The University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh will host a screening of “Ugly Little Monkeys” as part of its Hispanic Heritage Month celebration and Academia Popular de Mariachi program.
The documentary tells the story of Los Changuitos Feos de Tucson, the first youth mariachi band in the United States, its rise to fame and a dark secret that remained hidden for nearly 60 years. Founded in Tucson, Arizona, in the 1960s, Los Changuitos became widely known and helped inspire schools across the country to establish their own mariachi programs.
“Ugly Little Monkeys” explores the band’s legacy, adversity and triumph.
“I think in a way the documentary does a lot of things for us at the university. We want to show on the one hand, these are the stories of the United States; these are the stories of the Latino community in the United States,” said Dr. Juan Garcia Oyervides, director of UW-Oshkosh’s Chicano and Latinx Studies. “At the same time, it’s in a sense we’re not exempt from all these other social dynamics and risks … these are very, very heavy things that literally could happen to anybody.”
At UW-Oshkosh, there is no actual mariachi program, but the university does organize events to stoke interest in it. In 2023, it started its Academia Popular de Mariachi, or the People’s Mariachi Academy in English.
The academy is an interdisciplinary series, led by Dr. Oyervides, that brings mariachi bands, lectures and workshops to the area. It has partnered with other mariachi ensembles in Wisconsin and with the University of Texas at Austin’s Mariachi Paredes de Tejasty. The previous year it partnered with Grand Oshkosh, an opera house local to the area, and will again this year.
“That initiative was originally to bring awareness and education and a little bit of performance and enjoyment around mariachi culture in Wisconsin in general, and that was very well received,” Dr. Oyervides. “We had really, really good support from the community, business owners, and just people attending the events, and so we were able. We have been able to bring back mariachi from other places in the country for about a week every October for Hispanic Heritage Month.”
Oshkosh isn’t the place people tend to think of when it comes to mariachi, Dr. Oyervides said. But it still strives to build the culture around the music and history for those who may not have grown up around it or don’t know too much about it.
“This is an opportunity for them to come and learn a little bit more behind the scenes of the culture, and for the people who have been supporters and really know a lot about mariachi music, and they like it and enjoy it, this is another opportunity for them to come and learn a little bit more deeply about the social aspects and the social dynamics that allowed this culture to arise in the first place,” he said.
While the documentary does rehash the legacy Los Changuitos has across the nation — especially with mariachi — Dr. Oyervides is excited for another opportunity that the documentary’s directors may not remember.
Actor Enrique Castillo, who co-directed the documentary with David Valdez, has a previous history with the university from the 70s. Back then, as Castillo started his acting career, he was part of a California-based Chicano theatre company, El Teatro Campesino.
The theatre company performed in both English and Spanish across the country and made a stop at the university before.
“They were really one of the earliest examples of how that whole political student movement flourished, and that’s something that we haven’t done a really good job at keeping track of that history,” Dr. Oyervides said. “To have him back in the university, I don’t know if he remembers that or not, but we’ll ask him about that. All of this is to say that bringing back [him] and having the opportunity to invite the film to be at UW Oshkosh gives us the opportunity to revisit that story as well.”
UW-Oshkosh’s screening of “Ugly Little Monkeys” will be held Sept. 11 starting at 4 p.m. at the university’s Reeve Memorial Union, 748 Algoma Blvd., in room 306.
A Q&A with the directors will be held afterward. It is free to attend; no registration is required.
“Ugly Little Monkeys” is also available to purchase online, as the documentary is not expected to be released on streaming platforms anytime soon.
