By: Jenny Castro
Los Angeles, CA (The Hollywood Times) 8/30/24 – Premiering Monday September 2nd and Tuesday September 3rd at 9 pm on A&E, “The Chicano Squad” is a docuseries that goes behind the scenes regarding the only Latino Homicide Squad Unit in Houston during the latter part of the 1970’s. For those unfamiliar, the word “Chicano” itself is a description to describe Mexican Americans hence the name “Chicano Squad.” Within the documentary, audiences will be treated to archival footage and photos of former police officers, detectives, plus interviews from members of the Chicano Squad who provide their first count experiences during their time on the Houston Police Force. At the time, homicide rates amongst Hispanics were at an all-time high, and corruption inside the Houston Police Department along with discrimination and police brutality took its toll on the disregarded number of Hispanic crimes and homicides in the local community. According to the documentary, 664 murders took place in Houston during 1979 with 1 out of 4 victims of Hispanic descent. Due to the rising crime rates, the Houston Police Department begins to look into ways to combat the rising murders within the Latino community.
Officer Jim Montero is eventually tasked with putting together an adequate squad of bilingual English and Spanish speaking officers to solve unsolved crimes and regain the trust of the Hispanic community. Montero says in the film, ““I wanted to make a difference and solve crimes relating to Spanish speaking people.” Featuring interviews from other Chicano Squad members including José Selvera, Raymond Gonzales, U.P. Hernández, and Cecil Mosqueda, the docuseries brings to the light the incredible job and undaunting tasks the officers were faced with as they battled inexperience, discrimination and mistrust. Featuring two parts, audiences will be treated to an undeniably significant part of our country’s history as it relates to culture, discrimination, and a broken criminal justice system.
Tune it to watch this riveting and historically important docuseries on A&E.
Official A&E website here.
