Banned at the time of its initial release and made by blacklisted filmmakers, this bold, radical film tells the story of Mexican-American workers who call a strike over the unsafe work conditions and unequal wages they receive in comparison to their white co-workers at a Zinc mine in New Mexico.Ramon Quintero (Juan Chacon) organizes the strike but is shown to be a hypocrite, treating his pregnant wife (Rosaura Revueltas) with similar unfairness. However,...

Examines the beginnings of the movement by profiling Reies Lopez Tijerina and the land grant movement in New Mexico in 1966 and 1967. It shows how Tijerina's fight to convince the federal government to honor the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848) galvanized Mexicans and Mexican Americans across the Southwest. It then moves on to discuss Rodolfo (Corky) Gonzales and his founding of the Crusade for Justice in Denver in 1966. Focusing on the importance...

It covers the Los Angeles high school blow outs of 1968 thoroughly and with passion. Part 3 is also likely to be the most interesting to students because they can witness young people their own age forcefully agitating for change. It is also striking because the catalysts for the walk outs--high drop out rate, crumbling schools, lack of Mexican American teachers--still resonate today. This segment is visually interesting as well because the filmmakers...