| Diocesan News

It would be a year before funding for the documentary was in place and another two years to complete the one-hour film, which draws in part on rare, archival film footage to recreate the nearly 80-year life span of the first Mexican-American bishop and archbishop in the history of the Catholic Church in the United States.

The finished product, “A Migrant’s Masterpiece: The Life and Legacy of Patrick Flores,” will have its premiere locally on Saturday, Oct. 6, at the Aztec on the River Theatre as a benefit to raise funds for CTSA, which Archbishop Flores helped found.

The film traces the extraordinary life and legacy of the prelate, starting with his humble beginnings as a migrant farm worker who picked cotton and dropped out of high school to help his family, singing and dancing in cantinas to earn extra money.

It continues through his ordination to the priesthood and his years of service as a bishop who championed the poor and oppressed, helping found ground-breaking programs and organizations in this respect and who welcomed Pope John Paul II to San Antonio in 1983 and visited Cuba twice as a representative of the church. The young Patrick’s story of perseverance and struggle against discrimination struck a personal chord with film producer/director Galán. “A lot of what he endured and went through in his family,” said Galán, “reminded me of my own history and my own family.”

‘Certain demarcation lines’

Growing up in San Angelo, Galán listened to his father, a veteran of World War II, tell of his early days. “He talked about not being able to go to school because of the color of his skin,” recalls Galán, who himself graduated from Texas Tech in 1977 with a bachelor of arts in mass communications, the first in his family to even consider going to college. It was something a Mexican-American in those earlier days and circumstances would never dream of doing. “There were just certain demarcation lines in society we couldn’t cross,” he said.

Galán, whose documentaries have focused on the Latino experience in America, notes that while Jim Crow laws in those days “legally” enforced discrimination against African-Americans, there was also “de facto” discrimination that existed towards Mexican-Americans as well — something Archbishop Flores encountered in his own life while growing up and sought to remedy during his years as a church leader. A poignant moment in the film recalls a boyhood experience while dining out with family members whose skin was lighter, when he was refused service because of his darker skin.

“A Migrant’s Masterpiece” goes on to tell of the future archbishop being encouraged to return to school and follow his dream of entering the priesthood by Sister Mary Benitia Veermersch, CDP (foundress of the Missionary Catechists of Divine Providence), and of Bishop Wendelin J. Nold of Galveston-Houston helping see him through high school and the seminary. Galán himself was encouraged by two mentors, Aida Barrera and David Fanning.

Barrera, one of the first Latina women in television, created the first national bilingual children’s show (also the first bilingual series on PBS), “Carrascolendas,” and recruited Galán to work with her on a series on Hispanic teenagers. “She taught me a lot,” said Galán.

Fanning, the executive producer of Frontline on PBS, also took Galán under his wing while the young filmmaker worked on that critically acclaimed series at WGBH-TV in Boston, one of PBS’s flagship stations. “I learned a lot from him too on how to tell stories,” said Galán, noting that documentaries are very difficult to put together in a way that will hold the audience’s attention. “By the time you get to the half-way point of an hour, they better not be shifting in their seats,” he said, “because then you know you’ve lost them.” Work on documentaries is also very time-consuming, he noted, typically shooting 100 hours of film for a one-hour show.

Latino documentarian

Before being hired by PBS, Galán had worked as a news director in commercial television, but was eager to be a producer. “At that time there were a lot of things going on that I wanted to capture,” he says, “like the Chicano movement.” A show he did in Lubbock called Disco Discrimination, which brought to light the discrimination by disco clubs against minorities, led to his being tapped for work in public service broadcasting in Austin and then to Boston.

After two years there, he headed back to the Lone Star State to start his own independent film company in Austin in 1984, Galán, Inc. Armed with the skills he had honed with PBS and now having the means at his disposal, he began seeking out stories about the Latino culture, which became documentaries on national television — stories like Vaquero, about the Mexican-American cowboys, and Los Mineros, on the struggle for equality of Mexican-American copper miners in ...