WKAR Film Preview Las Marthas Debutante Ball-Laredo, Texas

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WKAR routinely holds what they call “Community Cinema” outside of their MSU Studio and decided to show a free preview of the film “Las Marthas” at Cristo Rey Church. Las Marthas dates back to the aftermath of the U.S.-Mexico War, the annual debutante ball in Laredo, Texas. Las Marthas follows two Mexican-American girls carrying this gilded tradition on their young shoulders during a time of economic uncertainty and political tension over immigration. After about 30 minutes of watching the film, Mary Delgado and Veronica Madrid served as panelists to offer thoughts and answer questions from the 25 people in attendance. Also during the discussion, Cristo Rey Church member Veronica Garza displayed her dress and reflected on her very own Quinceanera and what it meant to her going forward in life. Although the film had nothing to do with Quinceanera’s as most of us watching had previously thought, it was interesting as it went thru the preparation of two young ladies who did not know each other and they appear to share openly what they went thru to get to that day. Many in attendance never heard of Las Marthas, but with over 100 years of tradition and with the average cost of one dress estimated at $15,000, can you imagine the stress they went thru to get everything right? Some clips from the film can be seen at: http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/las-marthas/ Las Marthas airs tonight, Monday, Feb. 17, 10 p.m. on WKAR-TV/PBS. Also, it will be available online at some point and if you check back to this same posting, I will try to embed it here. You can also go to the following link to access the film in its entirety (when available) as well as several other films that PBS has broadcast. http://video.pbs.org/program/independent-lens/