and Chicanas chican
Speaker 2: ecks in Texas. And you were not only documenting it firsthand,
Speaker 2: but you were also like yotamien ZOI prout Chicano.
Speaker 4: That's right, you know, I became part of the Rasonita Party.
Speaker 4: I became part of the Chicano movement.
Speaker 9: I met my.
Speaker 4: Early friends like Assustravigno and people like that from California,
Speaker 4: because the winds of change were blowing from California to Texas.
Speaker 4: But we had our own organizing going on in Crystal
Speaker 4: City for the Rasonia Party.
Speaker 2: And you know, in the nineteen seventies here in New
Speaker 2: York City, Puerto Rican activists actually took over Channel thirteen,
Speaker 2: which is the public television station of New York se
Speaker 2: to Maron Lasoficinas, demanding that there'd be more Latino representation
Speaker 2: in public media across the board. So you were a
Speaker 2: part of a historic wave of politically conscious, politically engaged,
Speaker 2: unafraid to say we are radical media producers. Deal with it,
Speaker 2: am I right.
Speaker 4: You're absolutely correct. One of the first things that we
Speaker 4: did when I was out with the mini camps because
Speaker 4: now I got hired as a producer instead of a director,
Speaker 4: and I created a program called.
Speaker 8: Slan well like as the programa the alolos Sados and
Speaker 8: Labola said competo agrado.
Speaker 4: And we decided to do it in Spanish because they
Speaker 4: didn't know what we were talking about. Otherwise it take us.
Speaker 8: Off the air Elasamana Kendra programa Conbindo Porrama Happenings and
Speaker 8: on the senas La.
Speaker 9: But you know, that's how we spread the world.
Speaker 4: And every week we would would would try to educate
Speaker 4: the community about what's going on in voting, police brutality, education, representation,
Speaker 4: all of that. We were covering stuff that they wouldn't
Speaker 4: even get to, and that's what gave me that verve.
Speaker 2: In prepping for this interview, I didn't realize that you
Speaker 2: were really part of that first class of frontline.
Speaker 10: It was.
Speaker 4: It's really funny, you know, because I was working on
Speaker 4: a major series called Checking It Out with one of
Speaker 4: my mentors, Ada Baretta. She was an early pioneer. I
Speaker 4: was working doing this series for Hispanic teenagers at the time.
Speaker 4: I got recruited out of Lubbock to work on this
Speaker 4: film series being shot on sixteen, So that took me
Speaker 4: all over the country and I did a film on
Speaker 4: getting violence in.
Speaker 9: Chicago that was very powerful and it was very very
Speaker 9: tough for me.
Speaker 4: It was very very scary time, but I was able
Speaker 4: to get in and did a very powerful look at
Speaker 4: what's going on and why is there so much violence
Speaker 4: in our community. That series ended and I went to
Speaker 4: Dallas to work on a first major cable facilities called Cube.
Speaker 4: At that time, I had sent some tapes out to
Speaker 4: WGBH that I had read that were looking for people
Speaker 4: this proud you never heard from him back then for us,
Speaker 4: a three quarter inch tape a dove was expensive. So
Speaker 4: I called him and then they said what's your name?
Speaker 4: Said Hector Gon, We've been looking for you acid. Oh really, yeah,
Speaker 4: hold on, and then they put me on the line
Speaker 4: with this new guy that was starting this new series
Speaker 4: called Primetime USA that eventually became Frontline.
Speaker 2: And so Frontline again was very upstart. It was we're
Speaker 2: going to do our long documentary films. We're going to
Speaker 2: be uninterrupted by any commercials. The idea of Frontline hiring
Speaker 2: this radical Chicano producer and having him move from Texas
Speaker 2: to Boston.
Speaker 1: To WGBH, I mean, that was a huge move. It
Speaker 1: was a huge feather in your cap. Again. We saw
Speaker 1: you as somebody who was breaking down these doors.
Speaker 2: But it was difficult, right because you had not left
Speaker 2: Texas in that way before. Can you tell me a
Speaker 2: little bit about moving to Boston and working at a
Speaker 2: place like WGBH.
Speaker 4: First of all, the people at GBH really didn't understand Chicano's.
Speaker 4: I mean, they didn't have anything against us, don't get
Speaker 4: me wrong, but they didn't know much about Latinos in America.
Speaker 2: Believe it or not, Boston has its issues around race
Speaker 2: and segregation, and there's always been a Latino Latina presence,
Speaker 2: but it is Yeah.
Speaker 4: I did the third front line of the first season
Speaker 4: on Marion Barry, the Mayor of Washington, DC, and then
Speaker 4: I did Sanctuary, and then I did Chasing the Basketball Dream.
Speaker 4: And at that point I said, look, I've got to
Speaker 4: go home. I really missed home. I missed Texas. I
Speaker 4: felt like a fish out of water in Boston. It's
Speaker 4: a beautiful town. I mean it's great, but I kind
Speaker 4: of felt like an oddball. And right before that, I
Speaker 4: was starting to move more into the indie world. I
Speaker 4: did an independent documentary, my first one really for National
Speaker 4: Consul in La Rasa. The first documentary that I did
Speaker 4: that aired on PBS was on Cuba.
Speaker 10: Fidel Castro marches triumphantly into Havana. It's a popular victory,
Speaker 10: a time of great hope, of great expectations.
Speaker 4: I followed an exile back it's called Cuba Personal Journey.
Speaker 10: My name is Antonio Gernica. I've lived in this country
Speaker 10: for more than twenty years. When I left Cuba as
Speaker 10: a child, I never really said goodbye. I thought I
Speaker 10: would soon return.
Speaker 9: And I turned thirty in Cuba. This was in nineteen
Speaker 9: eighty three, believe it or.
Speaker 10: Not, after twenty two years in exile, on returning with
Speaker 10: memories of yesterday's Cuba and meeting for the first time
Speaker 10: the Cuba of today.
Speaker 4: At that point, David Fanning had seen my independent documentary
Speaker 4: and he said, Hector, why don't you work for us
Speaker 4: from Texas. I said, man, that would be great. So
Speaker 4: I came to Texas and I, did you know, eight
Speaker 4: more documentaries through my production company for Frontline. So really,
Speaker 4: Frontline me got me started.
Speaker 1: Up on Latino USA.
Speaker 2: Ektor Galan goes independent, creating his own production company and
Speaker 2: in the process making way for a new generation of
Speaker 2: diverse filmmakers.
Speaker 1: Stay with us, not.
Speaker 11: Yes, Hi. My name is Barbara Dolinsky in Simsbury, Connecticut.
Speaker 11: So I only started to listen to your program about
Speaker 11: two and a half years ago. I just felt it
Speaker 11: was right and special because even though it's Latino USA,
Speaker 11: it's for everybody. I'm very grateful I picked you up
Speaker 11: on the radio and thank you, thank you. Just stay safe.
Speaker 1: Hey, we're back.
Speaker 2: As part of our thirty year anniversary celebration, we're catching
Speaker 2: up with some of our favorite guests from the past
Speaker 2: three decades, and today a conversation with Ecdor Galan, who's
Speaker 2: an award winning documentarian who just before the break was
Speaker 2: telling us how he got his start in the business.
Speaker 2: Now Ekdor shares what it's taken for him to continue
Speaker 2: making films about the subjects he's passionate about for over
Speaker 2: forty years.
Speaker 1: Here's the rest of our conversation.
Speaker 2: So, Ector, in nineteen eighty four, you decide that you're
Speaker 2: going to go fully independent and you decide to found
Speaker 2: your own company.
Speaker 1: It's called Galan Productions. So what about that moment?
Speaker 2: How did you decide to come to this place of
Speaker 2: doing something entirely independently and on your own.
Speaker 4: When I was doing these documentaries, I was doing it
Speaker 4: for the public good and trying to get themes and
Speaker 4: ideas out that I felt were very important for people
Speaker 4: to know. But then I did a film in nineteen
Speaker 4: ninety five called Songs of the Homeland, which was about
Speaker 4: Tehano music, the history of Tehano music, past hundred years,
Speaker 4: and all of a sudden that year, I started getting
Speaker 4: calls and letters of people wanting to buy the documentary
Speaker 4: all around the country. And it's proved to me that
Speaker 4: Texans or Tehano's being part of the migrant workers stream
Speaker 4: were all over the country. And that's why I called
Speaker 4: it Songs of the Homeland because it's Texas the homeland.
Speaker 4: And all of a sudden, I realized that I could
Speaker 4: make a lot of money selling these things. So at
Speaker 4: that point, instead of just raising money for the shows,
Speaker 4: making money for the shows both in schools and DVDs,
Speaker 4: So you start to learn that business too. So one
Speaker 4: thing led to the other, you know, and that's what's
Speaker 4: kept me alive and still at it all these years,
Speaker 4: you know, because you got two revenue streams, and that's
Speaker 4: very important for entrepreneurs and for young filmmakers.
Speaker 2: And I'm wondering what this meant for you personally, and
Speaker 2: it may have meant that it was the thing that
Speaker 2: gave you the life to be able.
Speaker 1: To be a parent. It can also take a lot
Speaker 1: from our families.
Speaker 4: I literally some mornings I'd wake up, you know, after
Speaker 4: having kids in over there, and say, what the hell
Speaker 4: am I doing because you're always worried about your next film,
Speaker 4: your next project, because you have to raise the money
Speaker 4: for it, and that's a very very difficult thing to do. Unfortunately,
Speaker 4: a lot of my colleagues people that started, you know,
Speaker 4: trying to do the same thing, and just.
Speaker 9: Couldn't take it.
Speaker 4: And I don't blame them, because you have to be
Speaker 4: very thick skinned and it's feast and famine.
Speaker 9: But I think what really.
Speaker 4: Grounded me was what we we're talking about. It was
Speaker 4: that period, that decade plus that I truly found my identity,
Speaker 4: who I am in this country and what it all means.
Speaker 4: And I still believe that that's the most driving force
Speaker 4: for everything that I do.
Speaker 2: You become the series producer for Chicano, which is of
Speaker 2: series at premier on PBS Primetime, nineteen ninety six. But
Speaker 2: it was very important because you were controlling the narrative.
Speaker 2: It was the film about the Mexican American civil rights
Speaker 2: movement of the nineteen sixties and seventies.
Speaker 7: In the nineteen sixties, a new generation of Mexican Americans
Speaker 7: created a militant social movement in response to the anger
Speaker 7: and frustration that had been building for so many years
Speaker 7: within their community.
Speaker 4: There was two things that were very complicated in doing
Speaker 4: that series. One was funding, because there were a lot
Speaker 4: of big funders they thought were.
Speaker 7: Radical in California and Texas. They demanded humane treatment in
Speaker 7: the fields where they labored.
Speaker 4: Secondly, we weren't filming our movement, the Chicano movement the
Speaker 4: way say the African American Ones movement is captured. Everybody
Speaker 4: from New York was going down South filming everything, and
Speaker 4: there are such incredible arch of the black civil rights movement,
Speaker 4: it's amazing. Whereas with us, you know, a lot of
Speaker 4: us didn't have cameras or we weren't filming, so finding
Speaker 4: that material was very, very difficult.
Speaker 12: But we did and work poor man, I mean work poor,
Speaker 12: and nobody wants to do nothing upon it. You still
Speaker 12: kissing the Democratic Party, think that they're gonna save you.
Speaker 9: And they ain't gonna do it.
Speaker 2: How big was it and continues to be Victor Gallan.
Speaker 2: You get invited to the White House to go screen
Speaker 2: Chicano with President Bill Clinton.
Speaker 4: Well, I mean, you know, being a Chicano, it was
Speaker 4: an incredible experience. And you know, when I was in lovebook,
Speaker 4: working at the TV station and involved in the Chicago movement,
Speaker 4: the Rustle Nea and everything. All the sports guys and
Speaker 4: the TV people and many of the colleagues there, angels
Speaker 4: would call me a comedy, a pinko. Everything you can imagine,
Speaker 4: because I'm this radical guy.
Speaker 2: By the way, if we have these listeners and they're like,
Speaker 2: what's a comedy pinko, well, it's a communist pinko.
Speaker 1: Meant that you were read. I've heard these accusations, loved
Speaker 1: at you and at me.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So you can imagine the feeling that I got
Speaker 4: thinking about that when I was sitting there with the
Speaker 4: President of the United States watching Chicago at the White
Speaker 4: House and their big private theater that they have inside.
Speaker 2: Which is very interesting because President Bill Clinton his advisors
Speaker 2: had him working very hard to connect with Latinos and
Speaker 2: latinas he was at the launch party for Latino USA
Speaker 2: May fifth, nineteen ninety three. So your series Chicano and
Speaker 2: him deciding to watch it at the White House is
Speaker 2: kind of incredible. I mean, it's kind of like hard
Speaker 2: to imagine that that could happen today.
Speaker 4: Well, what I do remember, of course, you know, he
Speaker 4: liked the series, but he kind of chewed us out
Speaker 4: a little bit on a Rassonita segment because he really
Speaker 4: didn't like the Rassina.
Speaker 13: Wow.
Speaker 1: Wow, this was early on when he was first Okay, he.
Speaker 4: Was in Texas organizing with a Democratic Party and he
Speaker 4: didn't like, you know, that Lessonia was sucking Democratic voters away.
Speaker 9: You know, Latino ones got you.
Speaker 1: I see, I see.
Speaker 4: And so it was funny listening to him about how
Speaker 4: he was really against the lesson in the part after
Speaker 4: he saw that segment, but he was. It was a vindication.
Speaker 4: I was sitting there watching it in this in the
Speaker 4: White House thinking about those days that what I endured,
Speaker 4: of what I was being called for doing what I
Speaker 4: was doing, you know, and I went, wow, they could
Speaker 4: only see me now.
Speaker 2: I want to ask you something particular about your style,
Speaker 2: not just as a filmmaker, but actually as a human being,
Speaker 2: because you have made it a very important part of
Speaker 2: your work to mentor a lot of aspiring filmmakers and students.
Speaker 2: They've collaborated, they've worked, they've learned from you, and why
Speaker 2: is this so important for you? Actre this notion of
Speaker 2: I'm going to try and open the door. I'm going
Speaker 2: to continue to be a mentor, even though this is
Speaker 2: hard I'm going to continue to bring the next gen
Speaker 2: with me.
Speaker 9: There's a couple of reasons.
Speaker 4: Because I realized that a lot of the film schools,
Speaker 4: like UT and a lot of other ones, even though
Speaker 4: they're they have great film programs, a lot of these
Speaker 4: young people that I've mentored, they're missing one thing. They're
Speaker 4: real hot shots when it comes to the new technologies,
Speaker 4: not linear editing and all of that, but they lack
Speaker 4: and telling long form stories. They don't get that training.
Speaker 4: So I trained them and that's what I learned to do.
Speaker 4: And the second most important thing is that I've learned
Speaker 4: through the years and when I started, it doesn't do
Speaker 4: any good to preach to the choir, you know, seeing
Speaker 4: to the choir. You've got to make your stories accessible
Speaker 4: to everybody, to bring our stories to the messes. And
Speaker 4: that's what I've learned to do, and telling these stories
Speaker 4: so that people just don't turn them off and say, oh,
Speaker 4: that's just you know. So those two things I think
Speaker 4: are very very important to keep these long form stories
Speaker 4: or these unknown stories being told. And a lot of
Speaker 4: these young people that I've mentored, they go on and
Speaker 4: do their own films, and I'm so proud of that.
Speaker 14: My name is me Lenn Moreno. I worked with Hector
Speaker 14: Galan during the nineties, right after film school. He introduced
Speaker 14: me to the world of public television and sent me
Speaker 14: into the stacks of Mexico's great photo and film archives
Speaker 14: to research and shape a documentary about the US's doomed
Speaker 14: hunt for Pancho Villa. I was given my first opportunity
Speaker 14: to produce, helming the lead episode of the legendary Chicano
Speaker 14: civil rights series.
Speaker 1: From the start, Hector taught.
Speaker 14: Me to swim by dropping me in the deep end
Speaker 14: it proved invaluable.
Speaker 6: My name is Brian Remiitis. I'm an internationally distributed filmmaker.
Speaker 6: I worked with Hector Galan from six to seven, probably
Speaker 6: two of the most important years of my career. I
Speaker 6: was out of film school.
Speaker 9: I would work hours on.
Speaker 6: An edit and he'd come in and look at it
Speaker 6: and say, that's pedestrian comba. He said, anybody can do it.
Speaker 6: What separates you from everybody else? And that soon taught
Speaker 6: me that story, the way you craft a scene together
Speaker 6: has to be something special, has to be something from
Speaker 6: the heart, and you know.
Speaker 3: That stuck with me.
Speaker 6: Because of that, I have directed two feature films, and
Speaker 6: I even co executive croust One called Entertainment that was
Speaker 6: a Sun Dance hit, and I owe a lot to him.
Speaker 6: And I'm without Hector, I don't believe i'd be where I.
Speaker 9: Am in my career.
Speaker 2: You have this body of work that is incomparable in
Speaker 2: terms of documentary visually the Latino Latina experience. You went
Speaker 2: on to do documentaries called The Border Accordion Dreams. I
Speaker 2: love that ancient roads from christ to Constantine, Children of Giant,
Speaker 2: covering everything from music, film, culture, politics, and I won directed.
Speaker 1: What do you think?
Speaker 2: And I know it's hard, you know because most of
Speaker 2: the time we're not really busy thinking about our craft
Speaker 2: or this or that. We're just busy working. But what
Speaker 2: is your philosophy as a filmmaker and why do you
Speaker 2: think it's important to have more Latinos latin As latinx
Speaker 2: Latine who are working in the film industry and specifically
Speaker 2: in your realm and in my realm, you know, making documentaries.
Speaker 9: You know you asked about me being in Boston.
Speaker 4: At that point, I could have made the transition to
Speaker 4: work more in the feature film industry in LA and
Speaker 4: I was actually thinking about moving there. But because of
Speaker 4: my experience in the movement and all of that, I
Speaker 4: truly believed that the work that we were doing could
Speaker 4: change the world. And that stayed with me because what
Speaker 4: I find very important is a human story. You know,
Speaker 4: I try to get in and tell the real story,
Speaker 4: spend time with people, listen to them, and then put
Speaker 4: those stories out there, almost like if you're casting for
Speaker 4: a feature, but you're doing it in real life with
Speaker 4: real people. I mean, there's so many people. I wish
Speaker 4: I could stay in touch with all of them that
Speaker 4: there's been so many so that period of time that
Speaker 4: I spend with them, those six months a year, that's
Speaker 4: the time that I spend with them, and we get
Speaker 4: to know each other, and then of course you have
Speaker 4: the final product, and then there's another story to be told.
Speaker 4: And so I think and I encourage, especially the younger
Speaker 4: group moving into this arena that you know, of course
Speaker 4: everything has changed, stories haven't though social media, all the
Speaker 4: different applications and streaming and things that you can do.
Speaker 4: Stories though, are still very powerful and we know that,
Speaker 4: and you just.
Speaker 2: Want to make sure that they realize that we need
Speaker 2: them to tell these particular stories because we have a
Speaker 2: perspective and if you want to be a filmmaker, documentary
Speaker 2: and don't hold back. In fact, you though you have
Speaker 2: received so many awards, we're not going to go through
Speaker 2: them all. In twenty seventeen, you were inducted into the
Speaker 2: Texas Film Hall of Fame. And so I'm wondering now
Speaker 2: as you look back, and it's been about fifty years
Speaker 2: of your work, right since you started when you were eighteen,
Speaker 2: have you seen anything that gives you exceeding amounts of
Speaker 2: hope or do you still feel like we collectively Latino
Speaker 2: Latina filmmakers, documentarians, we're still in La Ucha and La Barea.
Speaker 4: You know, things have of course changed, and I'm seeing
Speaker 4: that change, especially among young people. Young people are more
Speaker 4: open to many things, unlike us having to deal with
Speaker 4: our own parents and that generation. I see hope in
Speaker 4: the young people.
Speaker 9: I really do so.
Speaker 4: At the moment, I'm focusing a lot of my attention
Speaker 4: on Texas stories. I have like three of them on
Speaker 4: a back burner and one that I'm working on now
Speaker 4: called Bellleground Texas that will have on next year before
Speaker 4: the presidential election. Looking at young people, young Latinos here
Speaker 4: in state, how are we going to turn the state
Speaker 4: or get that representation, get that voice out there, and
Speaker 4: it's exciting to see what they're doing. Well, you know,
Speaker 4: the Latinos are the majority in the state of Texas.
Speaker 4: Now you wouldn't know whether elected officials, but we are
Speaker 4: also Texas has the largest African American population of any
Speaker 4: state in the nation. A lot of people don't know
Speaker 4: that Texas is changing, and I want to be there
Speaker 4: and see what's going on because I truly believe that
Speaker 4: young Latino generation Z and ex and Olive, especially Latinas,
Speaker 4: they're the ones that are going to make a change.
Speaker 4: So that's the next one. But there's several other ones
Speaker 4: that I've got a couple. I don't want to talk
Speaker 4: too much about them now because somebody might steal the idea.
Speaker 4: But you know, one thing that's very important to me
Speaker 4: is that I have captured our experience Latino, not just Chicano,
Speaker 4: but Latino experience across the country. I think I'm the
Speaker 4: one that has anything to that degree of our culture
Speaker 4: and history.
Speaker 9: So I'm hoping to keep continuing.
Speaker 4: To do this, creating new films and using the archives,
Speaker 4: you know, for the younger people that didn't have any
Speaker 4: idea of what we went through and they can learn
Speaker 4: from that and be proud of it.
Speaker 2: Much Ector Delan, It's been wonderful to have this conversation
Speaker 2: and to have you back on the thirtieth anniversary of
Speaker 2: Latino USA.
Speaker 1: Much what is and for all of your work.
Speaker 4: Thank you, Madie, this was extraordinary. I called me anytime
Speaker 4: you know, I'm ready to talk to you. Whatever you wish,
Speaker 4: and good luck and keep it up on Latino USA.
Speaker 9: Man, we need that voice.
Speaker 2: This episode was produced by Victoria Strada and edited by
Speaker 2: Andrea Lopez Grusado.
Speaker 1: It was mixed by Gabriel Abiaz.
Speaker 2: Special thanks to the staff of the Benson Latin American
Speaker 2: Collection and the University of Texas Libraries for retrieving historical
Speaker 2: content from the Latino USA archive. The Latino USA team
Speaker 2: also includes Marta Martinez, Mike Sargent, Deisi, condreds Renando Leanos Junior,
Speaker 2: Patrisa Surubran, and Elizabeth Lenthal Torres. Our editorial director is
Speaker 2: Fernanda Santos. Our director of Engineering is Stephanie lebou. Our
Speaker 2: senior engineer is Julia Caruso. Our associate engineer is jj Carubin.
Speaker 2: Our marketing manager is Luis Luna. Our theme music was
Speaker 2: composed by Zenia Rubinos, I'm your host and executive producer
Speaker 2: Mariano Jossa, joining us acad on our next episode. In
Speaker 2: the meantime, remember not te vays e Astaxima c Cchao.
Speaker 13: Latino USA is made possible in part by the Ford Foundation,
Speaker 13: working with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide,
Speaker 13: the Heising Simons Foundation Unlocking Knowledge, Opportunity and Possibilities more
Speaker 13: at hsfoundation dot org, and Latino USA thirtieth Anniversary episodes
Speaker 13: are made possible with support from our legacy sustainers, the
Speaker 13: Brett Family Foundation, Alonso Contu, Carmen Rito, Wong Vamos Enterprises,
Speaker 13: the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, April Gasler, doctor Elmo Randolph,
Speaker 13: Belinda de la Libertad, Angela Garcia Simms, Priscilla Rojas, and
Speaker 13: Grace Sanchez. Additional donors include Maria A. Camacho, Sophia Castillo Moreles,
Speaker 13: and Anne Cohen.
Speaker 9: I'm so proud to be talking to one of the
Speaker 9: most famous people in America.
Speaker 1: Oh my godness, said Acdot. Why would you say that
Speaker 1: That's so not true?
Speaker 9: Because we hear you in the car. We hear you
Speaker 9: at home, we hear you everywhere.
Speaker 1: Well, that's adorable, Achdo. Thank you so much for saying so.
Speaker 1: I appreciate it.
Speaker 9: No problem, I'm honored.