American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez

There’s so much to chew on in David Alvarado’s portrait of life, art and activism that “American Pachuco” plays like a joyful challenge to those searching for their own voice or meaning.

Alvarado’s doc is standard in construction but lively in tone, reflecting his subject’s engagement with the sociopolitical challenges faced by Chicanos in the 20th century.

As much as this doc bitterly reminds you how Chicano/Latino voices in popular, mainstream culture were just as underappreciated and extinguishable then as they are now, “American Pachuco” is still a pleasant exercise in long-overdue flowers-giving.

The trajectory of Valdez’s work and its activist emphasis only look more revolutionary in retrospect.

While the film falls into the same pitfalls most celebrity documentaries are bound to repeat, Alvarado not only crafts a suitable tribute to one of the more underappreciated artists in American history but also shines a light on a subset of Latino culture that deserves its time in the limelight.

If American Pachuco leaves you wanting more, perhaps that's not a bad thing; Valdez deserves the last word, anyway, and he's not finished.

“American Pachuo” is just a nice movie about a visionary guy. Entertaining and educational, to be sure, but so frictionless it barely sticks.