Born in East L.A, 25 Years Later
The iconic cult classic Born in East LA turns 25 this month. This film brought issues of Latino identity and immigration to the big screen with a sense of humor. Latino USA Producer Nadia Reiman explores the movie’s impact.
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Click here to download this week’s show. To read more about Prof. Rosa Linda Fregoso’s work, click here. To check out what filmmaker Jim Mendiola is up to, click here.
Nadia Reiman has been a radio producer since 2005. Before joining the Latino USA team, Nadia produced for StoryCorps for almost five years, and her work there on 9/11 stories earned her a Peabody. She has also mixed audio for animations, assisted on podcasts for magazines, and program managed translations for Canon Latin America. Nadia has also produced for on None on Record editing and mixing stories of queer Africans, and worked on a Spanish language radio show called Epicentro based out of Washington DC. She graduated from Kenyon College with a double major in International Studies and Spanish Literature.
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This is on the netflix queue for the weekend. Thanks for the story.
Classic! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SarCJiaeo4
It was a wonderful program. Very concise and straight to the point. I still remember watching that movie, living in Mexico City, never thinking that somehow, later in my life, I was going to be in the other side of the border.
Now, the movie has a distinct and very profound resonance deep inside of my new identity.
Felicidades Nadia, tu papastro y tu mamá también.
(Humming: “Born in East LA…”.)
[...] Marin says, when he wrote the movie at 41, little did he know that it would have such an impact on American society. It was a low-budget film, but it grossed nearly $18 million in box office sales. It also triggered a music video being made – a spoof of Bruce Springsteen’s famous “Born in the USA,” and it is now even being incorporated into college curriculums. [...]