American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez

Matt Neglia3.5

Bursting with energy and moving at a terrific pace, AMERICAN PACHUCO: THE LEGEND OF LUIS VALDEZ turns a traditional talking-heads bio documentary into something lively, stylish, and consistently engaging. Smart, propulsive editing keeps the momentum high, while entertaining and informative interviews bring Luis Valdez’s journey vividly to life. Director David Alvarado injects the archival and interview footage with a number of creative visual flourishes to celebrate Valdez’s groundbreaking impact. It’s an accessible look at an artist who reshaped American storytelling by putting Chicano voices front and center.

Marya E. Gates3.0

This is very stylish (and jesus young Edward James Olmos what a smoke show), but I wish it were a little less broad and delved deeper into Valdez's later career. Weird that it ended at La Bamba and we just got nothing about the last forty years of his life. Sundance #45

marvelscorsese

Amazing to get such a close look at 20th century Chicano history. I have never seen such a vast collection of live footage featuring so many of those who fought for our rights. Luis Valdez is so much more than just a pioneer in Mexican-American filmmaking.To me, this served as a big reminder of the generational divide between traditional chicanos and descendants of more recent Mexican immigrants like myself. There is a difference in outlook, less centered around an “American” identity for ourselves, a lot of us opting instead to try and preserve our parents’ culture unapologetically. Our communities serving more as a window into Mexico as opposed to an effort to fit in. The former, of course, would not be possible without the work done by those who formed the latter. Yet, it’s hard to ignore the history of Cesar Chavez and the UFW’s initial stance on illegal immigration and how it affected undocumented workers like some of the people I know and love.Ultimately, we have already been here long enough to be set apart from Mexicans AND traditional chicanos (despite efforts to fit in to either). The Chicano was conflicted between being Mexican and American, but today, a lot of us find our conflict between being Mexican and Chicano.