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By: Dr. Andrew Yox, Honors Director
Chicano Thermidor, A Film about Mexican-American Identity in the Late-20th Century premieres this 20 February, Friday, at 7 p.m. at the Whatley Center for the Performing Arts at NTCC. Free and Open to the Public. Free Refreshments Courtesy of the Donors of Honors Northeast.
American society can be a stern taskmaster, leaving little room for cultural expression. Ethnic being, on the other hand, is a poetical and artistic challenge. How does a group with a similar background, and one facing similar challenges define itself? How can it orient group members to best respond to society, and project winsome ideals?
“Chicano Thermidor,” the 14th feature-length premiere of Honors Northeast and the NTCC Webb Society is a story about two dueling Mexican American art associations in late twentieth-century San Antonio. As the Fiesta City has long had a reputation as the center of Mexican American culture in Texas, the two art associations saw themselves as crucial arbiters and architects of the Tejano consciousness. The Chicano group, Con Safo, hearkened to the Aztec revivals dating back to the Mexican quest for independence, and the Mexican revolution. Con Safo wanted to re-examine the scorecard of bigotry in American society, and ingrain a more powerful solidarity. The other group, the Community Culture Arts Organization (CCAO), was more concerned to fight poverty, and short-circuit westside gangs. The CCAO wanted economic progress, and a culture of inspiration that would gird Mexican Americans to obtain the amenities of the civilization. Con Safo had ties to the city’s leading Mexican American artists, the CCAO to celebrity Mayor, Henry Cisneros, and the business interests. Con Safo encouraged protest, the CCAO, pride.
Viewers of the film on 20 February will discover which group endured, and obtained its goals, and which group faltered. As with previous premieres, there will be free refreshments after the one-hour film and a chance to talk with the film troupe and crew who made the movie.
The genesis of the film began with the award-winning scholarship of Stephanie Hernandez, the Texas Heritage National Bank Scholar of Honors Northeast. Hernandez won five scholarly cash awards for her pioneering work on Tejano murals—an NTCC record. Scholars of Honors Northeast, led by film director, Emma Frances Mendoza, followed up on Hernandez’s breakthrough with a trip to the San Antonio library last May. Thanks to the donors of Honors Northeast, the students at the core of the film effort were able to appeal to other honors students through summer coffees, and a film dinner. From 4-8 August the group filmed intensively in Titus, Franklin, Marion, and Cass counties. Mendoza was joined by Unit Production Director Hailey Randall who plotted the sequencing, and Johnathan Ventura who provided the most reliable cinematography.
The honors 2025 cohort pursued an unprecedented cinematic foray, in a singular manner. Mendoza and Randall expertly balanced time demands and group needs to finish all thirty-one scenes of the script during the annual filmweek of honors. It was the first time since 2017 that the film crew was able to complete the script. Missing one final scene on the final Friday, Mendoza made a fateful call to stop at an abandoned store front in Cass County. It was 100 degrees. Water bottles circulated. The scene that involved a classic showdown between two women of the opposing associations, and the throwing of a tomato, became a celebrated event among the students involved, and a kind of iconic moment in the film.
The two organizations portrayed in the film both developed special synergies during film week. The ringleader of the Con Safo group, the artist, Mel Casas, is played by José Fuentes, the Dr. Jerry Wesson Scholar of Honors Northeast, who is running for an international office in Phi Theta Kappa. He is joined by Ian Mares, a recent winner of the Eckman award, the ebullient Alison Majors, a former Presidential Scholar, and Jasmine Landaverde, the Cypress Bank Scholar of Honors Northeast. The CCAO profited from having theatre major, and local singer, Madeline Simmons, another excellent performance this year by Tristan Dierflinger, and another recent winner of the Eckman award, Araceli Landaverde.
The film climaxes with the appearance of Selena Quintanilla, the Queen of Tejano Music, played by the scholar who inspired the film, Stephanie Hernandez.
During the fall semester of 2025, the film needed substantial editing and work through the college license with Adobe, particularly Premiere Pro. Johnathan Ventura, the Russell-Mowery Scholar of Honors Northeast undertook this work, as the associate producer of the effort. Ventura also edited the trailer which he featured last October at a meeting of the Walter Prescott Webb Society in Georgetown, Texas.
By this past December, Ventura had the edited film ready for Kenny Goodson, our most noted regional composer, and a former director of computer services at NTCC. Goodson now has scored seven films for Honors Northeast. It is also the second time in the film series that Goodson has been called upon to orchestrate Mexican-American themes. This he does with lush melodies reminiscent of the music of Joaquin Rodrigo that arises from a motif of falling thirds, the use of mariachi trumpets, lively counter-thematic material in the strings, castanet interludes, and playful flute descants. Goodson is as fluent with music as he is with the technical power of modern tone generators and software to orchestrate the score.
The Walter Prescott Webb Society, the collegiate auxiliary of the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA), has played a key role in encouraging, and often awarding the cinematic series of NTCC, specializing in previously un-filmed legends of Texas. Kimberly Peña is the Director of Education Services of the TSHA, headquartered in Austin, and the head of the Webb Society.
The film and the filming were ultimately a result of generous donations in time and money. The effort received above-and-beyond administrative support at the college as well as the patronage of the friends of Honors Northeast. In particular Jerald and Mary Lou Mowery, of Mount Vernon, have been the key film supporters annually since 2014. The film initiatives of Honors Northeast and the NTCC Webb Society have also received other major inputs of late from the David L. Stevenson family of Longview and Carol Hodges of Hughes Springs.
Segments of the film are scheduled to be featured this spring in Irving during the meeting of the TSHA, and in Kansas City at the meeting of the Great Plains Honors Council. Questions about the premiere can be addressed to Honors Director, Dr. Andrew P. Yox at [email protected]. Previous films of the series as well as the trailer for Chicano Thermidor can all also be seen at the honors website: www.ntcc.edu/honorsfilms .
