SOCA: What inspired you to make the short documentary film "Tales of a Golden State: The Mendez v Westminster Story"?
I interviewed Sylvia Mendez and Gonzalo Mendez, Jr. as part of a classroom assignment for Dr. Anne J. Gilliland's UCLA Department of Information Studies American Archives & Manuscripts course in the winter of 2003 in my 2nd quarter while working on my MLIS with an emphasis in Archival Studies. I had been charged to find a Latino or Hispanic archive and create something for my final project-- a paper, a website, a poster board, all in an effort to help change the archival paradigm.
Ultimately, after three months of driving from archive to archive in search of MvW documents, I chose to write a short, educational documentary script for children on the topic of "What is an Archive?" using the MvW case as a model. This script became the foundation for my 2005 Master's thesis entitled The Archivist as Producer: Reflections on the Production of "In Search of Mendez v. Westminster" where I argue the importance of getting the case into the curriculum of 4th and 11th grade students to help stem high school drop out rates.
In the course of our discussions in 2003, Sylvia and Gonzalo gave me permission to write a play. So I edited the pre-trial testimony and produced it in the spring of 2004 at the UCLA Mendez v. Westminster Symposium. The cast included the acclaimed actor Earl Holliman as Judge Paul McCormick. Also featured in the staged-reading were two CSUF theatre school chums Kevin Waldron as Mr. Holden and Marc Drotman as David Marcus. Two UCLA theatre school graduates Giovanni Garcia and Cheryl Umana Bonilla portrayed the Male and Female plaintiffs, respectively.
I graduated with my MLIS in March of 2005. I continued to work full-time classified at the Cypress College Library, as I sped around from both Long Beach City College Library campuses, Cerritos College Library, and UCI Langson Library on mornings and weekends for nearly a year as an Adjunct and Part-time Librarian, before I was hired by Fullerton College to start my full-time tenure track Systems Librarian position in the fall of 2006. I immediately signed up for Fullerton College Fine Arts Adjunct Faculty / Playwright William Mittler's Saturday morning playwriting class where I wrote El Primer Dia de Clases. Librarian Anita Varela provided much in the way of comments, and Spanish language translation.
2007 passed. Sometime and somehow in the spring of 2008 I connected with Karen Rose, Director of the FC Office of Special Programs. I sent her the script of El Primer Dia de Clases. Mendez Project students read the playscript and decided to meet with me. Karen Rose, Gabe Flores, Rocio Reynoso and I had sodas in the new Student Center and discussed the project.
The FC Mendez Project student assigned to direct transferred to UCLA in the fall of 2008, so I found myself in the role. FC Mendez Project student Isabel Oropeza agreed to assistant direct with me. Gabe Flores and Rocio Reynoso acted and produced. The students set out to recruit from FC Ethnic Studies Professor Adela Lopez' classes. Most of the cast met for the first time with me in Library Study Room 820N, where we discussed our goals and objectives and for historical background, watched the Sandra Robbie documentary, which Sylvia Mendez had given to me and I put on reserve in the FC Library.
FC Communications Professor Marie Perez generously allowed us to rehearse in the campus TV studio on Wednesday afternoons. We had no set or props, except what I purchased. It wasn't very long before we booked a performance at the Dia de los Muertos event on October 30, 2008, and adapted our rehearsals accordingly; we rehearsed in the elements in the quad in front of the FC Library for weeks. We were given 30-minutes by event co-coordinator and FC Ethnic Studies Professor Jerry Padilla, so I chose the final scene of the play, including the audience sing along of "De Colores".
At the same time, NOCCCD Board of Trustees President Mike Matsuda approached me about including the playscript in the new California State Mendez v. Westminster: Civil Rights Curriculum for Primary and Secondary School Teachers he was in the process of co-writing.
Spring 2009 semester brought recasting in some roles, and rehearsals in a FC Fine Arts theatre space. Mike Matsuda introduced me to ASUHSD Counselor Joe Casas, and we booked a 2-day Savanna High School workshop with Gonzalo Mendez, Jr. and Mr. Matsuda in attendance. Mr. Matsuda also introduced me to Amin David of Los Amigos of Orange County in January, and we brought the organization an excerpt to an early Wednesday morning meeting. I cannot stress enough how Mr. Matsuda's advocacy on our behalf propelled the FC Mendez Project production of El Primer Dia de Clases forward. Finally, I scheduled a full-production at the Wilshire Auditorium on the 63rd anniversary of Judge Paul McCormick's March 21st decision, to be followed by a Panel Discussion with many of the MvW family members and plaintiffs.
SOCA: How did you fund the project?
One morning in March 2009, several days before the community premiere of the FC Mendez Project production of El Primer Dia de Clases, former FC President and current NOCCCD Vice Chancellor of Instruction, Dr. Kathleen O'Connell Hodge, walked past my office. She asked me if I was videotaping the production.
I worked quickly with Academic Services Dean Carol Mattson and she hired Fred Paskiewicz of Edit Sweet to videotape the production and panel discussion, which immediately followed the play. Fortunately the two leads in the play wore body mics, there were three floor mics, and a mic at the onstage podium. Unfortunately, the several handheld mics for the panel discussion were not modulated, and the audio was recorded sounding distant and often unintelligable.
I screened the play for Carol Mattson and she cried. I told her about the significant loss of the panel discussion, which included stories from Arthur Palomino, Dr. Jose Moreno, and Mike Matsuda, as well as Nadine Bermudez' discussion about her dissertation research. She found the money to pay for a reshoot. I posed the question, why not shoot it for real? Why not in the TV studio, and not a library study room? Why not filmically with an invisible background framing the gorgeous faces of MvW family members? Why not have FC Mendez Project students interview the family members whose parents they portrayed in the play?
On Friday, May 22, 2009 we shot a 12-hour day. It was the most exhausting coordination and direction of effort I believe I have ever experienced. Director of Photography Fred Paskiewicz captured the beauty of every participant. It was beautiful. Charming. Emotional. It was the first time some of the MvW families had an opportunity to share their stories.
The participants were:
• Sylvia Mendez interviewed by FC Mendez Project student Jessica Ramos
• Gonzalo Mendez, Jr. interviewed by FC Mendez Project student Mike Hernandez
• Sandra Mendez Duran interviewed by FC Mendez Project student Alma Aguilar
• Virginia Guzman interviewed by FC Mendez Project student Yadira de la Cruz
• Beverly Guzman Gallegos interviewed by Erica Bennett
• Josefina Soto Ramirez, Silvino Ramiez, Phyllis Soto Ramirez Zepeda, and Henry Ramirez interviewed by FC Mendez Project student Ricardo Muniz and Erica Bennett
• Akiko Munemitu Nakauchi and Janice Munemitsu interviewed by FC Mendez Project student Miguel Valencia and Erica Bennett
• Isabel Ayala and Jeanne Ayala Murphy interviewed by FC Mendez Project student Rocio Reynoso• Joe Casas interviewed by Erica Bennett
• Adela Lopez interviewed by Erica Bennett
• FC Mendez Project students Gabe Flores, Rocio Reynoso, and Ricardo Muniz, and Timoteo Marselino Gonzalez• Terry Ramirez attended but chose not to speak on camera.
• Arthur Palomino, Nadine Bermudez, Mike Matsuda, and Dr. Jose Moreno were unable to attend.
Through the magic of the day I knew we certainly had an oral history of participants for the FC Library Archives and Special Collections. But I wrote the first 6-pages of the shooting script outline around FC Mendez Project student Timoteo Marselino Gonzalez' song California. I imagined him backlit by a sunset through the FC TV studio back door. His figure, the community standing up against the world. My "John Wayne" moment. But Timoteo didn't show up at call-time. We were breaking down the cameras when he rolled up on his bicycle with his guitar over one shoulder and told me, I'm here. And then, I knew we had a movie.
However it was not until Carol Mattson hired CSUF film student and FC alumni David McKinley to edit the footage with me in August, Anita Varela translated Josefina Soto Ramirez' oral history interview in mid-September, and Sylvia Mendez provided me with the perfect ending, that I knew we had a film.
SOCA: Many documentaries emerge in the editing process. Was this true for you?
Absolutely true in this case. I had a shooting script for the first 6 pages. I had the play footage for the middle. Then I was faced with 12 hours of oral histories, and (valid) participant expectations that they would all be included in the film. We built the story in the editing room around them all. We included everybody. I was thrilled how it all fell into place. It was beautiful; mathematical really. It told itself.
SOCA: How much time did you spend editing the footage and what tools did you use?
Dean Carol Mattson hired an editor to work with me last fall. We had a cut in less than a month. Used Final Cut Pro. We’ll be cutting it again from 39:59 to just over 28 minutes in April, based on notes from an interested television programmer.
SOCA: In addition to being a filmmaker, you also write plays. How do you balance working in the two forms?
I worked 7 days a week last year presenting 3 staged readings of my plays and producing, directing, and editing this play and film. It took a huge toll on my personal and financial life. I just worked from deadline to deadline, minute to minute. Remember I also am responsible for a full-time tenure track Librarian position at Fullerton College. This year, I’ve slowed down and am writing more, and am spending more time thinking about programs to develop in the Library in collaboration with other College faculty.
SOCA: Why was making this film important?
It’s really for the kids; the students who participated in making it, and the students for whom we made it. My goal as an Archivist/Dramatist was to find a way to bring the archives out of their dusty stacks and into the classroom to the at-risk students who long to see faces and hear stories they can relate to. Something that will inspire them to stay in school, and that there are people who cared for them, and struggled for them to succeed.
SOCA: Now that "Tales of a Golden State: Mendez v Westminster" is out in the world, what will your next project be?
I have a draft of a new play entitled “Water Closet” that I am about to start rewriting. It’s about a German-born, naturalized American citizen and English Professor and Poet, who immigrated to the United States with her Dutch grandmother in the 1960s. It’s very much about the effect of war on women’s psyches; WWII, the war of the sexes, the culture wars, the effect of feminism on relationships.
It’s a homage to my grandmother, who I only met four times in my life, and who I always longed to know better. It’s fully from my imagination with some stories passed down, but it’s not a biography, autobiography, or a history play. One of the characters is Giant Ken Doll, so it’s a (little) irreverent, too.
SOCA: Thanks, Erica. We wish you continued luck with your creative work.
For more information on the making of the film, see
http://fcmendezproject.pbworks.com/El-Primer-Dia-de-Claseshttp://fcmendezproject.pbworks.com/Tales-of-a-Golden-State:-The-Mendez-v-Westminster-Story
