Documenting the depths of Mexican American heritage

Jennifer Kho

Sergio Avila said he knew the film was an educational success when his

children began asking questions.

“My children had never asked questions about our culture and the

Latino community before,” said Avila, 49, of Costa Mesa. “Now they are

full of them. I also saw a certain pride in their Latino culture that I

didn’t notice before.”

“The Mexican Americans,” a three-part documentary scheduled to be

shown at the Newport Beach Film Festival today, includes Mexican

Americans in California and Texas discussing their family backgrounds,

culture, values and religion.

The documentary is one of a series of “Ethnic Heritage” documentaries

produced by PBS for its fund-raising drives.

“I think the documentary is important for the Mexican community,” said

Roman Brygider, producer/director of the documentary. “Americans in

general have a really skewed understanding of who these people are, and

they have a rich culture [and] a rich history. They are not just hovering

at the borders waiting to sneak in at night. I think there is a need for

a lot of programming for the Latino community and if I, as an outsider,

was able to contribute in any way to this, I am honored.”Brygider works

for WLIW-21, the PBS station in New York, and created the documentary

with assistance from KOCE-TV, the PBS station in Huntington Beach, and

KLRN, the PBS station in San Antonio, Texas.

Ed Miskevich, assistant station manager at KOCE-TV, said the

documentary was successful in drumming up pledges for PBS.

“It made a lot of people remember what it was like growing up in a

Mexican American family, and it is very important to people who want to

remember something about their past,” he said. “It helps people

understand they have a unifying experience, culturally. I am not

Mexican-American, but I thought that some of the stories were a

fascinating part of history and a way of life that, in some ways, are

still here and, in some ways, have disappeared. The immigrant experience

is fascinating, because we’re all basically immigrants.”

The Avila family members, owners of Avila’s El Ranchito Restaurant in

Costa Mesa and several other restaurants, are among those who share their

stories in the film.

The restaurants use only the recipes that Margarita Avila, the

76-year-old matriarch of the family, learned from her mother and

grandmother.

Margarita Avila still tastes the food to make sure it is authentic and

trains the chefs herself.

“The film is important because it shows the customs of our culture,”

she said, speaking in Spanish translated by Victor Avila, her son. “This

will help children maintain the customs we grew up with and pass it on

from generation to generation. I feel that passing on our culture will

cultivate our progress in the Latino future. It will cultivate new ideas,

progress and pride.”

Victor Avila said the film made him proud of who he is.

“All of a sudden, you look back on who your ancestors are and all the

hard work Cesar Chavez and other people have done to get us where we are,

and it makes you want to do more,” he said. “Not just for yourself, but

for others.”