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Las Colonias, Winter 1998 Issue One
From Texas State University
Galán remembers what Nestor Valencia, a colonia researcher told him, “It is sad to be born here, live here all your life, and not know what it is like to be an American.”
With over twenty years of experience in television production, it has always been Hector Galán’s goal to bring important stories to the national viewing audience. “My work has taken me across America, and deep into her past, from foster care in Arkansas, to race relations in the military, to the struggles of copper miners in Arizona. It is vital that such stories as the conditions of life in the colonias be part of the national historical record,” said Hector Galán, President of Galán Productions, Inc.
Galán believes the American audience is finally waking up and realizing that stories about Hispanics in the U.S. are not foreign tales, but uniquely American.
“When I was approached to produce and direct a documentary about colonias in the U.S., I readily accepted,” Galán said. “I am happy to be part of such a distinguished team whose goal is to bring national attention to this long ignored issue,” he added.
Children of Las Colonias will be an hour long film intended for broadcast on the PBS network. Over the course of a year and utilizing the latest in small camera digital technology, the production will candidly capture the daily lives of colonia families in cinema verite style. The result will be a compelling film portrait that exposes living conditions that should not be allowed. Galán remembers what Nestor Valencia, a colonia researcher told him, “It is sad to be born here, live here all your life, and not know what it is like to be an American.”
According to Galán, this is a challenging film to make because colonias is a complex subject- from the legislative debates debates on policy to community organizations that work to better the poor living conditions of thousands of colonia residents across the southwest. How and why was this allowed to happen in America? There are many pieces to the colonia puzzle- may components- and yet amidst it all- in the heart of it are the children. “For them, it is their life, their daily struggle,” explains Galán.
The film will be a journey through the colonia maze and leading the way will be the children. It is their American story to tell..
The Forgotten Americans Press Review - SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS NEWS
Filmmaker Galán investigates life in the colonias
SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS NEWS
By Hector Saldaña
They are a city planner’s nightmare.
The colonias of the Texas border are hundreds of unregulated
subdivisions located from El Paso to Laredo to Brownsville.
Spurred by rapid population growth, they are home to upwards
of 300,000 Texans, most of them the poorest of the state’s
poor, and nearly 50,000 of them without water service.
The human nightmare is far greater.
Typical of these neglected, modern day shantytowns are
their occupant’s low socioeconomic status, higher-than-average
dropout rates and frightening health problems - hepatitis,
tuberculosis, salmonellosis, and shigellosis run far above
the norm.
Acclaimed Austin filmmaker Hector Galán, who compares
the abysmal conditions in the colonias to Appalachia of
the past, is producing a documentary called “Children
of Las Colonias,” which asks, “How can this happen in
America?”
“It’s very haunting,” Galán said from his Austin office.
“The dilemma is: Do you want to stop the proliferation
of the colonias? If you do, what do you do with the people?”
In his 20-year career, Galán president of Galán Production,
has shone his documentary light on such subjects as foster
care in Arkansas, the Pueblo Indians of New Mexico and
the plight of copper miners in Arizona. “I’ve always been
interested in the stories of the disenfranchised and of
the Latino experience in America,” he said. “It is important
to tell their stories.”
His 24 documentaries include the award-winning “Songs
of the Homeland” and “Los Mineros,” as well as such PBS
“Frontline” series specials as “New Land, Old Harvest,”
“Who Cares About Children” and “Go Back to Mexico!”
The San Angelo native was commissioned by Southwest Texas
State University to produce the hour-long film on the
colonias of Texas. It is intended for PBS. The film project
is funded by a $1 million grant from the W.K. Kellogg
foundation of Battle Creek, Mich.
The film is expected to be completed in October.
“My goal is to capture a day in the life of a young person
surviving in the colonias,” said Galán whose film crew
has followed students in Pharr in cinema-verite style.
The story is told through their eyes.
The hope is that the film’s exposure on TV will bring
its message to the public, and more importantly to lawmakers
who directly affect municipal, county, state and federal
policy on colonias.
Geographic boundaries guide the aim of Galan’s lens.
By definition, colonias are solely a border problem. They
exist within 150 miles of the Texas-Mexican border and
outside of metropolitan areas, often beyond the enforceable
grasp of zoning regulations. All of these neighborhoods
lack basic utility services and infrastructure.
There are about 1,400 colonias along the 1,248-mile Texas-Mexico
border. Five counties - Hidalgo, Cameron, Webb, Starr
and El Paso - contain 80 percent of the developments.
The greatest concentration of colonias is in Hildalgo
County.
Issues are complex, solutions expensive.
The Texas border region needs $2.5 billion to address
the water and water system requirements, according to
a 1998 report by the Texas Water Development Board and
the Texas Natural Resource Commission.
“A lot of people in Texas have no clue about the colonia
problem,” Galán said, adding that “their residents are
a forgotten people.”
The filmmaker examines colonias in Texas and throughout
the Southwest, but focuses on the colonias of Hidalgo
County.
“It’s natural for us to be there,” he said. “Most of the
colonias are there. I wanted to find one place that is
a microcosm of the problem.”
Galán said the pride of home ownership exists even in
the colonias.
It’s a phenomenon. People living in the colonias have
a passion, a dream for a better life for their children.”
He said. “Their house might be a little shack, but it’s
their home.
“These people don’t move. You sometimes see nice houses next to shacks.”