None
EN
Screen Grabs: From farmworker to ‘the Shakespeare of Chicano theater’
['Dennis Harvey']
48 hills
David Alvarado’s American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez is a documentary overview of a career whose pioneering influence cannot be overstated.
Luis began writing and staging puppet shows, acted in high school plays, then won a playwriting contest at San Jose State University.
Within Campesino and beyond, Valdez’s contribution to the general Chicano Movement was indelible, scoring a number of “firsts” and performance records.
Though he’d already had some roles in mainstream films, Hollywood Shuffle put this multitalent on the mat.
The high-profile ones were such Oscar-laden enterprises as One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Amadeus and The English Patient.