I Am Joaquin is a 1969 short film (20 minutes) directed by Luis Valdez.
It is an adaptation of the poem "I Am Joaquin
" by Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzales. In Gonzales's poem "Joaquin" is not a specific person but a symbolic voice of Chicano culture. The poem, as read by Valdez over the course of the movie, recounts 500 years of Chicano history, from Cuahutemoc and the Aztecs, their conquest by the Spanish, and the Mexican war of independence, through the revolutions of Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata, and finally to Chicano pride and defiance in the face of discrimination and oppression by Anglos in the United States. As the poem plays out, the film unrolls a series of evocative images which reinforce the themes and provide a visual history of the Chicano experience.
Tropes:
- Decapitation Presentation: Not shown, but alluded to twice. The poem recounts the mounting of the severed head of Father Hidalgo who had fought against the Spanish. And when the poem mentions Joaquin Murrieta (the inspiration for Zorro, as it happens), the film shows the 1853 poster advertising the display of what was supposedly Murrieta's head.
- Evil Colonialist: "The Spanish master who ruled with tyranny" and oppressed the natives.
- I Am the Noun: I Am Joaquin
- The Ken Burns Effect: Used nonstop from the beginning of the film to the end. There is no live footage in the movie, just 20 minutes of still photographs, with the camera panning and zooming to bring the photos to life.
- Staggered Zoom: Onto a photo of Benito Juarez as the poem recounts how Juarez fought for Mexico against the French.
