Shot on location in Bracketville, Texas--using the same backdrop as was used for The Alamo in 1960--this powerful docudrama focuses on a hero of quite a different stripe than John Wayne's in that film. Juan Seguin was a young Mexican-Texan who raised an army to fight the Mexican forces of General Santa Anna, became a senator to the Texas congress and then Mayor of San Antonio, and was then banished from the state, a victim of racism, “a foreigner in my native land.” Director Jesús Treviño, who based Seguin on the memoirs of Juan Seguin, comments, “For too long, Latinos have been unaware of our history and of our contributions to the formation of this country. Some of our history has surfaced at the education level, but not in the mass media. Seguin highlights a little known chapter of history that could do for Latinos what Roots has done for Blacks, Holocaust for Jews and Shogun for the Japanese.” An excellent cast includes A. Martinez as Seguin, Edward James Olmos (Zoot Suit) as General Santa Anna, and Rose Portillo as Seguin's strong-willed wife.
Jesús Treviño's first feature, Raices de Sangre (Roots of Blood) was a landmark in Chicano filmmaking--financed by the Mexican government in order to promote understanding of Chicanos by Mexicans.