"Worth a Million in prizes: The not so Secret Adventures of a Cinematic Mind Who Ran Away with the Latino Literary Renaissance" by Stephanie Saint Sanchez

by Tony Diaz on 08/29/14

"Worth a Million in prizes: The not so Secret Adventures of a Cinematic Mind Who Ran Away with the Latino Literary Renaissance" by Stephanie Saint Sanchez

Int. Somewhere in Texas. Evening 3am, the witching hour.

 

Stephanie Saint Sanchez, a visually stunning bespeckled sample of womanhood cracks her knuckles as she prepare to dive into the re-telling of her tale for publication.

 

I have always been a movie person. I came from family that went to see all kinds of movies, and, if it was rated R, they might throw a quick hand over my eye for sexy stuff, but everything else was fair game. I got a video camera when I was 12 or 13 and made all kinds of goofy junk that I would kill to find again. Nowadays I imagine a young person might have the focus and good sense to find something they have an aptitude or desire to achieve and with a few google searches have all the tools they need to accomplish what they want, but back in the day no one came and knocked on my door and asked if I wanted to learn how to be a filmmaker. I don’t even think the guidance counselor had a folder for that. So I decided that perhaps being a theater major would be o.k .

 

I would become a theater teacher and train then cultivate the best actors to make movies in the summertime. This is where Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say comes in.  Freshman year was a blur, so I had come back home to get re-focused … either that or lose 30 pounds and join the Army and pray for Private Benjamin Shenanigans.

 

Lucky for me my Ma saw an article in the paper about NP, and she said I should go and check it out. This was when NP had its headquarters at TBH, and they had the monthly showcases. I wish I could remember who performed that night but the general impression I got was “here is something exciting and different, and, maybe it would encourage me to improve my Spanish.”

 

I’m not Sure if I meet Tony Diaz that night or if he made a announcement after the showcase about when the next volunteer meeting would be. Either way I was there the very next week, and I remember Icess Fernandez introducing herself as the resident big mouth and I new right then we were going to hit it off.

 

Always Radames, Russell, Alvaro, Armando, Elisa, Manuel Nava Leal, Lashabriel Keys, Alice, Linda Gomez and Liz. It was a great time of experimentation by everyone. I think the artists that were all there we given this great freedom.  I think that’s what I appreciate the most now. I mean it wasn’t Showtime at the Apollo, but it was a chance for many of us to challenge ourselves and try new things, so there was poetry, spoken word, rap, sketches, music, and somehow we pulled it off every single month.

 

Some of the performances that blew my mind where Sara Cortez, now-Houston poet laureate Gwendolyn Zepeda, and Tonantzin.

 

And of course the after-parties were legendary. You can imagine all the little mini-dramas and love affairs and just enough friendly competition to fan the fires of creativity.

 

This was two seconds before blogging and 20 before social media, so live performance was a huge deal. People paid attention instead of throwing up their crappy phone cameras.

 

We had an actual video crew headed by the great Carlos Calbillo documenting many of these shows.  Lupe Mendez soon showed up and took over stage manager duties while I joined up with the video crew. We were a wild bunch. John Plueker was dabbling in documentary, and Carlos’ son Miguel Calbillo and his buddy Steve Finton and I ran a killer three camera set-up at the best Butthole Surfers concert EVER! And Alice aka Mela Carmela was down for anything! Carlos was one hell of a mentor and it wasn’t long till I premiered my first short

Mexican Suitcase, a satirical parody commercial about stereotypes at an NP showcase.

 

At the next NP meeting Tony mentioned that he had received a letter from the audience member, and it read something like “Mexican Suitcase has set the Chicano Rights movement back 20 years.” I don’t know if I was afraid that Tony was going to kick me out or something, but I knew it was just the tip of the iceburg to what I could do now that I had the tools, the community, and the attention.  

 

It’s because of Nuestra Palabra that I was able to not just find my voice but discover the impact of a chorus of our Latino voices, and four Film Festivals, 30 short films,

7 multi-media installations and One feature film in pre-production. I never lost 30 pounds or joined the Army.

The Cinematic adventures continue at www.lachicanalaundrypictures.com