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Editor's Note:
From the descendants of African slaves to gays and lesbians, Mexico has been shaped by the struggles of popular groups to demand rights, recognition, and land. These new documentaries capture the efforts of people to carve out their own definitions of freedom, changing the character of the nation in the process.
To order any of these videos, contact us by email at info@lavavideo.org, by phone 212-243-4804, or by fax 212-243-2007. Our website, www.latinamericanvideo.org, allows for secure purchases by credit card.
Last Zapatistas, Forgotten Heroes, The Get Details and Purchasing Info
Francesco Taboada Tabone
Documentary 70 minutes 2001
With English subtitles
Almost one hundred years after the Mexican Revolution Revolution, the last of the soldiers to have fought beside General Emiliano Zapata reveal a truth not to be found in any history book. These survivors of the legendary Liberation Army of the South speak of the failure of the Revolution and of today’s neoliberal governments, of the agrarian and ecological disaster threatening their country and of imminent civil war if the Zapatista ideals they represent continue to be ignored. The film also documents the historic encounter between the Zapatista veterans and their political descendants, the EZLN, Zapatista National Liberation Army of Chiapas. The Last Zapatistas portray these men and women as chapters of Mexico’s long and unjust history, its abandoned wisdom, but also banners for the struggle of Mexico’s underprivileged.
Purchase Price: $ 99.95
From Florida to Coahuila (The History of the Black Seminoles) Get Details and Purchasing Info
Rafael Rebollar
Documentary 50 minutes 2002
With English subtitles
This documentary tells the remarkable story of a rebel people – the Mascogos, known in the United States as the Black Seminoles. This exceptional community, whose history crosses, borders, languages, and cultures, is descended from escaped slaves who made common cause with the Seminole Indians of Florida. The fierce battles of the Black and Indian Seminoles with the United States in the mid-1800s ended in truce rather than defeat, and they resettled along both sides of the Mexican border. These furious fighters – the only Native American group which never signed a peace treaty with the U.S. - were recruited by both the Mexican and U.S. governments to defend the border from bandits, and served as an elite battalion attached to the U.S. Army. They continue to live in towns like Nacimiento in Coahuila, Mexico, and Bracketteville, Texas. The exceptional Mascogo/Black Seminole culture combines African-American spirituals, Indian fry-bread, and Tex-Mex cowboy culture. Their old religion was based in dream divination, and their old language combined West African, Native American, English, and Spanish. But these old ways have been dying along with the elders who practiced them, and young Mascogo and Black Seminoles have lost touch with a heritage which is not taught in school and which risks total assimilation into mainstream Mexican and U.S. culture. Filmed on both sides of the border, this video documents the complex history of people of African descent caught between national boundaries, and the efforts of their descendants to maintain their culture and instill a sense of pride in future generations of this warrior people.
Purchase Price: $ 99.95
They Shine... On Being Gay in Morelos, Mexico Get Details and Purchasing Info
Greg Berger
Documentary 13 minutes 2002
With English subtitles
To be poor in Mexico is hard. To be poor in a small town in Mexico is harder. If you're a gay man living in those circumstances, things can get downright tricky. This collectively-produced documentary introduces us to four gay men in Mazatepec, Morelos, who recount their life passions and their everyday complaints. They describe their occasional relationships with men in town who consider themselves "straight," and give free reign to their creative impulses at the town's yearly festival, the Mojiganga, where sexual identities are publicly, playfully transgressed.
Purchase Price: $ 79.95
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