Jamie was 10 and a music lover. I took him to see “La Bamba.” Though rated PG-13, the rating noted he movie had no nudity, sex, violence or swearing. What could go wrong? In the end, Jamie cried right out loud, grief-stricken about what happened to Ritchie Valens, who died at age 17. I could not comfort him. The whole theater heard his heartbreak. He didn’t care.
The power of Luiz Valdez’s work is like this. Emotional. Powerful. Enmeshed in Chicano culture. He has educated America about Chicano culture and history since working in the fields as a child. His migrant family moved with the crops, living to survive. They were the beasts of burden, picking whatever the crop was, out in the field all day with no bathroom or drinking water. They lived from hand to mouth. If they couldn’t work one day, they might not eat. His mother had 10 children.
Valdez was the second-born. He and his older brother, Frank, ended up going to college. Frank majored in chemistry and left his Chicano roots. Luiz chose to major in English and became enmeshed in scriptwriting and the theatre world, creating El Teatro Campesino where he expressed the Chicano culture through drama.
“American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez” begins cleverly. “I’m the Pachuco and the guide to this story,” says Edward James Olmos (“Battlestar Galactica,” “Stand and Deliver,” “Selena” and “Blade Runner”) as a fancy man with a dark sinister stare, immediately and irresistibly stealing your attention.
A pachuco represents the Mexican-American youth counterculture that originated in the US-Mexico border region during the late 1930s. In this film, Olmos, dressed in a shiny suit, is the narrator of the story who cleverly lures his audience into Chicano history and the life story of Luiz Valdez.
The director and writer of this innovatively filmed doc, David Alvarado, is a Latino documentary filmmaker, based in Mexico City. He is passionate about science, technology, and human rights. “American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez” has won the 2025 Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film and has my vote for one of the bestconstructed docs in years.
Known as a playwright, screenwriter, film director, “witchman”, and actor, Valdez, was the director of the Broadway play “Zoot Suit” and films including “La Bamba” and “The Cisco Kid.” While others have called him the Shakespeare of Chicano theater, he calls himself a social arsonist because he “puts people on fire.”
It turns out that “La Bamba,” with famed Lou Diamond Phillips as Richie Valens, has remained the most successful Latino film ever made. And my crying-out-loud son, known as James T, definitely put on fire, can be seen on first Tuesdays at The Covert Café and on third Tuesdays at Starday, playing guitar and singing his own originals in Portland, Oregon. On Aug. 9, he’ll be at Tomorrow’s Verse playing Grateful Dead music.
Credits
Director and Writer: David Alvarado
Featuring: Edward James Olmos, Lou Diamond Phillips, Lupe Valdez, Cheech Marin, Linda Ronstadt, Taylor Hackford and Rose Portillo.
Producers David Alvarado, Lauren DeFilippo, Everett Katigbak, and Amanda Pollak.
Editor: Daniel Chávez-Ontiveros
Executive Producers: Stephen Ives, Michael Kantor, Loira Limbal, Carrie Lozano, Stanley Nelson, Marcia Smith and Sandie Viquez Pedlow
Cinematographor: Zachary Fink
Original score: Eduardo Arenas
Website: www.americanpachuco.com
The theatrical rollout will start as follows:
July 17 – New York – Film Forum with Lou Diamond Philips in person
July 24 – Los Angeles – Laemmle Theaters, AMC Theaters, Maya Cinemas, Alamo Drafthouse and more
July 31 – San Francisco – Opens at Roxie Theater, Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael, Rialto Elmwood Theater in Berkeley, plus Alamo Mountain View and Valley Fair in the South Bay/San Jose Area
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