Valdez Interview

Well the studios are Luis and Daniel Valdez famous brothers many people will know them for their work and they have a compass you know. They helped out with the strikes in the early days and throughout a period of history of the struggle for union rights for the United Farm Workers Union says Chavis and now they're here in Fresno promoting their new movie zoot suit written and directed by Luis Valdis and the lead character is done in Valdez in the role of Hank Dana on the story of the sleepy lagoon murder trial and the defense community group about that. Welcome to our studios Luis and then in for beer. It's good to have you with us. I like to bring our audience up to date a little bit. What's been happening with with you individually in the different works you have been doing since probably most of our folks have seen you in the valley working with at the campus you know what's happened since then. Well I think it's important people should know that due to this an outgrowth really of a trend that's been building in the ethical compass you know for some years you know we've been so about these two since 1971

and we went there with the intent to beginning to to focus seriously on our art. And we started with workshops in the summer of 171 and then continued to explore different areas. We did a whole exploration of religious Deering continued to present the person that we can they will do that as an annual event for nine years and we also continue to develop and develop capital qualities as a piece of the moon to various versions of that. We began to get into Westerns in and did a piece on some of the color rose branches. And somewhere along the line I began to write plays again. So in 1978 when the market reform offered me an opportunity and wanted to commission me to write a play about L.A. history I picked the sleep you can murder case that turned into zoot suit and Tutu does occupied a lot of our time the last three years in the middle of that have been a couple of other plays and that he's written more music and stuff. So it it's

represented a lot of activity actually last 10 years. What has been a tremendous evolution I know for me I mean working with the theater and watching the evolution of that they have to go behind. And looking for new forms of expression I think of the film. I think restated I think the film is really. A real community of a tremendous amount of work. As far as the battle is concerned in terms of what it was trying to do with these characters its plays its plots musically. I've been all over the place. Thank you all but who appeared for the first time as a loon and a play of mine called Better memory which is performed here in Fresno. You know we did it for the first time in 1970 at the first and last festival over here in San Joaquin high school and the first time that a suitor appeared and I remember being quite fascinated with the effect of that character and thinking that he deserved a play of his own and so that became due to it but Google became a butt.

Why did you decide to film it as a play. Oh I think it yet her everybody is allowed to have any money usually does. I think the original concept for Souter was really a recreation of the forest itself which caused a lot of money and then what are you recreating is another question. Well again what would have been what is two different things. The fact of the matter is a lot of a safe way to do it is what it is because that's the way it is and it will work with what we hand the film in terms of its budget is very small in comparison less than some television shows and we shot it in 14 days which is another miracle. What I mean is really the conditions and the need to create those who deserve it. But it's important I think to recognize that there are certain things that are possible on film that are impossible on the stage and Bluetooth is a play I always wanted to be a film

it's really just really the player it wanted it wanted to be a stylized movie so speaks more than anything. And when I began to three years ago to think about a film they began to think about say a 10 million dollar film 15 million dollar film with all stops open anything possible. The first character to run into problems was all but Hugo. Because he's basically a character a very theatrical character a character belongs on stage. So the question was how important is it but you go after thinking about it for a while. I determine for myself but you get very important both as a visible symbol and as an element in this particular story. And so by the by proper process of elimination I began to come back to a stylized concept of the film which got closer and closer to the place the more I looked at it I don't

believe things happen by accident. And I think it worked out just right in terms of this piece. The play was was a huge success. How did the movie come about though. We pretty much know I made the rounds with my agent you know in the studios. I had offers even before we went to New York from Barry studios and independent producers there was a lot of speculation as to what kind of film might be made with what kind of a different kind of emphasis each time that we thought about it a musical or a bloody realistic prison drama you know some kind of spectacular number that starred John Travolta as the but you could for instance. Which would have been entirely different film with the emphasis heavily on the music. But what eventually determined I guess what kind of film it was going to be is what we wanted to say with it

and I wanted to entertain you know through the medium itself problems when you were trying to film it or any problems like the studios they didn't want universally It was the only way to do that offered me for instance the guarantee that I would be able to direct this film as well as the absolute guarantee that my screenplay would be used. All the other studios offer me different things that they did give me you know some initial rights payments and then turn around and steal the whole idea from me in change of plans and he was getting it he wasn't getting he was being quite frank. So I decided I mean I wanted to do this from this particular point of view so universal guaranteed it. Universal took the risk because they're interested in reaching the so-called Hispanic market. Yeah I think it has to be said. I mean there were other attempts many Boulevard nights and now we're proud and our you know obvious attempts to try and reach these panic audience and I think would suit represented because of the number of people that came to see it

as it was a real identification it was it was more than just an audience coming to witness a play or to watch a polite they were they were there. They were part of the thing that was happening and I know I know for a fact I have to respect Universal Pictures in the sense that maybe they came to the conclusion that you know who else is going to touch your guns except your guns OK which is a blatant truth. But I mean it's it's also important to note that I mean the success of Zoot is really dependent upon the reaction of the Gee kind of population. OK. As far as I'm concerned as an artist you know and I think that Zoot initials Yes I mean Zoot is a whisper that turns into a shout. And it's important to note that the future of the kind of cinema or the future of Chicano movies like zoom is is really dependent on what's going to happen here and judging by the reactions. I mean we're in motion pictures and we're here to

stay. And we didn't come in just to come and leave them we have intentions of doing more motion pictures because the hunger is there and certainly the audiences and I think depending on you know it doesn't matter actually what happens in the next few months of this movie but it's pointing directly toward the future. And within the next few years certainly within this decade we're going to see the splintering of the mass market in America that scares some people. But in some ways it could be rather nice if you consider that people will be able to cultivate you know their own tastes and interests through cable through cassette and the use of their own television set. And I think that Universal is just one of the studios that is trying to progress to kape the future is aware that that's the trend in the country that there is a regional breakdown that's happening. The materials can be directed to certain pockets and the question is how much profit is there.

So do you think that suit will open the door for more films about chickens depicting chickens as we really consider the stereotypes. Yes I think it will. It will lay down a pace. It will lay down a certain standard perhaps. Your honor you know my actually my sustained hope at this point is that it breaks through the Southwest. I know it will work within the West and I know there's an audience for it in the Southwest are problematic others have been how do we relate to the Midwest you know and show people that were out there too and they were in Pittsburgh you know making steel although you know it's really important to know that I mean the elements in the suit to Archie kind of I mean the basis of it is you guys coming from and you kind of play right now are you going to see actors in it and I think it has a lot to do with it because there are two kind of actors have been trying to survive in Los Angeles and the materials aren't there. OK.

And if anything I hope the dude makes the breakthrough at least on the material level where she comes will be encouraged to write screenplays and stories about a lot of us so that actors can play especially if you've got actors but you it's important and again I speak not only as a screenwriter in all of business but is so much work in the theater for 16 years and has worked all the backroads and done it all actually in terms of we've performed with a gather in every conceivable space and we crossed over into the professional theater and then you know went out and did Broadway. In addition So we were in a tent and it's a tremendous challenge to reach out to that national audience. It's a tremendous challenge to reach out professionally and to work with. With other professionals in order to make that attempt I have a great deal of respect at this point for professionalism and seeking to encourage that in every field of endeavor that you can as well be involved in you know whether it's radio or television or literature or

print journalism what have you. Medicine it's important that we develop professional skills and then we actually assess them. And again as if the at the moment somebody that the storyteller it was a natural for us and the rest of us they were going to gravitate to the point we want to use the movie medium you know to get on the movie screens and we'll do it again. It's actually and we're going to do television. We're going to quit you know we're going to keep right on and there's more stuff coming with more stories and people will be ready to tune in and triple that. There's a there's a lot of underlined messages in the film. What's the message for you. What would you like them to get out of it. Well I'd say I mean the most important thing for me is that I hope the zoot creates the conditions who are two generations. I will talk to each other. OK. I mean the

generation of the 40s and the generation of the 80s I think there's a tremendous gap and we try to show that in the movie. There's a tremendous gap between father and son and mother and honor. OK. And the one thing that I really feel is a real affirmation in HootSuite because I had to wear the suit and the suit there's an amateur who within those clothes I don't know why it's inherited in those clothes maybe it's the baggy length of the pants but I couldn't help but drape. I couldn't help myself. And. There's an added to this already ingrained within the fiber of the thread that relates so much to what the young Chicano was looking for. I think with the young you Colonel is trying to do with his car. The individual eyes are to literally make it is his own. Or to put his own plaque on it to put his own mark on it is a real sign of individual and at the same time a tremendous artistic comment a cultural comment about who that person is.

And that's exactly what was going on in the 40s. I mean there was a general consciousness in the generation because that young man who stood up in the 40s and turned around and looked at his father saying I'm different I'm not I'm a heat gun I'm a Chicano. I mean it turned the world upside down and there was a division that was created there. I mean as a result what we ended up was is with a very stereotypical image of what BY TOO COOL represents OK because in the eyes of society he's he's a negative violent figure something about that response a little ready for change. And let me analyze it in terms of some of the words that are on the other bank to run zero actually with those you know who were thought of as you know inventing the theater. The same thing I suppose is happening on a different level with automobiles and I would invite law writers that

decorate their cars and trim them in the post with them and fix them and fine tune them and get them to work and make them hop and fly do impossible things to do at some point in the very near future. Consider taking on the whole hog. I mean consider law writers designing a car from scratch. Opponents are doing it big. I mean I wrote the free first article ever order but you got a theater I said. Where does the law writers chop the customer right is that the product of General Motors combined with a kind of imagination. How about something completely original. How about our martinis mark for you know are August there OK so you know that two hundred you know for the kind of mice. How about How about starting at ground zero. I know that the imagination is there and I know the mechanical ingenuity is there and I think that's what sign you see. That's the next

leap. It would be beautiful if law writers are listening to this. Could take that on and say OK start with a piece of clean white paper and design your car from scratch. There's an artistic need there. Think it's really important. I mean and there's a thrust and there's a hunger. You know you can analyze American cultural hunger whatever you want to call it but I think the young Chicano is trying to express himself and I think Louise is absolutely right you can't you can't change the can change the outer figure the carpet is still coming from General Motors or wherever it's coming from but I think it also comes from a certain kind of attitude and that's the attitude of being able to create. You're going to have something to offer and I think. They got it all they got to do is push and you know no good. We have actors and we've got directors you know we're ready to go and when you build that car guys call Luis and then you know.

You're going to make it over here. Louise what's your advice to those interested in writing and directing. My advice is that there are no limits with the limits that will be a little suspicious of your subconscious. There are things that are the particulars you know and true to you see that can result. We struggle with the power to go but Hugo is a force in the movie that encourages an Oh but also detains you know he's struggling with Henry so that Henry can learn his own hard lessons in life. And the point is that there are setbacks in every life. Don't be too discouraged with the same things and just keep struggling for them and develop yourselves as individuals because the manse eventually is made up of a whole bunch of individuals. And if we don't pay attention to our own individual development.

We get lost don't we lost too much in an empty rhetoric. You know I mean it's time to get to work to study and if you have to sweat for intellectually physically what have you it's worth it in the final analysis we have to overcome you know whatever barriers are before us and we have to do with hope and goodwill and a sense of humor and a knowledge that God is with us because that's what it's all about human progress. We see why a 10 year wait before writing suits. It was a ten year evolution and had to get to the point where I could do it you know. Talk about leaps I mean I made a number of leap myself you know but just with little known it it put me to a whole different number of trips and for one I had to start with a lot of documentary material write a play that was a whole challenge in itself and then and then I had to direct it. When they're you know when you do it and then and then transfer that to to Broadway which is the whole experience and then transfer from

that to a screenplay in a new movie. So there are about four different gears there that had to happen and I've grown a lot as a result of it. Directing was like it was like going to a crash course in film school. You know I had to learn on the spot. So it's been a whole of pollution that again speaks to the idea of just individual struggle and and and pushing it and was it at the time isn't right either the social climate was not right. Back in 1968 when I first got this Republican mystery case there was a lot of anger you know. And to write about this issue to write at that time would have been overkill. But the 70 seem like the late 70s the right to do it there's a time and place for everything. You had the insight to know the right time in the right. Then yeah it would work you know the score for you. Did you find it difficult combining the 1940s a big band sound with with a chicken sound.

Yeah it was it was it was a little strange at first because I went in there you know with anthropological ears and and I ended up being the stodgy comeback and that wasn't that wasn't going to do anything I had to get in the guts I had to find the spirit of the energy of it. I mean I listen to a lot of recordings you know and I've got to say and it hadn't been for someone like Lalo who wrote some of the original tunes in the 40s and late 50s there I mean we would have arrived. Yeah and Shorty Rogers I mean. What was coming together and it's obvious in the score was that I believe that the score is only reflective of the people who do work in it. OK. And it was obviously an interaction that was happening between me and Shorty Rogers who was my hero in growing up the big challenge for me. Believe it or not were not in the big musical numbers. OK because that the APA has always had those kind of great big musical numbers. The big challenge for me with a little underscores the little symphonic moments because

I had I had to put myself to the grind and I had to learn and at the same time develop a language that everyone else was going to play. And I had never done that before. I had never written a string underscore. OK. So I said when I want to write it was a coke and it sounded crazy. You know when I was putting it down it sounded insane. But I mean I had a teacher I mean someone like Shorty Rogers who really kind of was my guide through the whole thing so you got to go with your instinct and that's what I went with. And that ultimately got Krenzel of it and for me it was a tremendous rush and payoff to hear my music played by an orchestra. I mean it just flipped me really flipped me out. So I mean it was a tremendous growth at the same time that it was giving you know it was a wonderful experience you know you get instead I mean for us you know it's a little bit like being the Wright brothers you know what I mean. That it's it's it's taking up on this little airplane and maturing we were 20

something but the downlink slice you know. I mean they'll be other things come you know along you know very quickly is a better effect but we know we can play or go early or go in will rebel. This is brought you back you say earlier that way. I just wanted to tell you that he did a great job as Hank Green thank you and that you've experienced acting in that you did such a great job and your star now and do you think you'll be doing more acting as opposed to writing and singing or are you going to be combining the both. Oh absolutely. I mean one of the things I'm going to say is my music all the stuff that I've written have really been direct results of experiences that I have with at the ATM. You know I mean everything I've ever written has been because of a direct response that he had it was actually it was terrible. There is an actor actually because Michael because I respect him for a lot of the choices that he's made even after the other roles. You know

before and I just want a more positive image. Studios offered a lot of violence on cable and he refused it because he's not interested in playing certain kinds of roles and I know he turned many many times over my respect you know for that kind of uncompromising and to you know what he was to say you know just enjoy compromise. Well I also have to add something. I mean it's. One of the things that I mean for every Chicano actor who's out there. OK. Ultimately I mean there's a communication that happens between the actor and the director. OK. And it ultimately comes down to trust. OK. And whether or not reason I related wouldn't make a bit of difference to the fact that I trusted him. OK and I've done three other pictures before or two other projects before and I found it very hard to trust the director. OK

why. Because of the stereotypical image of what you got a nose usually end up on the screen with. OK and I think that that's really something that has to be said I want as far as I felt I could go you know I mean. If it went Forrest because there was a real fear of trust there was sitting in the audience of the police and sitting in the audience watching the screening of the movie. There was a hell of a lot of emotion among the audience and I think the beauty of it is that finally there is something on the screen thats written directed and acted by Chicanos and thats where the reality is there obviously must have been a whole lot of work that went into that. Could you tell us a little bit about the study that you had to do an investigation to dig out the history and weave in the mythical parts. All I was done of course in process of writing the play over and we had a long time to prepare that and even the actors strike last year helped us to prepare the movie script. But a lot of preparation assistance to a producer you know Peter Burrell when in the actual figuring

out the logistics of how the film was going to be shot and all of that was figured out in detail and we had a battle plan. We had charts. We had everything down pat. So the time it came down to start filming in those 14 days we knew exactly what we had to do. From moment to moment from shot to shot and thats how it was done preplanning that's how I actually. A lot of the best movies in Hollywood have been done in the pre-planning we care providers you waste money if you try improvise your way to it. One of the things that I'd like to relate to and get some comments from me on is in the movie and in the play an important theme or the important part of the developing history was the role that the press played with the racism that came into it. And it but you could talks about how many many of the terms that suit were really just a euphemism for dirty Mexican or whatever other word that they really wanted to use. Well how do you see that as as an important tour for people.

Well I think what's really important in terms of the media in general is communication of the arts is that it has a direct responsibility to its community and it has to reflect its community. And I think that's that's we have to examine all the way around television and radio and films especially because I really believe that the filmmaker. And the radio person who produces things and the person is producing stuff on television has to realize his responsibility in terms of the effect he's having in young people's minds in terms of the images they present and the kind of controversy stuff the sexual stuff that they resent the violent stuff that they represent. And I think it's important that people take the medium of communication and make it what it should be. I think it's very important that the community be represented all the time and that that consciousness always always be there in the sense of his responsibility and

making those people who are in positions to affect other people's lives be responsible for what they do and the kind of things they send out. You cannot sit in a city that's populated you know witchy gondolas and play straight English material you're got to provide the needs into that community and I think I mean the hope obviously ultimately the media in general is to represent the country you know but just getting us to represent our backyard. No but I think us really that's really what's important. The very existence of this radio station you know I mean is something that I worked hard personally to create because what it represents and what it hears are is a hope of for a new kind of communication. And it fills that hunger and the need that's out there and I think that that specifically would rather billing represent themselves. And it's important to to be able to communicate in our two languages and to have it

supported by the public intimately and and desperately even because it's a voice. And for you to program or the people must hear you know the music the discussions. It's that vital relationship that that is like a seed and continues to grow. We've experienced it is through people you know we experience it as filmmakers. And I'm almost certain that you're going to exactly the same thing with in terms of radio and of course everybody knows that radio such a vital organ. I would agree with that. You can communicate so much and so I certainly want to encourage all of the listeners you know to support this. This radio station is being a radio station because it's a lifeline. It's a lifeline to connect to our future. Thanks very much Luis and then involve this forward who really have a need to sign to be sent to Syria the same as what I said.