Documentary produced by the CHAPS team at UTRGV wins cinematography award
LA JOYA, Texas - For the faculty involved in the Community Historical Archaeology Project with Schools (CHAPS) Program at UT-Rio Grande Valley it is all about the students, the program’s project director says.
Roseann Bacha-Garza gave the Rio Grande Guardian an update on the program during a recent interview in La Joya.
“We have a core faculty that have been working together since the inception of CHAPS in 2009 and we're all about experiential learning, bringing our students into the mix and giving them that hands on experience and that opportunity to learn just how rich and wonderful the history of the Rio Grande Valley of Texas is,” Bacha-Garza said.
“So, for example, if you drive up the road into Rio Grande City, you'll drive right by a 27.4-million-year-old volcanic ash deposit that was mined for the building of Falcon Dam to make Roman concrete.”
The Guardian met up with Bacha-Garza as she and another member of the Hidalgo County Historical Commission, Gabriel Ozuna, helped the Texas Department of Transportation unveil a new historical marker that signified the first oil well to be drilled in Hidalgo County.
In her remarks at the unveiling of the marker, Bacha-Garza spoke about the former town of San Fordyce in western Hidalgo County.
“This area we're standing in is a very historic part of our country that's been overlooked for years. There are a lot of really interesting topics here to study,” Bacha-Garza said.
By way of example, Bacha-Garza referenced to the old town of Havana and a burial site of a Union soldier, Patricio Perez.
“If you drive to the east of here, you'll see Patricio Perez Drive. You can take that straight down to the old Military Telegraph Road. If you turn to the left, you will see a farmhouse that's now in ruins. It used to be directly on the Rio Grande. But now the river is maybe a quarter mile away. Patricio Perez and Havana are part of our Rio Grande Valley Civil War Trail project. We have a very rich history here.”
Bacha-Garza pointed out that CHAPS recently won an award at the Edinburg-based South Texas International Film Festival (STIFF).
“We developed our “Ancient Landscapes of South Texas: Hiding in Plain Sight” documentary film and it was selected for the 2024 South Texas International Film Festival. It is an exploration of the geologic history of the Rio Grande Valley,” Bacha-Garza said.
“It won the award for Best South Texas Cinematography. So, we're very, very excited about that.”
The CHAPS film was entered in the South Texas Cinematography category at STIFF. The documentary explores the Valley’s 50 million years of geologic history, featuring ancient beaches, salt lakes, a cataclysmic volcanic eruption, Pleistocene megafauna and the impacts of a large river. It also shows how prehistoric people benefited from the area’s resources, and how it is being reshaped by human occupants.
According to a UTRGV press release the team that worked on the film included:
• Dr. Juan L. González, professor of Geology for UTRGV College of Science, School of Earth, Environmental, and Marine Sciences (SEEMS); CHAPS Program Co-Director; documentary film executive producer.
• Dr. Christopher L. Miller, professor of History for UTRGV College of Liberal Arts; CHAPS Program Associate Director; documentary film associate producer.
• Dr. Russell K. Skowronek – professor of History and Anthropology for UTRGV College of Liberal Arts; CHAPS Program Director; documentary film associate producer.
• Roseann Bacha-Garza – Lecturer II Anthropology for College of Liberal Arts; CHAPS Program Manager; documentary film associate producer.
• Gerardo "Bull" Sanchez – Little Tex Productions film company; documentary film director.
Accompanying the film is “Ancient Landscapes of South Texas,” a traveling exhibit put together by UTRGV students enrolled in the “Discovering the Rio Grande Valley” class, and UTRGV faculty involved with CHAPS.
The exhibit displays artifacts and information about natural landscapes discovered around the Valley.
Bacha-Garza said the team was excited to find out they were an “Official Selection” for STIFF, especially in a competitive field of 75 entries chosen to be shown during the festival.
She said she hopes people who see the film and exhibit come away with an appreciation for the history surrounding them in the Valley.
“We would like people to not only enjoy the beauty of the Rio Grande Valley, but also to consider how development is removing our valuable natural resources and reshaping our natural landscapes,” Bacha-Garza said.
“The Ancient Landscapes of South Texas project shows the world that we can put our best foot forward by revealing the natural beauty of this borderland region we call home.”
The CHAPS page on UTRGV’s website states:
The Community Historical Archaeology Project with Schools (CHAPS) Program is a consortium of UTRGV faculty, lecturers, and staff who work locally and have embraced the teacher/scholar model in academe wherein scholarly enquiry is intertwined with K-17 education and community engagement. These are scholars who look beyond their disciplines and Colleges in order to create new knowledge that is greater than the sum of its parts. Today it contains the scholarly disciplines of Anthropology (Russell K. Skowronek), Biology (Kenneth R. Summy), Communication (Dina Vera), Education (Rolando Avila), Geology (Juan Gonzalez), and History (Christopher Miller). Our work is made possible through the efforts of our Project Director Roseann Bacha-Garza, who is also a contributing scholar, and Lecturer for graduate and undergraduate students from anthropology, business, geology, and history.
On campus we work with other faculty from Anthropology (Sarah Rowe) and History (Irving Levinson, Charles Waite), with the Border Studies Archive (Guy Duke, Shantal Brissette, and Rocio Diaz) and Special Collections in the UTRGV Library (Shannon Pensa), faculty and students from the College of Business and The University Marketing and Creative Services. Off campus we have developed relationships with the National Park Service, the Museum of South Texas History, the Zapata County Historical Museum, Revive Fort Ringgold, Webb County Heritage Foundation, and the Brownsville Historical Museum.
