In 1999,  Dr. Maggie Rivas-Rodríguez began an awesome undertaking–to document the lives and stories of Latino veterans of World War II (later her efforts would also include the Korean and Viet Nam wars). Working out of the University of Texas at Austin’s Journalism Department, she created the VOCES project which undertakes video interviews of Latino war veterans. To date, her efforts have resulted in more than 800 interviews. Latinopia recognizes Dr.Rivas-Rodríguez for her pioneering efforts to preserve the unknown history of our Latino war veterans. In this interview she explains how the VOCES project had its roots way back in 1993, when she was writing a newspaper article on the founding of the Mexican American Legal and Educational Fund (MALDEF).

FRANK SIFUENTES – A REMEMBRANCE BY FRIENDS

Frank “Kiko” Sifuentes passed away on Monday, October 8th, 2012. Writer, educator, mentor, and community activist he touched many lives. Following are personal remembrances by a few of his many  friends and people he helped in finding their life purpose.

OSCAR CASTILLO  (PHOTOGRAPHER, aka OSCURITO” AND‘PINQUINO.)

Frank Sifuentes was a true friend, a great human being & talented writer. His short stories
and “Cuentos” were taken from his life experience of growing up in Austin, Texas and allowed the reader a feeling of the Chicano experience. Frank’s pen name, and as the staff of Con Safos referred to him, was “Pancho del Rancho.” He was always ready to help guide his friends and share his knowledge with others. In 1996, Frank told me of a photography job opportunity in the city of Pico Rivera. I was hired there as a photographer and have been there for fifteen years. Thank you Pancho, we will miss you & our great stories.

SERGIO HERNANDEZ (Artist Con Safos Magazine, Arnie & Porfi Cartoon Strip)

Frank Sifuentes had a pivotal and profound effect on my life. Our paths crossed when I was 19 yrs. of age when I joined the Con Safos editorial group. Had I not met Frank I wouldn’t have attended college, met and married my wife Diane and followed my passion for art. Frank was a talented Con Safos writer and story teller, but his real talent was spotting potential in a young people and encouraging many including myself to pursue their dreams. He was the unofficial “Talent scout” of the barrio. Frank was not rich man yet he helped so many people financially. I know that I am not alone when I say that Frank has a place in many hearts including mine.

MICHAEL SEDANO  (Writer and Columnist La Bloga)

Frank Sifuentes is one of those “Unknown Heroes” of el movimiento. When USC admitted one hundred eleven Chicana Chicano students and launched El Centro Chicano, Frank is the guy who did the legwork and the recruiting. Those hundred kids–and the thousands who’ve followed those trailblazers–walked in las huellas de Frank Sifuentes. Let Frank’s legacy be known, celebrate Frank Sifuentes’ life achievements.

SALVADOR “QUESO” TORRES (Artist and Community Activist)
“La verdad no peca pero incomoda!”
From the time I met Frank Sifuentes, “El Mero, Mero Con Safos”,
At Mr Magu’s, menudo dada
Panchito shall always remain
“Ese Vato Del La Calle Ancha”.
Cuentos about Canicas, Rucas y Lechusas.
He was El Capitán Del Centro Joaquín Muretta, LA, Califas
He recruited hundreds of students to colleges & universities,
Y El film maker, revolutionary activist, “Johnny La Chingas Parsons.”
Frank was our Flor y Canto, faithful to our Chicano Movement;
Helping many of us as a mentor, & fine social critic. Based on the census.
Panchito, I will always love you. Our cuentos, chistes y laughter we shared
Echos gloriously en mi memoria, in our writings. You are now truly on course !
“Con Safos! Free and Unimpeded !” As you sail away.
Frank Sifuentes, “De La Calle Ancha”
A guiding spirit of our beloved Aztlan!
Bless your familia who also love you dearly
Beloved husband, father, grandfather & great great grandpapa
A dicho
El Queso (Salvador Torres)

RAUL VARGAS (Director-USC Alumni Association, Retired)

I had the pleasure and honor of working with Frank during his stay at USC. I was sorry to hear of his passing. I always found Frank to be a calm, dignified and committed gentleman. On campus he always demonstrated his dedication to our students I always appreciated his referring students to our scholarship program at SC. I know there are young people who attended the university due to Frank’s persistence in encouraging them to pursue their educational goals. Not only was he a mentor , he was a very good friend to many of us. He set a very good precedence for many of us. He will be missed.

JESÚS TREVIÑO (TV director and Writer)

After working for more than forty years first as a documentary filmmaker and later as a television director, few people know that the person that set me on my filmmaking path was Frank Sifuentes. In the summer of 1968, I was a recent college graduate.  I had been turned down by all the graduate schools to which I had applied and was facing the draft and Vietnam. I attended an Eastside fundraiser and while on the dance floor, I accidently knocked Frank Sifuentes onto the floor. I helped him get up and instead of being angry, he was surprisingly friendly. He offered to buy me a beer. Over beers, he was soon he was telling me about a film school for minority youth that was recruiting students–Frank was one of the community advisors to the project. Frank encouraged me to apply and, I’m sure with his help, I got in, and before long I was on a course that would lead to my life work as a director and filmmaker. Only recently have I learned of all the other people Frank helped in his lifetime. The fictional character George Bailey in “It’s a Wonderful Life,” is shown how his life has affected so many people positively and how sad a world it would be without him. I think of Frank in the same way. I can’t imagine what the world would be like without Frank having been here to help, befriend and guide so many of us. Thank you, thank you Frank!

______________________________________________

To hear Frank Sifuentes reading more of his “cuentos” visit the podcast: http://nuestrafamiliaunida.com/podcast/oral_history.html

Lupe Ontiveros – A Remembrance

By Jesús Treviño

_______________________________________________

On July 26, 2012, acclaimed actress Lupe Ontiveros passed away, the victim of cancer. She left behind a career that spanned more than thirty-five years of performing on stage, in motion pictures and on television.

I first met Lupe Ontiveros when she was acting in the Mark Taper production of “Zoot Suit” in 1978. Having been a member of the Teatro Campesino, and friends with Luis and Daniel Valdez, I had an opportunity to meet and become friends with many of the “Zoot Suit” cast members. Lupe’s performance, as the mother of Della, Henry Leyva’s girlfriend, drew my attention. She was stunning and real, an honest and positive portrayal of the iconic Mexican American mom.

The following year I started casting for my own film, the American Playhouse drama “Seguín.” I couldn’t help but remember her. As it turned out, the cast of “Seguín,” like that of “Zoot Suit,” was a veritable whos-who of up-and-coming Latino actors of the time. It included A Martinez, Rose Portillo, Henry Darrow, Danny De La Paz, Alma Martinez, Edward James Olmos, Pepe Serna, Enrique Castillo, Leon Singer. Lupe Ontiveros played the role of Antonia Flores, mother to Manuel Flores (Pepe Serna) close friend of Juan Seguín.

We shot the film in the parched desert of Bracketville, Texas, where John Wayne had created a life-size replica of the original Alamo. That is where I got to know Lupe better. I discovered that Lupe was a dedicated, dependable and inventive actress who was game to do what it took to make “Seguín” the best film possible. She carried this passion to achieve the highest quality possible throughout her career. In spite of our limited resources, the dusty, wind-swept locations, a screenplay that, due to my inexperience was a work-in-progress, and grueling 110 degree temperatures, she never complained. When the filming was over, I knew that I had made a life-long friend and someone with whom I would collaborate in the years that followed.

Lupe was game to collaborate on both high budget and low budget film projects.

In 1982, we worked together on a Rainbow Movie of the Week, “Jesse,” in which she played the mother of a teenage migrant farm hand with aspirations of attending college. Though a modest role, much of the drama revolved around the young male lead, she nonetheless focused each screen moment with intensity, ever attentive and ready to step in when I needed her.

Later, in 1978,  I cast her in the CBS Afterschool Special “Gangs,” where she gave a commanding performance as the troubled but loving mother of a wayward Mexican American boy on the verge of joining a gang. In a touching kitchen scene with her son, she managed to personify the quiet angst of every mother who has ever had a son in jeopardy. The Directors Guild Award for best Daytime Drama that I garnered that year was, I am certain, due in part to performances like the one that Lupe delivered for me.

By now, Lupe had matured as an actress. She was beginning to get roles and the recognition that would lead to her outstanding performances in such motion pictures as “Goonies,” “El Norte,” “Selena,” “Real Women Have Curves” and such television shows as “Southland,” “Reba,” “Desperate Housewives” and, more recently, “Rob.”

Throughout her career Lupe never lost sight of her roots. She was master of ceremonies for many worthwhile causes, including a fundraiser at the Los Angeles Theater Center for AB 540, a state bill that would allow undocumented students to pay local fees for college entrance rather than out of state fees. She supported the literary arts, performing gratis at fundraisers for Houston-based Arte Público Press. She understood that literacy and education are vital to our community. She  became a de facto ambassador of United States Latino cinema to the world, serving as a juror at the International Film Festival in Havana, Cuba, and as a representative to the San Sabastian Film Festival in San Sabastian, Spain. Most significantly, she gave of herself to her most cherished cause, the hearing impaired.

Lupe understood the importance of grooming a new generation of Latino talent in the motion picture and television industry. Because of this, she lent her acting talents to numerous low budget and independent films by struggling Latino filmmakers.

One such film was “The Trouble with Toñia,” a comedy written and directed by Juan Garza. He recalls, “We shot our little film over two weekends. Lupe not only showed up on time and prepared, she also brought her own hair and makeup crew and boy they all knew how to have a good time. They’d be joking and listening to Lupe’s “vivacious” war stories and follow it with laughter that rocked the house. That was the Lupe we knew, a consummate professional whose energy and spirit always made our work days fly by. I’ll be forever grateful to have known and worked with Lupe. She was a real treasure.”

Another effort by a young filmmaker who later would go on to more ambitious projects, was the PBS drama “La Carpa,” written and directed by Carlos Avila. He remembers that, “Lupe had a spirit that could fill a stadium. Her generosity toward new filmmakers was equally abundant. On my first project out of film school, the low budget American Playhouse film. “La Carpa,” her creativity was in overdrive. When she worked, she added details and verbal asides that gave layers to a scene you I never imagined. For a director, Lupe was your ace in the hole. She made you look good and she never let you down.”

Yet another filmmaker, Enrique Berumen, recalls Lupe agreeing to work on his low budget film short. “In 1999, I wrote a spoof on a Latina actress who only got to play ‘maids” in Hollywood in spite of her talent. Who else would fit this role? La Lupe! I sent her the script but I never thought she’d agree to work with on a lower than low-budget short. Did she ever! We had wonderful rewriting and rehearsal sessions; she recommended actors for supporting roles; she had the crew in stitches during breaks; and she showcased her innate talent of becoming the character on the written page. She was always a generous professional y una gran comadre. El cielo heredó una estrella más. Shine on, Lupe.”

My own final collaboration with Lupe was in 2004 on an independent comedy I directed and produced titled “In Search of Azltán.” Unlike other projects where I could offer her a salary worthy of her now accomplished and in-demand acting career, my comedy was self-financed. It was a labor of love spoof about finding the historic ruins of an ancient Aztec civilization which featured the Culture Clash comedy trio of Richard Montoya, Herbert Siquenza, and Ric Salinas.

Lupe understood the project was coming out of my pocket and, without a moment’s hesitation, agreed to play the role of Tonanztin (the Virgin of Guadalupe) for the minimal fee I could provide.  Nonetheless, she brought to her performance the same professionalism and high standards which she applied to the multi-million dollar productions which now courted her talents.

Lupe is truly a role model for all Latinos and Latinas in the entertainment industry. She achieved the highest respect and accomplishment in the highly competitive fields of both motion pictures and television, but never forgot her roots. She will truly be missed by all who knew her.

Felipe de Ortego y Gasca was a major in the United States Air Force before embarking on a pioneering career as a scholar, literary critic and educator. Ironically, his literary career only began after he realized that no matter how he good he was there was no future for him in the Air Force.