ABSTRACT
Latino directors, writers, and producers were key to late 1970s and 1980s independent film formations. Like other newcomers to film at the time, these “auteurs” made a point of telling stories not previously heard or misrepresented in Hollywood, often drawing on their experiences in groups on the margins of U.S. society. 1 In the mid- to late 1980s, several Latino “indie” directors, among them Gregory Nava, Cheech Marin, and Luis Valdez moved mainstream; fleetingly, critics spoke of a “Hispanic Hollywood.” 2 Since then, however, there have been few Latino-acted, -directed, or -oriented films, even though Latinos now constitute over 11 percent of the total U.S. population and are among the more dedicated movie-going publics.
