’Her songs are richly detailed slices of life…(Tish) Hinojosa’s is a strong, poetic, sensual, and conscious voice’
- Spin Magazine

This special release music documentary DVD produced by Galán, Inc. features the story of the critically-acclaimed singer/songwriter Tish Hinojosa, a musical artist who continues to cross borders with her unique music, a reflection of her bicultural Texas roots. Tish Hinojosa: My Heart, My Life is like a road trip with Tish in the driver’s seat, taking you through her music, through her life. This collector’s dvd includes an intimate personal interview with Tish, rare archival footage and photos from Tish’s personal collection as well as performance footage.
“Working with Tish on this project was a wonderful experience. I had worked with Tish before when she narrated the music documentary Accordion Dreams. She is truly one of our great singer/songwriters,” says Hector Galán.
Bonus tracks include complete Tish performances and music videos, including two songs from her newest 2005 CD release, A Heart Wide Open. For more on Tish and the DVD release, go to: www.mundotish.com
Release: TBA

* The story behind the holiday.

* First-person accounts shed light on one of the most pivotal moments in the history of the Americas.

In some ways, it is a companion story to the Alamo. But on May 5th, 1862, it was the Mexican forces who were besieged, and they engineered a stunning victory rather than a noble defeat. In the process, the history of the New World was reshaped.

Galán Inc. produced this hour long documentary, Cinco de Mayo, for the History Channel. Narrated by Henry Cisneros. Produced and Directed by Hector Galán.

Each May 5th, Cinco de Mayo celebrations are held in cities throughout the United States. Few people, however, know the history and cultural significance of this holiday. Cinco de Mayo is a story that began on a sweltering day in the city of Puebla, Mexico. It was in this city and surrounding forts that an ill-equipped Mexican Army along with Zacapoaxtla Indians and regular citizens beat the invading French Army, the most powerful army in the world at the time, in a bloody battle of the morning of May 5th, Cinco de Mayo, 1862.

The Cinco de Mayo story has never been told on American television. The History Channel brings this riveting story to viewers for the first time. Filmed in Mexico and the U.S., this film captures the events leading to the Cinco de Mayo battle and the stunning aftermath. With thousands of new reinforcements, the French eventually defeated Mexico, forcing President Benito Juarez to flee Mexico City. Napoleon the III’s goal of a French Empire in the America’s became a reality. Maximilian was chosen as the new Emperor and his wife Carlotta as Empress. We look at Maximilian’s doomed three year reign of Mexico and Carlota’s spiral into insanity.

Finally, with guerilla warfare armed by post Civil War United States, Benito Juarez forces the French to withdraw, leading to the capture and execution of Maximilian. Today the memory of the French occupation has faded, except for Cinco de Mayo, the day the Mexicans defeated one of the most powerful armies in the world.

“Perhaps by creating a strong voice for Mexican-Americans and an opportunity to identify visually with characters on-screen, we can find solutions to stop the spread of HIV.” - Hector Galán

Hector Galán directed one of the first short teen awareness films for Scenarios USA, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that aims to inspire teens to make healthier and safer decisions by offering them a creative approach to thinking through and discussing their lives, their choices and their future.

Based on the Mexican myth “Devil in the Dance Hall,” a night of fun turns serious for four chicas when an unwanted image appears.

“Don’t Dance with Death”, tackled the subject of HIV/AIDS prevention. Shot on location in South Texas, the film stars Mexican American actress Ruby Nelda Perez as the curandera, Doña Rosa, and students of PSJA North High School play themselves. The film also features performances by Jennifer y Los Jetz.


“Don’t Dance with Death” is produced by ScenariosUSA in New York, part of a world-wide effort in AIDS prevention. The producer is Avram Ludwig and executive producers are Maura Minsky and Kristen Joiner. Director of Photography is Lee Daniel.

To learn more about Scenarios USA and to watch the film, please visit www.scenariosusa.com

School Library Journal, May 2005:
Visiones: Latino Art & Culture
Grade 6 Up- In this six-part documentary that aired on PBS in last summer 2004, many facets of Latino art and culture are presented in a fascinating quilt of music, murals, poetry, drama, and dance. Utilizing the talents of Latino producers from around the country, Visiones incorporates unique storytelling, innovative filmmaking, and fresh perspectives to weave an interesting account of the past and its relationship to the present and the future. From murals on the streets of Chicago and Los Angeles to hip hop dancers in New York City, from the Miami Sound to theater in Texas, the series offers a vibrant cross section of the work of Latino artists today and yesterday. Each 30 minute episode presents six to seven stories that will educate, entertain, and electrify viewers by their sheer creative energy. While each segment focuses primarily on similar forms of art or artists, it blends different art forms and shows common historical or cultural themes. Thus the first episode showcases the Latino Mural Movement of the 1960’s with Nuyorican spoken art that emerged in the same time period. Episode four showcases music that ranges from hip hop and Miami Sound to modern dance. Interviews with the artists bring a personal touch and immediacy to the art, and help us to understand how and why they were created. The series incorporates extraordinary archival material to give historical depth to the ongoing work of a new generation of Latino artists. It also examines our diverse Latino communities and how they were able to keep their artistic expressions alive while creating new and unique visions that contribute to art in America. Some of the artists, such as dance pioneer Rudy Perez, Prima Ballerina Evelyn Cisneros, actress Miriam Colon, musician Tito Puente, and singer Selena are familiar to many Americans, but this series introduces the lesser-known Latino art community as well, and shows how the Latino culture has blended Hispanic and American roots to grow and thrive. Well-paced and emotionally stirring, this is an invigorating introduction to Latino art and culture and would be especially useful in studies of Hispanic-American art, literature, and social studies. - MaryAnn Karre, Horace Mann Elementary School, Binghamton, NY

TISH HINOJOSA, MY HEART, MY LIFE is a special collector’s DVD that chronicles the amazing journey of singer/songwriter Tish Hinojosa from the West Side of San Antonio to the rest of the world. The DVD contains countless recordings, tours and performances filmed throughout the United States and Europe. Tish Hinojosa is that rare musical artist who cannot be boxed in- her bilingual roots as a Mexican American from Texas born of immigrant parents fuels her lyrics and a style that is uniquely her own. Her music, steeped with emotion and honesty, touches a universal chord among listeners.

TISH HINOJOSA, MY HEART, MY LIFE is filled with never before seen photos, performance footage, and intimate story-telling from a career that spans almost three decades. Bonus tracks feature memorable live performances
and music videos, including two songs The Kitchen Table and Derechos del Corazon from her latest CD, With A Heart Wide Open.


Produced by: Hector Galán, Galán Inc. Television/Film

Los Mineros Press Review

The Copper Miners Who Sought Equality
LOS ANGELES TIMES, January 28, 1991
by Robert Koehler

Just as the xenophobic and racist responses have been triggered by the influx of undocumented workers from south of the border, full-fledged American citizens of Mexican descent have endured such hatred for more than a century. Hector Galán’s “Los Mineros,” a fascinating segment of “The American Experience” (at 9 tonight on Channel 38 and 15) invokes the battles of Mexican American copper miners in Arizona as symbolic of this history.

It’s an extraordinary piece of human theater, played out against the stark backdrop of the desert landscape broken by clusters of miner’s shacks facing down on the giant Phelps-Dodge mining operation. (Galán’s raft of archival photographs scream out to be filmically re-created by David Lean.)

On one side of the town called Clifton-Morenci were the white workers, and on the other were los miners, neither Mexican nor fully accepted as American. They suffered under a “dual-wage system,” in which white miners were paid at lease twice as much as their Spanish-speaking co-workers, who also were forced into the most dangerous jobs.

Here are all the conditions for a violent workers’ overthrow of the bosses, but even when the anarchist IWW helped organize los mineros for a strike during World War I, any efforts to stop Phelps-Dodge’s exploitative policies were met with harsh measures. After this strike, for example, the company rounded up strikers into boxcars and drove the boxcars into the remote desert with no food or water.

It was the next war that brought Mexican American men a new sense of identity - and a new will to demand their rights in a country they valiantly helped defend. Galán’s camera captures the passionate memories of living mineros veterans, such as Ed Montoya, whose Okinawa tale lends “Los Mineros” extraordinary moral power.

Strangely, this same passion is missing from the narration by stage and film director Luis Valdez, who knows a thing or two about dramatic effect but seems to have forgotten it this time.