“…how sad to be born here, live here all your life, die here and not know what it is like to be an American…”
–colonia resident
Filmmaker Hector Galán takes you on a journey to the colonias. We travel into American communities where hope resides despite the fact that the streets have no names and often there is no running water or electricity.

Galán Inc.’s production of The Forgotten Americans, narrated by Henry Cisneros and produced/ directed/edited by Hector Galán, is a moving documentary special funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Forgotten Americans is a co-production of Galán Inc. and Texas State University, with Dr. Jaime Chahin, as executive producer. Forgotten Americans captures a day in the life of America’s poorest people along the Texas border who live in “colonias”. The film had its world premiere on March 17, 2000 at a special screening at the Smithsonian in Washington DC and then was nationally broadcast on PBS in December 2000 . It is now also available for purchase through our online catalog.

For more extensive information about this documentary and colonias, including Hector Galán’s filmmaker’s journal, please visit the PBS website on the Forgotten Americans

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Awards:
2000 “First Place”, 32nd Annual Media Awards Competition, National Council on Family Relations

Hector Galán: Writer, Producer, Director, Editor