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U.S. Theatrical Release of AMERICAN PACHUCO: THE LEGEND OF LUIS VALDEZ


AMERICAN PACHUCO: THE LEGEND OF LUIS VALDEZ
A film by David Alvarado
(USA, 2026, 93 min. In English and Spanish with English subtitles)

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.

Opens Friday, July 17
Film Forum

Watch the trailer:

 
 
Earlier Event: July 15
Lost & Found: HUAQUERO
Later Event: July 24
Theatrical Release of LOST CHAPTERS
 

 
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Cinema Tropical's programs are made possible with the support of the New York State Council on the Arts.
They are also supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs
in partnership with the City Council, the Color Congress, and the Vilcek Foundation.