A Conversation with Lordes Portillo

Abstract

[Mesilla, New Mexico, April 5lh, 2003] H.T. We're here, celebrating the Border Book Festival, brainchild of Chicana author Denise Chavez. L.P. Right. H.T. We're here to talk a little bit with Lourdes Portillo, filmmaker. What other kinds of works do you do - do you do any other kind of work besides film? L.P. No, I don't actually. I mean, I do video and installations, like museum installations and that sort of thing. But, you mean like writing? No, no, no. H.T. Film is your focus. L.P. Film has been my career since I was twenty-one years old. H.T. Okay, then, why film, how film, from where film? L.P. You know I was an immigrant to Los Angeles with my family when I was a teenager. And Los Angeles is for film like the way Detroit is for cars. So there's a lot of film jobs and there were a lot of film jobs even then when I was twentyone. And some friends of mine asked me if I wanted to work on making an educational film. I did and it was the first time. Up until that moment I didn't know what I was going to do with my life, so 1 worked in this film as a production assistant. I felt like it was the most natural and wonderful thing that I had ever really done up to that point. I just took to it immediately and felt that it probably was the only way that I was going to be able to have a voice in the culture because I felt like I needed to say somethings. But, I didn't even realize that I had that desire until I saw what it was like to be in film production. H.T. So the coming to film production was a real transformation in your sense of self? L.P. I think so. It was like finding my voice. That's what it was, even though it's a very complex undertaking. It's not a simple thing. It's easier to paint and easier, perhaps, to write. I don't know. I mean, I'm not a writer, but I imagine it's cheaper, in any case. Writing doesn't cost as much as filmmaking. H.T. The technical side of film seems overwhelming and daunting and you seem to have mastered the craft. L.P. Well, I don't know if I've mastered the craft; I've mastered mastering the craftsman. You know? I've mastered working with people and trying to have those people have the same vision-share the vision with me, and have the inspiration and the desire to fulfill that vision. I think I've accomplished that because I've been surrounded by wonderful artists. H.T. In your work with the films that you've produced, does the question of origins interest you? Chicano and Chicana literary production is very much concerned with the question of origins, the question of recovering history. How does this question affect you, if it does? L.P. Oh, yes, it does. Totally. I mean I feel like even though I'm not a writer, my best friends are writers, my son is a writer, my niece is a writer. You know literature is a thing that is very close to me. I feel it deeply in my heart. I don't have the skill. You know, I wasn't born in this country. English is not my first language. Spanish is my first language so I always felt insecure about language. But the Question of origins, I think that I've expressed it very much in my work. It definitely is a preoccupation of mine in a visual way. H.T. You talked about you being an immigrant, English being a second language . . . can I ask...? L.P. . . .Sure, ask anything. H.T. What were the tracks you made? Where was the point of origin and how did you end up in L.A.? L.P. Okay. My family comes from Chihuahua, Chihuahua City for many, many generations, as far as I can see. I mean as far as I've investigated from the 170Os, you know. My family has been in Chihuahua, and, my father's family hasn't been. My father's family was an immigrant from Zacatecas. He came into Chihuahua, met my mother, and married her. He decided that he wanted to immigrate into the United States, otherwise we would have remained in Chihuahua, I'm sure. …