On February 19, 2015, 6:30-9 pm in the UNM SUB Ballroom C, film director Maria Agui Carter will screen her film Rebel (75 minutes), which presents the amazing story of Loreta Janeta Velazquez, who crossdressed as a Confederate soldier turned Union Spy. Following the screening, the director will discuss Velazquez with UNM’s Dr. Jesse Alemán, who has studied and written about her. There is no charge and all are welcome.

Who was Loreta Janeta Velazquez?  And what made her so dangerous she has been virtually erased from history? A 19th century woman of many disguises who was born in Havana and raised in New Orleans, Velazquez was a rebel from the start, a precocious Cuban tomboy who idolized Joan of Arc. One of the 1000 women said to have fought in the Civil War, she altered her sex, her ethnicity, and her very identity in order to become a Confederate soldier (alias Lieutenant Harry Buford), to spy for the Confederacy then become a double agent for the Union, and then exposed her secret in a memoir, The Woman in Battle, which chronicles her often tragic life. Yet for the last 150 years, her story has been dismissed as a hoax. Carter’s film Rebel unlocks this mystery with a non-traditional approach that plays with form and style to create an impressive body of evidence.
 
The presentation of Rebel and the discussion to follow are made possible by: the American Studies Department, the College of Arts & Sciences, the Center for Regional Studies, the Department of English Language and Literature, the English Graduate Student Association, the Feminist Research Institute, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, the History Department, the Office of the Provost, and the Philosophy Department.
 
Check out the trailor:
http://goo.gl/6u3wjA
 
Check out 3 min. behind the scenes - INCLUDES MARIA AGUI CARTER, Prod.,Director & Writer AND CALVIN LINDSAY, producer
http://goo.gl/tC0nG