Voces
American Exile
Brothers Manuel and Valente Valenzuela both volunteered and fought in Vietnam. Fifty years later they are among thousands of U.S. military veterans who are being deported.
The Longoria Affair
In Texas after World War II, a funeral home refuses to care for a dead Mexican American soldier’s body “because the whites wouldn’t like it,” sparking nationwide outrage and helping to launch a civil rights movement.
- Series
- Independent Lens
- Premiere Date
- November 9, 2010
- Length
- 60 minutes
- Funding Initiative
- Series and Special Projects
Producer/Director
John J Valadez
John Valadez is a producer and director of award-winning documentaries for PBS and CNN, whose credits include Passin' It On, The Last Conquistador, Making Peace, Matters of Race, and Visiones: Latino Arts & Culture. He is a founding member of the New York City chapter of the National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP).
- Other ITVS Films
- American Exile
- The Last Conquistador
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The Film
The Longoria Affair tells the story of one key injustice – the refusal, by a small-town funeral home in Texas after World War II, to care for a dead Mexican American soldier’s body “because the whites wouldn’t like it” – and shows how the incident sparked outrage nationwide. Two stubborn and savvy leaders, newly-elected Senator Lyndon Johnson and veteran/activist Dr. Hector Garcia, formed an alliance over the incident. Over the next 15 years, their complex, sometimes contentious relationship would help Latinos become a national political force for the first time in American history, carry John Kennedy to the White House, and ultimately lead to Johnson’s signature on the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
