# EP062: Back To The Root w/ David Alvarado

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/doc-walks-7327673/ep062-back-to-the-root-w-david-alvarado
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/doc-walks-7327673/ep062-back-to-the-root-w-david-alvarado.md
Podcast: [Doc Walks](https://stenobird.com/podcast/doc-walks-7327673)
Published: 2026-07-23T12:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://docwalkspod.com/ep062-back-to-the-root-w-david-alvarado
Audio file: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/769d52a5-d399-4750-a0ce-f637076f16a6/DW_EP60_DAVIDALVARADO_JUSTAUDIO.mp3?dest-id=4997995
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/doc-walks-7327673/episodes/ep062-back-to-the-root-w-david-alvarado
Duration seconds: 4346

## Resource

Spark up a big cigar with Ben and filmmaker David Alvarado in honor of Luis Valdez, the central figure in Alvarado's new film AMERICAN PACHUCO (playing Austin's Cine Las Américas). A Dallas kid turned Brooklyn doc-maker, David found his calling twice: once when LA BAMBA (1987) showed him a Chicano family reaching the American dream, and again when a college cinéma-vérité class screened A TIME FOR BURNING (1966), which blew the medium wide open for him. We trace the whole arc—from a high-school dropout turned straight-A student at the University of North Texas, to the Stanford MFA where David partnered with Jason Sussberg and built Structure Films. Then there's the science trilogy: THE IMMORTALISTS (their $400K-and-ramen first feature), BILL NYE: SCIENCE GUY (a record-smashing Kickstarter, now in the Library of Congress), and WE ARE AS GODS, the Stewart Brand doc that was spun into an eight-hour Audible series. But right now, we're puffing smoke about AMERICAN PACHUCO, a tribute to a personal hero—Luis Valdez, the playwright behind ZOOT SUIT and LA BAMBA. The doc won the U.S. Audience Award at Sundance this year amid ICE-raid headlines, and David makes the case that the Chicano story is the American story—right down to the cigar in our hands, pure American tobacco the Maya smoked before Columbus set foot on these shores. This one goes deep (to the indigenous root) as we hit the trail and take hits on these stogies with Sundance-winner David Alvarado. DISCUSSION LINKS: AMERICAN PACHUCO: THE LEGEND OF LUIS VALDEZ (2026) | THE IMMORTALISTS (2014) | BILL NYE: SCIENCE GUY (2017) | WE ARE AS GODS (2021) | LA BAMBA (1987) | ZOOT SUIT (1981) | A TIME FOR BURNING (1966) | TRUE CONVICTION (2017) | OFF THE CHARTS: THE SONG-POEM STORY (2003) | THE KING OF KONG: A FISTFUL OF QUARTER…

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