This article appeared in the Jan. 29, 2003 Cambridge Chronicle.

Documentary on Luis Tiant,

Conference on Latinos in the Media this weekend

By Susie Davidson

CORRESPONDENT

In the autumn of 1975, a 35-year-old black Cuban exile named Luis Tiant pitched his first World Series game for the Boston Red Sox. Yet the sizzling tension and palpable drama extended far beyond the diamond.

As 60 years of dashed World Series hopes hung on the delivery of the 6-foot-tall pitcher from Mariano, Cuba, the city bubbled with issues revolving around segregation. For the Red Sox, who were the last Major League baseball team to integrate, all hope fell on the shoulders of El Tiante. And on the streets of Boston, rallies, rioting, and violence exploded in opposition to US District Court Judge W. Arthur Garrity Jr.’s decision to institute massive forced school busing. Though the aim was to achieve racial equality, even Mayor Kevin White admitted that 80 percent of the people in Boston were opposed to busing.

Racism and baseball – the big issues of the day – merged on the mound.

This Friday evening at the Harvard Film Archive, located at the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, 24 Quincy St., The Cambridge Center for Adult Education, in conjunction with WGBH’s La Plaza, the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies and the Harvard Film Archive, will screen the premiere presentation of the documentary El Tiante. Following the sold-out 7 p.m. showing, Tiant will appear in person for a question and answer period along with the film’s producer, Patricia Alvarado. He will speak briefly before the just-added 9 p.m. screening, and Alvarado will conduct the post-film session.

The film, which was produced by Alvarado for WGBH's La Plaza, will kick off La Plaza’s "Latinos and the Documentary: Form, Function and Politics" conference, to be held on Saturday at the CCAE.

Alvarado, who holds a master's degree from Emerson College, is a Panama City native whose films have earned six New England Emmy, two Golden Eagles, four Telly and two New York Festival awards. Her previous La Plaza documentaries have included Doctors for two Worlds, Chucho Valdés in Concert, Anything for Dance, Mango Blue, Beísbol Dream and Last Chance DNA.

The forum, said CCAE public relations director Will McMillan, will be “a celebration and retrospective of La Plaza's commitment to Latino documentary filmmaking. Participants will examine the rise of the Latino documentary, the evolution of Latino storytelling, and the current state of Latino filmmaking.”

Conference presenters will include La Plaza Executive Producer Joseph Tovares, producer Angélica Brisk, past series producers Raquel Ortíz and Natacha Estébanez, independent filmmakers Bernardo Ruíz, Cristina Ibarra and Jorge Aguirre, media activist Lillian Jiménez and scholar Dr.Viviana Rangil.

WGBH's La Plaza, which remains the only nationally-distributed public television series focusing on Latinos, has produced stories on local and national Latino communities for over two decades. It was a bold concept, according to Tovares, but the ultimately worthy effort has paralleled an increase in Latino media activism.

"Giving an editorial voice to Latinos in 1978 was nothing short of subversive on the part of WGBH," said Tovares, a veteran television documentary producer who holds a bachelor’s degree in broadcasting from Boston University and a master’s degree from the University of Texas’ College of Communication. "Over the past 25 years, the revolutionary seeds sown with the launch of La Plaza have produced countless challenging television programs, and perhaps even more importantly, a host of well-trained producers committed to bringing a Latino vision to film and television,” he continued.

“The Latino population of the United States has grown almost 60 percent in the past ten years to 35.3 million, or 12.5 percent of the total US population,” said McMillan. However, he noted that a recent National Association of Hispanic Journalists study revealed that less than one per cent of the 16,000 stories on last year's evening broadcasts by ABC, NBC, CBS,and CNN concerned Latinos. “CCAE is happy to offer this antidote to chronic Latino underrepresentation in the media,” he said.

“The networks’ dismal record of covering the nation's fastest growing minority group undermines the information needs of all US residents and distorts the public discourse so necessary for any democratic society,” stated the NAHJ’s Network Brownout Report

CCAE, a non-profit cultural institution, provides accessible education as it fosters both diverse communication and growth in varied settings for students and faculty of varied backgrounds and orientations.

Harvard’s David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies seeks to strengthen ties between Harvard and Latin American institutions as it broadens public awareness of Latin America in the United States and abroad.

The Harvard Film Archive, established in 1978 with a 210-seat theater, is a non-profit organization which aims to promote artistic and academic appreciation of theater in an independent, state-of-the-art environment.

WGBH, through its affiliates WGBH 2, WGBH 44, and WGBH 89.7 in Boston, WCAI 90.1 and WNAN 91.1, serving Cape Cod and the Islands, WGBY 57 in Springfield, and wgbh.org, produces programs, online content and public radio as well as educational multimedia. WGBH has been recognized with hundreds of honors including 15 New England Emmys, Peabodys, duPont-Columbia Awards, and two Oscars. In 2002, WGBH received a special institutional Peabody Award for 50 years of excellence. For more information visit www.wgbh.org.

Oh yes: Tiant threw a shutout in Game 1 of the 1975 World Series, and tossed 163 pitches in Game 4 to obtain the 5-4 win. Not only that, he also batted .250 in the Series.

El Tiante: A New Documentary on Red Sox legend Luis Tiant will be shown on Friday, Jan. 31 at 7 and 9 p.m. at the Harvard Film Archive, 24 Quincy St. in Harvard Square. Tickets are available for the 9 p.m. showing for $8, $6 for WGBH members.

Latinos and the Documentary: Form, Function and Politics, a day of film screenings, panel discussions and talks, culminating in an address by La Plaza's cultural critic Ilan Stavans, will take place on Saturday, Feb. 1 from 9:30 a.m.-6 pm at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education, 42 and 56 Brattle St. in Harvard Square. Admission is $50, $38 for WGBH members and $55, $42 WGBH members, for both days.

For information, please call 617-547-6789 ext. 1 and/or visit www.ccae.org and www.wgbh.org/wgbh/pages/laplaza