THE LEGEND OF LUIS VALDEZ (2026)
Directed by David Alvarado
93 minutes
Groundbreaking Chicano activist/director Luis Valdez mounted agitprop performances on flatbed trucks in the 1960s with his El Teatro Campesino, mobilizing California farmworkers to secure their first union contract; authored Zoot Suit , the first Chicano play on Broadway, and directed the 1981 screen adaptation, starring Edward James Olmos; and wrote and directed the highest-grossing Hollywood Latino movie in history, the Ritchie Valens biopic, LA BAMBA. AMERICAN PACHUCO (Valdez defines pachucos as Mexican-American "street cats with style") playfully tracks his extraordinary life and career, with rarely seen footage from his subversive theater and television work, and interviews with Valdez; actors Olmos (who narrates the film in his ZOOT SUIT pachuco voice), Lou Diamond Phillips, and Cheech Marin; labor activist Dolores Huerta; and Linda Ronstadt.