“Rebel,” will premiere on PBS, Channel 5, at 10 p.m. Friday, May 24

Actress Romi Dias as Loreta Velázquez/Harry T. Buford
in PBS’ Rebel, premiering Friday



http://www.abqjournal.com/main/2013/05/19/blogs/life-of-secret-female-soldier-on-pbs.html

 Loreta Velázquez has a role in history – and it’s a significant one.

The Cuban immigrant was one of the estimated 1,000 women who secretly served as soldiers during the American Civil War.

Velázquez is the subject of director María Agui Carter’s new film, “Rebel,” which will premiere on PBS, Channel 5, at 10 p.m. Friday, May 24. It’s part of the Voces series.

This film relies on literary and historical scholarship, such as the book by our own Professor Jesse Alemán, based on rich original resources, such as The Woman in Battle: A Narrative of the Exploits, Adventures, and Travels of Madame Loreta Janeta Velázquez, her 1876 autobiography.

The Woman in Battle: The Civil War Narrative of Loreta Velázquez, Cuban Woman & Confederate Soldier

by Velázquez, Loreta Janeta and Alemán, Jesse

Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press

Agui Carter’s documentary focuses not only on the extraordinary circumstances of Velázquez’s military service, but emphasizes her much more dangerous act — publishing her memoir. The narrative’s importance is theorized by interviews with U.S. Latino literature and history scholars Jesse Alemán and Vicki L. Ruiz, who note that Velázquez’s critique of the Confederacy influenced Civil War print culture and the ideology of the Lost Cause, which cast the Confederates as brave and noble, overcome by sheer force rather than the Union’s superior martial skill. http://sacurrent.com/screens/film/loreta-vel%C3%A1zquez-the-secret-soldier-of-the-civil-war-1.1492420