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• ABOUT
  • About this Digital Exhibition
  • Severo Perez and The Wittliff Collections
    • Severo Perez donates his archive (press release)
    • The Severo Perez Papers at the Wittliff Collections (finding aid)
    • Severo Perez discusses “…and the earth did not swallow him” at Texas State University (1998 video)
    • Severo Perez at the Wittliff Collections (2014 video)
  • Watch the film
• STORY & SCRIPT
  • THE NOVEL: y no se lo tragó la tierra by Tomás Rivera
    • “Envisioning the Screenplay”
  • FILM RIGHTS
    • Working with Tomás Rivera
    • Acquiring the rights from Concha Rivera
  • RESEARCH
    • Tomás Rivera’s family in Crystal City
    • Location Scouting: Following Tomás’ footsteps
    • The novel’s “true stories”
    • Don Cleto/Leto story
    • The historical Bartolo Ortiz
  • WRITING THE SCREENPLAY
    • “The Challenge: Adapting for film”
    • Finding the Narrative: “from the tomb to resurrection”
    • First draft in 3 weeks
    • Creating a “Tapestry”
    • “Too much tragedy”
    • Adapting from Spanish
    • Script Rewrites
  • PRODUCERS
  • FUNDING
    • National Endowment for the Humanities
    • PBS/American Playhouse
    • Other funders
• CAST
  • José Alcala as Marcos
  • Rose Portillo as Florentina.
  • Marco Rodriguez as Joaquin
  • Daniel Valdez as Bartolo
  • Lupe Ontiveros as Doña Rosa
  • Sam Vlahos as Don Cleto
  • Art Bonilla as Lalo
  • Evelyn Guerrero as Lupita
  • Castulo Guerra as the photo salesman
  • Full Cast
• FILMING/PRODUCTION
  • Giving the film a “Heartbeat”
  • Storyboards
  • Storyboard sequence: Calling the Devil
  • Locations
    • Why Crystal City wouldn’t work
    • Location breakdowns
    • Location budgets
    • Chino, California
    • Piru, California used as Crystal City
    • Minnesota
  • Shooting Schedule
  • Budget
  • Art/Production Design
    • Russell Lee historic photos
    • Marcos under the house
    • Gonzales family home
    • Doña Rosa’s and Don Cleto’s House
    • Painting and dressing sets
    • Art Department Budget
  • Cinematographer
  • Script Supervisor/Continuity Photos
  • Scene: Marcos’s sister collapses in the field
  • Deleted Scenes
  • Wrap party
  • Crew Photos/Full Production Credits
• POST-PRODUCTION
  • “the film spoke to me”
  • Editing
  • Sound
  • Music
  • Censorship
• ACCLAIM & AWARDS
  • Awards
  • Press kit
  • Reviews
  • Original airing on PBS
  • Film Festivals & Screenings
    • Américo Paredes’ reaction
    • Santa Barbara
    • Cinesol
    • Cairo
    • Moscow
    • Chile
  • Distribution - Challenges
  • 20 Years later- “It almost seems like a dream”