SUNDANCE SPOTLIGHT

The 2026 Sundance Film Festival will shine a long-overdue national spotlight on one of the most influential cultural architects in American history: Luis Valdez. With the world premiere of American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez, Latino Public Broadcasting (LPB) cements Valdez’s towering legacy as a revolutionary artist who transformed theater, film, and the visibility of the Mexican-American experience—while also affirming the vital role of public broadcasting in preserving Latino cultural memory.

Directed, written, and produced by David Alvarado, American Pachuco is far more than a biographical documentary. It is a cultural reckoning—charting how Valdez reshaped the American stage and screen by insisting that Chicano stories were not peripheral, but central to the national narrative.

From the Fields to the Forefront of American Theater

Valdez’s story is inseparable from the Chicano Movement itself. In 1965, alongside the United Farm Workers, he founded El Teatro Campesino, a theater company born not in traditional playhouses but in the fields—using satire, music, and performance as tools of protest, education, and empowerment for farmworkers demanding dignity and justice.

That radical foundation led to one of the most consequential theatrical moments in U.S. history. Zoot Suit originated at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, where it became an undeniable hit, electrifying audiences with its bold fusion of American Latino music, movement, history, and political urgency. The production was so successful that it made history—transferring to Broadway in 1979, marking the first time a Chicano playwright’s work appeared on the Great White Way.

In a rare and telling testament to its cultural impact, Zoot Suit didn’t simply move east. While one company made its groundbreaking Broadway run, a second cast remained in Los Angeles, where the show continued at the Aquarius Theatre, running for nearly a full year. The dual productions underscored something unprecedented: Chicano theater was no longer a niche movement—it was a mainstream cultural force commanding audiences on both coasts.

Edward James Olmos: A Full-Circle Cultural Moment

Central to Zoot Suit’s legacy—and to American Pachuco—is Edward James Olmos, whose star-making role as El Pachuco was written by Valdez and became one of the most iconic performances in American theater. The role launched Olmos’s career and redefined the possibilities for Latino actors at a time when such opportunities were nearly nonexistent.

Decades later, Olmos narrates American Pachuco not only as a collaborator and witness, but as co-founder and Chairman of the Board of Latino Public Broadcasting, the organization that partially funded the documentary. The symmetry is profound: a playwright who opened doors for an actor, and an actor who now ensures those doors remain open for future generations of Latino storytellers.

“Now more than ever, it’s crucial that we give a voice to our Latino filmmakers and make sure that our stories are heard,” Olmos said. “While these two films are very different, both of them celebrate how art can lift individuals and communities and bring about real transformative change.”

A Definitive Portrait of a Cultural Revolutionary

Winner of the Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film, American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez features extensive interviews with Valdez, offering rare insight into his artistic philosophy, political consciousness, and lifelong commitment to cultural truth-telling. The film positions Valdez not only as a playwright and filmmaker, but as a cultural architect whose influence reshaped the American artistic landscape.

The documentary is a co-production of Insignia Films, ITVS, Latino Public Broadcasting, and Firelight Media, in association with American Masters Pictures and PBS, with funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. It will premiere nationally in Fall 2026 as a co-presentation of VOCES and AMERICAN MASTERS, placing Valdez among the most essential artists ever profiled in the series.

LPB at Sundance: Expanding the Latino Story

Latino stories are foundational to American culture, not footnotes. And at the center of that truth stands Luis Valdez—a visionary who proved that telling our own stories is an act of resistance, celebration, and transformation.With American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez, Sundance 2026 does more than honor a filmmaker. It honors a movement—and a legacy that continues to shape every Latino story told on stage and screen today.

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The 2nd Edition of the Mexican-American Film and Television Festival and Awards is set to honor director Luis Valdez for his contributions to the Chicano film and playwriting movement. The festival will pay tribute to Valdez, known for his groundbreaking films such as Zoot Suit (1981), La Bamba (1987), and The Cisco Kid (1994), as well as his founding of El Teatro Campesino, which started as a group performing for farmworkers in the fields.

The Cisco Kid, courtesy of TNT, A Warner Brothers Discovery Company starring Jimmy Smits and Cheech Marin, will be shown at the Harmony Gold Theater in Hollywood on Saturday May 20th, 2023 at 6pm. Zoot Suit, distributed by Universal Picture and starring Edward James Olmos, will be screening on Sunday May 21st at 3:45 pm. Both screenings will include a Q&A session with Director Luis Valdez and producer Moctesuma Esparza, will join Valdez for a discussion of The Cisco Kid.

Luis Valdez is a master storyteller who possesses an extraordinary sense of storytelling, combined with a deep understanding of history and the complexities of life. His work is rich with humor, pathos, and a keen appreciation for the ironies that shape our experiences,” said Moctesuma Esparza of working with Luis on The Cisco Kid.

The Cisco Kid, a popular western character created in the early 1900s, was reinvented by Valdez in the film The Cisco Kid as a charming and charismatic hero who fought for justice and equality. The film, which premiered in 1981 on TNT, is a powerful, action packed comedic portrayal of this hero set in the 1940s starring Smits and Marin.

Zoot Suit is a 1981 American independent drama musical film that brings the Broadway play of the same name to the screen. Starring Olmos, the film explores the Sleepy Lagoon trial, which arose from the Zoot Suit Riots in the 1940s, this year is its 40 years commemoration.

Valdez expressed his gratitude for the forthcoming award, “It is my profound honor to be receiving this Life Achievement Award from the Mexican American Film Festival. Everything I have done in a lifetime of social activism through the performing arts has specifically been for the empowerment of all Chicanos, within the global struggle for social justice for all people of color, women and the LGBTQ+ community. May the arts continue to inspire, activate and change the world. I share this recognition with my life’s partner of 54 years, Lupe Trujillo Valdez, and our three sons Anahuac, Kinan and Lakin, all activist artists in their own right,” said Director Luis Valdez. 

“The mission of the Festival is to provide opportunities for attendees to fall in love with our stories and the complex and beautiful art of making them come true on the screen. The Festival is a place where movie lovers and movie makers can meet and interact. It is a place where Mexican-American and Latino filmmakers can meet one another to honor each other, find cooperation, synergy and community. It is here where industry leaders discover talent and great stories. In 2023 we have chosen to honor an icon of Mexican-American/Chicano storytelling, Luis Valdez!” said Jose-Luis Ruiz, Founder of the Mexican-American Film and Television Festival.

The Mexican-American Film and Television Festival aims to provide a platform for Mexican-American and Latino filmmakers to connect, celebrate each other’s work, and foster collaboration and community. The festival, organized by the Mexican-American Cultural Education Foundation, showcases stories that represent the Mexican-American community’s experiences and aims to amplify the voices of Chicano/Mexican-American filmmakers. Over 130 film submissions, including features, shorts, documentaries, and TV projects, have been received for the festival, covering various themes such as identity, love, and immigration.

Tickets for the festival are on sale now at EVENTIVE (https://macef.eventive.org/schedule) For more information please visit: www.MexAmCEF.org

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By Elia Esparza

Not many iconic American playwrights, screenwriters, film directors, and actors can say their work motivated the birth of an impenetrable power — the Chicano Movement! Playwright/director Luis Valdez can. Through his work with El Teatro Campesino and his films (La Bamba, Zoot Suit), he has left an indelible mark on the annals of Chicano theater and cinema.

Born into a Mexican migrant family eighty-two years ago, he began working alongside his parents and siblings in the Delano, California agricultural fields at the tender age of six.  His parents moved often following the harvesting work around the central valleys of California. Valdez had no school stability until his parents finally settled in San Jose, California.

In 1965, Valdez formed El Teatro Campesino, a farm workers’ theater troupe. Valdez’s passion for theater and his first-hand knowledge of how much migrant farm workers labored and sacrificed, recognized that it was the perfect time to merge his theatrical productions and his upbringing for maximum exposure and effectiveness. Valdez incorporated all these experiences into “actos”, one-act skits that were originally performed for the farmworkers on truck flatbeds. His “teatro” toured migrant camps with his 15-minute one-act plays, educating and elevating the plight of the farm laborers to the general public. 

Valdez’s storytelling aspirations started as a child in grammar school. He was in the sixth grade when his interest in theatre piqued and soon found himself organizing plays at school and putting on fairy-tale puppet shows in his garage. Valdez graduated from James Lick High School in San Jose and a scholarship for math and physics paved the path for his attending San Jose State University (SJSU). Valdez spent a few months with The San Francisco Mime Troupe where was influenced by agitprop theatre, guerrilla theatre, and Italian Commedia dell’– techniques that greatly influenced Valdez’s development of his basic structure of Chicano theatre with one-act presentations. 

While in college, Valdez won a playwriting contest with his one-act play, The Theft, in 1961. Two years later, Valdez’s first full-length play, The Shrunken Head of Pancho Villa, was produced and debuted at SJSU.

Valdez incorporated humor into his plays and his productions were a major tool to lift the morale of farm workers on strike. The social and political commentary picked up by mainstream media expanded the experiences of farm workers and other aspects of the Chicano culture. Valdez was able to bring to the forefront and dispel the Chicano stereotypes. 

Valdez soon took his style and creativity to the screen with his first film directorial, the short I Am Joaquin, a poem by poet, political organizer, and activist Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales in 1969. Next, came a TV documentary short, El Corrido: Ballad of a Farmworker in 1979.

He wrote and directed the seminal hit play Zoot Suit which premiered in 1978 to sold out crowds, a majority first time Latino audiences which ran for a year goers at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles and then at the Aquarius Theater in Hollywood. In 1981, Valdez directed the adaptation of the play, which starred Edward James Olmos, Daniel Valdez, Charles Aidman, Lupe Ontiveros, Mike Gomez and many others where reprising their roles from the stage production.  It was a box-office success far exceeding all expectations.

In 1987, Valdez wrote and directed La Bamba which more than a decade, was the most the most successful Latino-themed film at the box-office and critically. It tells the story of the popular Chicano 1950s rock star, Richie Valens who was killed in a plane while on tour. The film starred a very young Lou Diamond Phillips as Richie, Esai Morales, and Rosanna DeSoto as their mom. La Bamba is the mega-hit that brought Valdez to mainstream America. 

Zoot Suit and La Bamba garnered Valdez two Golden Globe Awards nominations, and was awarded a Peabody Award for Excellence in Television for Corridos: Tales of Passion and Revolution for PBS as well as Mexico’s Aguila Azteca Award in 1994.

And for the younger audiences, Luis Valdez is credited on the 2017 Pixar’s computer-animated fantasy film, Coco as a voice actor.

In the United States, it is no surprise why so many Chicanos can relate to, and consider Luis Valdez their modern-day Ernest Hemingway. The power of his plays and films continues to resonate — his words accurately representing nuestra cultura Chicana… Mexican-Americans in the U.S.A., and best of all, Valdez’s films are always cast with many talented Latino cast and crew. 

In commemoration of Luis Valdez contributions to the worlds of theater and cinema the Mexican-American Film and Television Festival (MAF&TF) will recognize Valdez’s contributions to the American theater, film, and television industries with the Illustrious Lifetime Achieve Award on May 21, 2023. Valdez truly encompasses the theme of this year’s festival “Changing the narrative, recognizing who we are” as he is truly a pioneer in writing and directing the stories that gave Mexican-Americans the recognition that was truly deserved.

The Mexican-American Film & Television Festival will screen two of his films, Cisco Kid (1994), a television film which starred Jimmy Smits and Cheech Marin, on Saturday, 6 PM on May 20^th, and Zoot Suit (1981), which was the play that jump started Edward James Olmos’ career, will screen on Sunday, 3 PM on May 21^st. Both films screen at the MAF&TF at the Harmony Gold Theater, located at 7655 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90046. For ticket and info, CLICK HERE

Standing ovation for Luis Valdez!

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Portraying the wrongly incarcerated young pachuco “Tommy Roberts” in the original 1979 production of Luis Valdez’ Zoot Suit launched actor Tom Demenkoff’s journey to becoming Director of Arts Education for the New York City Department of Correction. I chatted with my old friend and fellow Zoot Suit castmate about how art can heal and inspire –and why he chose to incorporate my comedy, 57 Chevy, into his enrichment program for his incarcerated students.  

CRIS FRANCO (CF): Tommy, how did you come to direct one of the nation’s largest corrections arts education programs? 

Tom Demenkoff (TD): After decades of performing, I was introduced to our incarcerated community and was blown away at the number of talented artists behind bars. I had no choice but to accept when then-Commissioner Joseph Ponte asked me to assist in establishing what is now the Fine & Performing Arts Unit within the Programs Division or DOC-Arts.  

Our mandate is to provide, and I quote, “A robust, arts education presence within all jails, by maintaining a diverse professional interdisciplinary resident arts faculty, developing support for strong and sustainable community partnerships, and cultivating reentry opportunities for our individuals in custody who wish to pursue their artistic talents and passions upon release.” 

Whew! It’s a mouthful but upon this foundation, we have seen participation in our arts programs soar among our individuals in custody. 

CF: What in your professional or personal background led you to become the program’s director? 

TD: My first bowl of menudo.  

Under the direction of Luis Valdez, I was privileged to experience his bold Teatro Campesino-style approach to storytelling. Immersing myself in the pachuco culture was a history lesson and acting master class in one. It forever changed me as an actor and as a human being. 

Let me backtrack a little. Born and raised in upstate New York hardly prepared me to play a gritty pachuco in Zoot Suit.  I acquired the necessary backbone to play the Anglo surviving in the tough streets of “East Los” from my generous Chicano castmates who instructed me in the nuanced language and legacy of this vibrant Latinx community of the 1940s.

It was during our shared meals between shows on matinee days that my friend and castmate, Miguel Delgado, convinced me to try my first bowl of authentic menudo. Zoot Suit showed me how opening yourself up to other cultures frees you to life’s possibilities.  I was also greatly influenced by my mother, Janette Demenkoff.  Mom was an activist and inspiring educator who championed literacy in public schools and launched the first national Missing Children’s Non-Profit: Child Find. 

CF: Props to your mom. What is your average day like? 

TD: Every morning, between 5:00-5:30am I head out to my office on Rikers Island.  After that, every day is different: I engage with community partners, theater companies, musicians and educators to plan and promote concerts, classes and conversations that will take place within our jail facilities.  

I make daily visits to jail housing areas, meet one-on-one with students or lead groups in theater, music, dance or creative writing workshops. One day we might bring in the thrilling Chelsea Symphony, meet a Law & Order cast member, or read a Greek play.  Sometimes it’s just me leading a group in a poetry slam fest.  The mix of what I get to do is what I love most.  I often end my workday in a housing unit with my students freestyling to beats, laughing and dancing.    

CF: It sounds like an episode of Fame. 

TD: (SINGING) I’m gonna live forever! 

CF: Can you recount any moments that illustrate how your program has benefited members of the incarcerated population? 

TD: There are so many inspiring stories from inside.  Like when one detainee told me, “Thank you for allowing me to feel freedom today,” simply because I helped him write a haiku. Our men performed Othello for an invited audience and afterward one of the performers told me, “If I had found out how much I loved acting before I got here, I wouldn’t be here right now.  I’d be on TV—and that’s a fact!”  

Most memorable was at the Los Angeles County Jail where I was privileged to introduce a large group of women to Maya Angelou—for the first time!  Wow.  Or introducing someone to the writings of Pablo Neruda, Gil Scott-Heron, Nikki Giovanni or Amanda Gorman—and seeing the wave of enlightenment wash over them as their words are devoured off the page. 

A student who’d been isolated for an extended period of time expressed to me how much he hated our country’s national anthem. I just listened and then asked him to write a new one.  He did, and I surprised him by bringing in 16 vocalists from New York City’s historic Cantori Chorus to sing his version live for him outside his cell door.  He got on the phone, called his mom and had the chorus do an encore for her to hear.  With daily experiences like these, my “average” days are always way above average.

CF: What are the challenges of running an arts school in a jail? 

TD: Many.  But we keep our creative options open and transform any available space into a theater, dance studio or writer’s lab. This reinforces what we teach our students: that anyone can create art anywhere at any time. It’s empowering for students on the inside to know that artists can own their space and their work. 

CF: Tommy, this sounds revolutionary. Is this program considered controversial?  

TD: I have certainly heard the word “controversial” tossed about when referring to what I do. I think what we really are was best described when COVID-19 hit and I was informed that my unit was classified as essential workers.  That moment was huge for me and my arts team.  We ran with it.  So, “essential” is more like it!  And if that’s controversial, I gladly welcome the debate.  

CF: Tell me about the program that allows your incarcerated students to borrow electronic tablets to view approved programming.

TD: When COVID-19 first took hold, tablets became our go-to platform and we amassed over 1,000 hours of original programming.  Some came from our portfolio of solo artists and non-profit organizations like The Public Theater, Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. But many came from simply asking for content. And, the answer was almost always yes!  

CF: What type of streaming programs are provided to your students? 

TD: There is a wide selection of programming: social services, reentry information, law library resources, and high school and college courses, movies, games and arts enrichment programming.  What we have developed are courses for all our providers to sustain the presence they had before COVID-19, and now, as we return to normal, this content remains as our arts education resource library.  

CF: What do you hope they’ll get out of their exposure to arts programming?                                                                                        

TD: We try to not impose outcomes on our students, rather we promote positive engagement, create an environment where students can take something we’re offering and turn it into their own, something meaningful to them.  That occurs almost daily.  So, we’re about setting up the conditions for these moments to occur.  That’s when the workshop soars and the room shifts, deepening the experience.  The results support the fact that the arts have nothing to do with why anyone is here, but everything to do with who they are.  That’s become my mantra. 

Our popular hip-hop sessions allow for uninhibited free-styling and improvised percussion. The atmosphere transforms a jail into a living room listening party where we’re discussing how Tupac was a fan of Shakespeare. What? Yes! We observe how The Bard employed percussive language to grab the listener’s ear. Words have an intrinsic musicality to them.  Words are valuable!

CF: Speaking of language, what percentage of your students are Spanish speakers? 

TD: Approximately 33%, so we try to offer programming that reaches everyone’s cultural interests.  

CF: What type of programming is most popular among the population? 

TD: Music. So, we present concerts, orchestras, choruses, soloists and small ensembles.  On the tablets, The Right Now Project offers an eclectic collection of international artists featuring performances, conversations and mindful meditation videos. We also offer creative writing at every level, nurturing poets, novelists, lyricists and playwrights.  Playwright, and fellow Zoot Suit castmate, Evelina Fernández, allowed us to stream her yearly holiday pageant La Virgen de Guadalupe presented by the Latino Theater Company. It was very well received. Our drawing and crafting programs bring our facilities alive with beautiful murals. And of course, comedies are popular. 

CF: I was so complimented when you requested to include 57 Chevy into your programming. 

TD: When I heard that you’d turned your true-life boyhood stories about you, your dad and his beloved classic car into a play I knew it would be a wonderful offering for our students and that it would be funny.  And funny works in jail.  Really.  And as evidenced by the many glowing responses we saw on its initial roll out, 57 Chevy is a winner! 

CF: 57 Chevy is such a wholesome valentine to the immigrant experience, I’m glad the students are enjoying the show’s positive message. 

TD: I chose to present 57 Chevy because it’s about familia.   Familia is a major topic when you’re in jail. People in custody are always seeking ways to connect to those waiting for them on the outside.  Because 57 Chevy provides a light-hearted look at a normal family, it offers a natural segue into discussions about the humor in normal everyday life. (Which is what all of my students hope for—a normal everyday life.) I’ve noticed that, after screening your play, incarcerated folks continue to talk about it.  They howl at Ric Salinas’ LOL performance.  It transforms the jail into a comedy club because 57 Chevy is pure theater and the magic of theater works—even in jail.

CF: Wow. That is like the best review I’ve ever gotten.  Thank you. How do you feel being part of this program has impacted your understanding of how creativity impacts our humanity?

TD: Okay, time to get really real. For the good part of my early career I was your typical self-absorbed actor.  I had my share of successes, enjoyed the trappings that came with it— and wanted more. I allowed these rewards that were dangled in front of me to cloud my vision for so long that I forgot that I had set out to have a purpose in life.  Sharing my acquired skills with those in jail was the dramatic change I needed.  

This vocation calls upon me daily to employ all the skills I’ve developed as an artist and share them.  Freely.  And then invite opinions.  Ask questions about it all.  Stir up debates.  The provocative nature of the arts invites robust exchanges.  So, we have those exchanges.  Gloves off.  No rules.  And even if what comes back at you is not what you expected, it prompted your students to analyze and express themselves. And that, at the end of the day, is a winning program.

CF: What advice do you have to those educators interested in bringing arts to disadvantaged or disenfranchised communities?

TD: I was fortunate that in the 1970s, while performing in the original NYC production of  Steven Schwartz’s musical Godspell, I signed up for an outreach event with the cast.  I went out to Rikers Island to perform the show. It was my first time in jail and what struck me was how actively the audience interacted with the show. It was jarring at first and then quickly became something more meaningful as we incorporated their commentary right along with the Gospel According to St. Matthew.  The audience was so willing to become part of the storytelling. It piqued my interest.  So, back to your question. 

Um, my advice is to encourage young creatives to take a leap.  Go act, write, sing or dance where there is no writing, acting, singing or dancing.  Sign-up for all the outreach endeavors your theater company or productions might be involved in.  And, if there are none, start one.  Or two.  Or a dozen.  There are so many schools, community centers, museums, hospitals, therapeutic communities and prisons in desperate need of arts programming. Art is a celebration of our humanity through a glorious expression.  No school will train you how to do this level of outreach, so work under the guidance of an experienced professional. And don’t be afraid to volunteer.  Show up.  Soar!

For more information on how you can contribute creative content or develop a partnership with the New York City Department of Correction, write to Tommy Demenkoff via: Programs.Division@doc.nyc.gov

 To stream Cris Franco’s new comedy 57 CHEVY log onto www.SDRep.org

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Written by Roberto Leal

I’m an insomniac. Oftentimes, during an all too frequent sleepless night, I’ll watch a movie on TCM in the wee hours of the morning. I’ve come to refer to these pre-dawn, movie-watching episodes as Insomniac Cinema.

Last week — could have been last night or last year.  Who knows? Who cares? All the days seem to blend into a series of dissolves from one scene to another. Anyway, I was watching Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, (1957), starring Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak.

When Vertigo initially appeared in movie houses, it was universally bitch-slapped by movie critics for its lurid subject matter of obsession and control. What was most disturbing, at the time, was Hollywood’s beloved good guy, Jimmy Stewart played the obsessed, control freak.

Vertigo met its “Dark Fate”, at the box office, almost as quickly as the latest Terminator flick. However, over the years, Vertigo gained cache and stature with film scholars, as Hitchcock’s masterpiece surprisingly found itself displacing Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane in the #1 spot as the greatest film of all-time.

The prestigious British film journal, Sight & Sound, which most recently issue of The 100 Greatest Films list, still has Vertigo at #1. But as I checked through this most recent list, I found a glaring sin of omission: NOT ONE, nada niguno, Spanish-language or Chicano film from either the USA, Mexico, Central or South America or the Latin Caribbean made the list.  Querido amigos!

To quote the Freddy Fender Texas Tornado national anthem of San Antonio, “Hey, Baby, Que Pasó?” How could this be possible? It was as if the voting film pundits were totally unaware of the huge land mass, between the shores of the British Isles and the beaches of Japan, teeming with talented Latino filmmakers, directors, actors, screenwriters and technicians. 

I have no qualms with films like Touch of Evil, Bicycle Thieves, The 400 Blows, Persona, Casablanca, Singing in the Rain, or even Douglas Sirk’s weepy melodrama, Imitation of Life (which starred Lana Turner and John Gavin who was of Mexican ancestry), being on the list. Who the hell doesn’t bawl like a baby in the final scene when Juanita Moore’s long-suffering, heart-of-gold character dies? Without fail, I always do. Hold on, gotta get a tissue. I tear up just thinking about that scene.

Judging films like judging art, music, literature or your favorite pozole recipe, is strictly a subjective exercise. Beauty in art or film is in the eye of the beholder, just as great pozole is on the tongue of the taster.

Let me offer up three objectively excellent Latino cinematic gems worthy of consideration to be added onto the list of The 100 Greatest Films:

Soy Cuba, (Cuba), 1964 Directed by Mikhail Kalatozov. This Cuban/Russian co-production takes you on a lyrical, poetic journey through pre-Castro Cuba by weaving together four vignettes of the different, and often conflicting socio-economic dynamics swirling on the island at that time. The camerawork, in Soy Cuba, is hypnotic. At times, the cameraseems to have wings as it floats seamlessly through sugar cane fields, within a smoke-filled Havana night club scene and soars up to balconies and rooftops and then swoops back down to street level. Ingmar Bergman observed, sitting in a dark theater watching the flickering images flashing on the screen at 24 frames per second, is the closest we come to replicating the dream state. Soy Cuba comes damn close.

Los Olvidados,(Mexico), 1950. Spanish filmmaker, Luis Buñuel, made several films in Mexico during that country’s Golden Age of Cinema, during the Forties and Fifties. Buñuel’s Los Olvidados is a bleak, uncompromising exploration of youth violence in the dark underbelly of Mexico City. This gritty, black and white Mexican film is the equal of any of its Italian Neo-Realism or French New Wave contemporaries.

Zoot Suit, (America), 1981. The son of migrant farm workers from Delano, California, Luis Valdez, playwright, actor, director,producer, is the acknowledged wellspring of Chicano cinema. His iconic film, Zoot Suit,based on his play, embodies what Luis Valdez is all about. Zoot Suit tells the story of the little-known Zoot Suit Wars of the Forties. It deftly examines the racial bias and struggles with cultural identity within the Chicano community. Zoot Suit features a tour de force performance by Latino legend, Edward James Olmos, as El Pachuco, the flamboyant, colorful conscience and spirit of Zoot Suit culture. Zoot Suit is a prime example of film auteurship, a quality lauded by film theorists.

[And a Few Editor Picks: Salt of the Earth (USA), El Norte (USA), Like Water For Chocolate (Mexico), Fresa Y Chocolate (Cuba), Official Story (Argentina)]

A NY Times article titled: Latinos Underappreciated in Hollywood, Study Finds, reports that regardless of critical and commercial success, Latinos still don’t get the much deserved and well-earned recognition in the entertainment industry like their non-Latino counterparts.

But, as Bob Dylan reminds us: “The times, they are a-changin”.

Today, Latinos are a commercial and creative force to be reckoned with in Hollywood and beyond. Whether film, TV, music, art or theater, people with Spanish surnames are becoming more commonplace, as the changing demographics of this huge land mass between the shores of the British Isles and the beaches of Japan, inexorably shift in our favor.

This year, the world’s biggest sports spectacle, the Super Bowl, will feature a halftime show with not one, but TWO Latina megadivas; Jennifer Lopez (USA) and Shakira (Colombia).

Five of the last six Oscars for Best Director have gone to Mexicans directors: Alejandro G. Iñárritu (Birdman, The Revenant), Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity, Roma), and Guillermo del Toro (The Shape of Water).

History is on our side. It won’t be long before film scholars begin to revisit, re-evaluate, appreciate and recognize the huge contributions of Latino filmmakers to the unique art of world cinema.

When the first Latino film, at long last, makes the list of The 100 Greatest Films, El Pachuco standing defiantly, decked out in his finest zoot suit duds, will snap his fingers and hoarsely whispers in his East LA Chicano accent: “¡Horale, ese! It’s about time.”

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Olmos is also a Tony, Spirit Awards and Academy Award-nominated actor who is most recognized as Admiral William Adama on the SyFy series Battlestar Galactica and for his role as Jaime Escalante in the movie Stand and Deliver among so many others. However, his seminal role will always be that of El Pachuco in Luis Valez’s theatrical and film production Zoot Suit which launched his career in Hollywood.

His humanitarian work can be traced back to the L.A. Riots when he so famously took up a broom to help clean up the mess in the aftermath of the riots. He has served on the board of children’s hospital in L.A. and Miami. He has been active in emergency relief efforts, from organizing a relief fund for the victims of the 1985 Mexico City earthquake to advocating for the victims of the 1994 Los Angeles earthquake. He served as a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF and for the non-profit Southwest Voter Registration Project which helps, among other things Latinos register to vote.

Comedian and actor George Lopez will also be awarded the Outstanding Achievement in Entertainment Award during the same event.

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