In 2018, award-winning artist, activist and educator Dan Guerrero announced that his critically-acclaimed stage show ¡Gaytino! Made in America would be brought to the big screen through the use of a multi-camera shoot planned for the end of the same year. Fast forward one year and Guerrero is busy traveling through the United States with the long-awaited film version of the story-telling piece of documentary shot before a live audience.
Dan Guerrero wrote ¡Gaytino! Made in America in honor of his father’s life and legacy of his boyhood friend the late visual artist Carlos Almaraz. These two men played an influential role in shaping Dan’s unique life and helped him create an extraordinary single man show. But it wasn’t until Guerrero decided to share his experience about living with dual identities as a gay man and a Latino, that ¡Gaytino! Made in America was born.
“I have long wanted to bring ¡Gaytino! Made in America to a wider audience through film festival screenings, broadcast, and online platforms,” says Guerrero. “And, time is of the essence! I’m not getting any younger! So many Gaymigos wanted to support my dream, they talked me into the world of crowdfunding. It kicked off big time just last week and I’m very appreciative of the response.”
¡Gaytino! Made in America is directed by Linda Mendoza whose directing credits for TV are impressive (Blackish, Grownish, Brooklyn 99). Linda Morel is Executive Producer along with Guerrero.
This year, ¡Gaytino! Made in America has been featured at film festivals around the country including the Long Beach QFilm Festival, Fresno Reel Pride LGBTQ Film Festival, and the Cinema Diverse Palm Springs LGBTQ+ Film Festival receiving rave reviews from film critics.
The OC Film Fiesta 2019 has dubbed Guerrero’s film as a “comedic tour de force” that chronicles his life from Mariachi to Merman, and from Sondheim to Cesar Chavez. “Guerrero deftly brings two worlds together in story and song. Touching, provocative and hilarious, the film of Guerrero’s acclaimed autobiographical play travels through decades of Mexican-American history and the gay experience from a unique and personal POV that jets from East LA in the 1950s to the cosmopolitan theatre world of N.Y.’s Manhattan in the 1970s and ‘80s.”
In a recent interview, Guerrero noted the causes he champions, “I focus on the Latino/Chicano and the LGBTQ struggle especially in the current political climate where too many are chipping away at our hard-won victories. Forces that feel threatened as we have become stronger and more vocal. Forces that want to return to a time when people of color were kept in their place and the LGBTQ community kept in the shadows.”
“A lovable wit. A delightful emcee of his own journey. Infectious lunacy”
— L.A. Times
The film is accompanied by a study guide that explores both Mexican-American/Chicano and gay culture and history from Guerrero’s adolescence in 1950s East L.A., to the New York theatre scene of the 60s and 70s and back to his California roots where he became involved in the struggle for social justice in both the Latino and LGBTQ communities. The film and study guides will also be available to university and college libraries for study and archival purposes.
Upcoming Screenings:
Sept. 27, 2019 at 3:30 PM – Cinema Diverse Palm Springs LGBTQ Film Festival at The Pickford in Cathedral City that sits on Avenida Lalo Guerrero.
Oct. 5, 2019 – Seattle Latino Film Festival – at the new Chicano Museum
Oct. 12, 2019 at 8:00 PM – Film Fest Tucson screening at the Scottish Rite Blue Room
Also, the film will become part of The Dan Guerrero Collection on Latino Entertainment and the Arts which has been established in the California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives at the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) and in The Dan Guerrero Research Collection housed at the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center that includes his oral history recorded for their LGBT and Mujeres Initiative project. Guerrero has twice taught the course Gaytino: Performance and the Power of One at UCLA and was nominated and served as UC Regents’ Lecturer jointly at its Chicano and LGBTQ departments.
Guerrero began his career in New York as a twenty-year-old musical theatre performer. He left Broadway as a performer and moved on to a successful career as a Broadway theatrical agent representing Tony Award winners and future Hollywood stars in the years from A Chorus Line to Cats.
The eclectic artist also produced an award-winning documentary about his late father, Chicano music legend Lalo Guerrero that aired nationally on PBS stations and included a DVD/CD release. Lalo Guerrero: The Original Chicano continues to screen at Film Festivals in the U.S., Mexico and Latin America.
For more information about Dan Guerrero, visit www.gaytino.com.