Cardenas, a staff sergeant in the Army, lives in Virginia Beach, Va., with his wife and daughter. Our coach, played by Kevin Costner, built a sports powerhouse largely with the children of farmworkers in a lackluster part of the state. feeling awkward and labored. Cardenas admits hes had mixed reactions about the movie. Damacio eventually returned to McFarland and was active in the McFarland community, was loved by many, and excelled at his job as a police officer. The town is a known resort and a destination for tourist since it is situated on the shores of a large natural lake, the Lac du Bourget, which is a home to a few SPA resorts and excellent places to relax. Courtyard by Marriott has donated a room, and Cheerwine has donated bottled water for Saturday. "We were competitive, but the world of cross-country running is such an insular, quiet community that the runners were more friendly.". We saw the movie as a team, but we also wanted to invite local runners and the whole community, too.. Nonetheless, the real challenges White and his team face pull the viewer along for the ride. Thats want counts as much as a victory itself. The McFarland team continued to run races in North America, Europe, and Asia. But "I broke out too early and faded about half way through the 3-mile course," Cardenas said. Short captions for each of them at the end of the movie say they became college graduates, teachers, cops and mentors to kids in town. Now, 28 years later, Cardenas has had to relive that vexing memory because his performance is a focal part of "McFarland, USA," a film occupying theaters nationwide. June 7, 2016. He would often buy shoes and food for his runners. McFarland, USA runs an inspirational race. "But they've taken some liberties with the facts.". But Cardenas isn't just sitting around and hoping. A full body orgasm at the L.A. Phil? Why is Frank McCourt really pushing it? Maria Marisol: [reading Jose Cardenas's paper] We fly like blackbirds through the orange groves, floating on a warm wind. After work each day, he routinely goes straight to cross-country practice to work with the kids on the McFarland Youth Track club. Since his retirement, he has also traveled the country as a motivational speaker and to help promote the movie. On The Scene With Kathy King. -BakersfieldCalifornian.com Did Coach White really help the kids work in the fields? Thank you for sharing your view as his cousin. As his addiction became worse in the 90s, he got in trouble with the law and served time in a penitentiary. It was a dismal day for me at Woodward Park, Nov. 28, 1987. Too often I have found that our own will criticize those of us who want something better and different. Oscars Best Picture Winners Best Picture Winners Emmys Hispanic & Latino Voices STARmeter Awards San Diego Comic-Con New York Comic-Con Sundance Film Festival Toronto Int'l Film Festival Awards Central Festival Central All Events I began to lose track of my teammates and my town. ", Perhaps for "dramatic" reasons, the all-Hispanic team's opposition in the movie is made up exclusively of blond, privileged, preppy snobs. When we run, our spirits fly. Located in California's agriculturally rich San Joaquin Valley, McFarland is one of the poorest communities in California. The Three Diaz Brothers: Danny, David, and Damacio Victor Puentes served a sentence at the penitentiary, but continued his education and got a good job. Other questions:subscriberservices@theadvocate.com. Published 12:00 am Friday, March 27, 2015. The actor playing me takes off too fast and begins to fade halfway through the three-mile course. Hes looking forward to answering questions about the movie tomorrow evening, and to talk about whats accurate and whats not. White quickly learns that the young people of McFarland see nothing but a hardscrabble future for themselves, offering no opportunity to advance up the economic ladder. "Sometimes he wakes up and he goes crazy," Cardenas says of his son. I was born ina family where everyone goes to college. Later, Jim shows that he genuinely cares about the students when he prevents the ambitious football teams head coach from putting an injured player, Johnny Sameniego (Hector Duran), back into the game despite Johnnys importance to the team. Thank you for sharing your appreciation! DMS (degrees, minutes and seconds) format. Jims wife Cheryl makes friends with Javis girlfriend (Martha Higareda). Corrections? Thank you laura for your take on my essay. Their oldest daughter, Tami, is not depicted in the film. At the qualifier, a coach slips an offer to Jim to leave McFarland for a full-time job at a large, wealthy school. Gang problems, as depicted in the film, were a real issue in McFarland. It was awkward doing the red carpet, he says, but it was a lot of fun.. There are currently 37 luxury homes for sale in Aix-les-Bains, Auvergne-Rhne-Alpes on JamesEdition. . In response to his essay, Laura Nicole Diamond wrote an open letter to Jose to encourage him and let him know how an inspiring example he was to people. It took one of our usually slower runners to sprint mightily down the stretch. The cornerstone facts are true, but the story itself is not necessarily very accurate. He then worked at an institution in Soledad, California, followed by a job at the Substance Abuse Treatment Facility in Corcoran, California. The mantra at our house has all ways been that good luck and opportunity comes through HARD WORK. McFarland, USA 2015 Stars: Kevin Costner, Ramiro Rodriguez, Carlos Pratts, Johnny Ortiz Genre: Biography, Drama, Sport Rating: PG Runtime: 129 minutes Track coach Jim White (Kevin Costner) is a newcomer to a predominantly Latino high-school in California's Central Valley. "I never had any live chickens around where I lived and, in the 1980s, we listened to the same music as other kids - Madonna and Michael Jackson and pop things like that - in addition to Hispanic music.". "McFarland, USA Quotes." On the Scene with Mrs. Kathy King a fully discloses by the Federal Trade Commission 16 CFR, Part 255 Guide Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising. Despite the setback, the boys stick with Jim and continue training. Whites road to reinvention comes to him almost as a vision. In reality, White had been coaching the cross country team for seven years (since 1980). While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Currently, he is a correctional officer at Kern Valley State Prison in Delano, California. Your still a god as you run..any race. His wife enjoyed it more than he did, he says. Jos is my cousin & an inspiration to all the family. (Spoiler alert for movie fans who arent aware that Disney movies havehappy and dramatic endings). : I love that his story continues to inspire so many people. Meanwhile, the White family builds a bond with the McFarland community. He was never sent into combat, but after his two years were up, he joined the Army Reserves and then the National Guard for a total of seven years of military service. Jim retired in 2002 after 23 years of coaching and continued to serve as a volunteer coach occasionally. You have permission to edit this article. Like many such projects, the movie was in the works for years. You and your friends worked in the mornings before school and on the weekends in the fields picking vegetables and fruit, just about the hardest (and most important) work anyone can imagine. All together now: Ommmm and Just Win,Baby, Never a Dull Moment, With The Big QuestionsKid, Open Letter to Jose Cardenas, One of McFarland, USAs Real LifeChampions, View lauranicolediamondauthors profile on Facebook, View @LauraNDiamond1s profile on Twitter, View laurandiamonds profile on Instagram, DELIVER ME: True Confessions of Motherhood, McFarland, USA - The 1987 McFarland Cross Country Team, Open Letter to Jose Cardenas, One of "McFarland, USA"'s Real Life Champions, Forget spring cleaning in a soon-to-be empty nest. You didnt like your race performance. After high school graduation I went to junior college half an hour up Highway 99 and continued running. The scenes of the state race are the most prominent for Johnny Ortiz, the actor playing me. Here is an interview where Jim talks about the experience of filming McFarland, USA: The McFarland Cross-Country Program was bumped to Division I competition in 2014 even though McFarlands school size is much smaller than the typical Division I schools. One of these leaders was. Jim is so distraught by this incident that he begins to seriously consider leaving McFarland and accept the job offer at the wealthy school. Movies. (Jason Kempin / Getty Images). Jim doesnt want their spirits to sink too low and takes responsibility for the loss, saying it was on him. Theres make-it or break-it drama in his recruiting efforts, drama of the kind that reveals the characters of the young men and White. Maria Marisol: [reading Jose Cardenas's paper] We fly like blackbirds through the orange groves, floating on a warm wind. The movie opens Friday. 3. Some of the runners who were on the 1987 team were not depicted in the movie. 1 May 2023. In fact I was getting ready to post about the article Mr. Cardenas wrote during the movie about running through the groves. Damacio Diaz went to college, then became a police officer and a 17-year veteran of the Bakersfield Police Department as a detective. New Zealander Niki Caro (Whale Rider, North Country) directs the late 1980s-set McFarland, USA, a tightly focused drama based on the true story of White and his out-of-left-field cross-country runners. Because his citizenship application never went through, Cardenas was deported to Mexico after serving 10 years in federal prison. As everyone is celebrating and hugging, Jim goes to the Palo Alto coaches who had offered him the job and turns it down with one word: McFarland., Clearly Coach White is a big reason why they had so much success. Freelance writer Susan Shinn lives in Salisbury. After a difficult first half, a disrespectful player talks back to White in the locker room during the coachs half-time talk. Latitude and longitude coordinates are: 45.688499, 5.915300. Hey, and I would love to show the film to a certain Donald T. so he could learn from Mexican American Power and warmth and character, tenacity and team spirit. "We had no idea, with him not performing that day, if . Yours sincerely, Bettina, Johnny, Alexis and Natalia from Paraguay. Second, there was a lot of good old-fashioned hard work. Team God bless you , I really enjoyed your article Mrs. Laura Diamond, and I am watching McFarland as I write. Jose, one of their key runners, starts out too fast. The all-Latino cross-country Cougar teammates at McFarland High School, residents of Californias farm-heavy Central Valley, arent the storys only underdogs. Johnny Sameniego and the six other runners were all close friends and in an interview for the movie, he mentioned that they all grew up living within a quarter mile of each other and did everything together. Nearly three decades later, Jose Cardenas is still bothered by that one race. John Ortiz as Jose Cardenas in "McFarland, USA." McFarland, USA John Ortiz as Jose Cardenas, Ramiro Rodriguez as Danny Diaz, Carlos Pratts as Thomas Valles, Sergio Avelar as Victor Puentes, Michael Aguero as Damacio Diaz, Kevin Costner as Jim White, Hector Duran as Johnny Sameniego and Rafael Martinez as David Diaz in "McFarland, USA." Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. Marsh says she hopes the movie will help her runners understand that hard work pays off. He is in excellent physical shape and he continues to exercise even though he no longer competes. Jose Cardenas became a writer for The Los Angeles Times and is currently serving his country in the U.S. army. The team really did call Jim Blanco as a nickname. The International Womens Media Foundation supported Erika Aguilar'sreporting from Tijuana, Mexico as part of the Adelante Latin America Reporting Initiative. It saddens me that he viewed the race as the biggest disappointment of his youth, but in the same sense I admire his vulnerability & honesty. Its taken me awhile to warm up to it., Jim White, portrayed by Kevin Costner, was the team coach. It gives me great pleasure to hear from you, and that you found something you needed in my letter to Jose Cardenas. The Disney studio, maybe, should thank me for adding a little drama but, all these years later, I'm having to relive it.". The town and running are synonymous. Im so glad my essay from 2015 found you in 2022. We would have crushed the team that finished second. "People like Rita Peebles, a cook in the cafeteria who slipped five bucks into my pocket before every away meet so I wouldn't go hungry when the bus stopped at a McDonald's.". Your personal disappointment gave another teammate (who, according to the movie, had nothing to offer the team butkeeping his faster brothers on the team) his first chance to make adifference. . "They wanted the farm kids in the movie," Cardenas said. McFarland, USA, its leading man Costner and the seven novice actors who play the storys cross-country team run their feel-good story to the finish line in inspirational style. McFarland USA will choke up undemanding viewers, but there isn't enough in it to be remembered as a great sports film. It isnt an important hobby of mine, but what you had to say about it is very applicable to my life right now, so Id like to simply say thank you, Dear Gabriella, Great reminder that we can revisit the things that inspire us. Goes Out newsletter, with the week's best events, to help you explore and experience our city. Another accident killed McFarlands football coach and several beloved students from the school. Cardenas and his wife, Melody who has family in Rowan County attended the movies premiere, and got to meet the actor who portrayed him, as well as Costner. Still, my heart began to sink when a screening of McFarland, USA rolled around to its climax. Eventually sophomore Danny Diaz crossed in 91st (68th) to close out the scoring. Two of us were absent when Disney spent two weeks on location and filmed the rest of my teammates going for a jog in the fields where we used to train. White really did go and work in the fields and pick crops with his runners to show support to them and their families, as it is portrayed in the film. But by going out so fast, I had endangered our dream. Get our L.A. You will guide her throughheartbreak or disappointment byscrolling through your youth,looking for a moment that fills yourreservoir of empathy. Their coach, Jim White, a non-Latino newcomer to the McFarland community, is, in the eyes of many, a loser, too. Jose Cardenas Carlos Pratts. Jim White never lived in Boise, Idaho, he never taught high school (he taught middle school but later coached high school sports), he was never fired from his teaching job for having an outburst against a student, and he did not have a troublesome teaching career before starting at McFarland. Even that teaches everyone who sees your story to see these truths: 1. He says McFarland, a small town south of Fresno, in California's San Joaquin Valley, was more urban and less ethnically polarized than is pictured in the movie. I hope you continue writing even as you pursue your career in the Army. The opening sequences of the film are fictional. Sending love & good vibes your way, always. He has a wife and a daughter. 2. Jose Cardenas, McFarland's expected No. (LogOut/ So happy they all turned out to be heroes. JamesEdition can help you find the home that match all the preferences for your dream home. He was drafted and served in the Army's 82nd Airborne division between 1970 and 1972. Jim buys Julie a nice dress and has a wonderful time with Julie at the party, even dancing with his daughter who is overwhelmed with joy. He served four years in the Coast Guard and did maritime law enforcement. However, Centennial High School was not formed until 1993. After high school graduation, Danny Diaz attended Bakersfield Junior College and Fresno State, then became a teacher and counselor at McFarland High School. I never get tired of reading the essay & watching the movie. No stupid Mexicans. Besides the tragic death of the two girls on the cross-country team, there were many other tragedies in the same year: on Valentines Day, a car crash claimed the lives of six teenagers, four of whom were from McFarland. Do you have any thoughts about those experiences youd like to share? "It worries me because you never know whats going to happen, and you cant do nothing here," he says. See agents for this cast & crew on IMDbPro Directed by . This movie has been an awesome inspiration to me, cause it takes back to my childhood years, and how tough it was at times, but I had the type of parents, and Im so happy to say, that were always pushing us to be better. Cardenas, however, returned recently from the movie's premiere in Los Angeles with mixed feelings. Stay in touch. That was my normal, and that was good.". The incident costs White his job, and, with no other employment choices, he moves out of town with his wife Cheryl (Maria Bello) and two daughters, Julie (Morgan Saylor) and Jamie (Elsie Fisher). Im in the Army, he says, so I have to stay in shape.. The inspirational message of the movie is essentially true. Jim White and his wife Cheryl have three daughters. Ester Marsh, the Ys fitness director and active with the Ys Warriors track team, is thrilled about Cardenas appearance. Im still active and I still run, said David in a recent interview. Population stats are from the United States Census Bureau. If you read some of the stories, some of them are pretty crazy. In the movie and reality McFarland did barely win state when our usual sixth man, Danny Diaz, whose place in races had not counted all season, moved up to fifth, the last runner whose place counts. The McFarland team continued to run races in North America, Europe, and Asia. We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly. The students spend long hours with their parents picking cotton, sugar beets, almonds, citrus and grapes in the areas vast produce fields. After graduating high school in 1990, Johnny went to College of the Sequoias and competed as a runner from 1990-1992. I told you we would win with or without you, our coach, Jim White, told me on the bus ride home from Fresno. According to an interview, both he Cheryl, have seen the movie three times and cried three times. According to People Magazine, even Oscar winner Costner was impressed by the man he portrays in the new Disney film. Road map of Aix-les-Bains, Auvergne-Rhne-Alpes, France shows where the location is placed. He had been in a bad way since his oldest son was killed in a gang shooting. And then there is his most uncomfortable moment in the movie - as in life. She eventually concluded that it was good for them as long as they still worked. The community teams up with the White family to raise money for better uniforms for the cross-country team, and they throw a delightful quinceaera party for Julies 15th birthday. This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/place/Aix-les-Bains, CRW Flags - Flag of Aix les Bains, France. Jose Cardenas Person By Stan Silverman - Guest Columnist, Philadelphia Business Journal Oct 12, 2015 Many leaders have a significant impact on the lives of others. Disgraced former Bakersfield Police Department detective Damacio Diaz, one of the real-life heroes of the movie "McFarland USA," was sentenced Monday in U.S. District Court in Fresno to five . He does a great job. The land is ours. Costners coach, a man wholl do what he thinks is right despite the consequences, is quickly relieved of his assistant football coaching duties at McFarland. Please feel free to share with your friends by click on the share button. Disney Pictures can thank me, I guess, for creating some true drama To this day, I dont know why I went out uncharacteristically fast. The McFarland, USA true story confirms that at first, the mother of the Diaz brothers -- David, Damacio and Danny -- forbid them from competing. He's fighting to get back to the country he and his family have served for decades. Not immigrant no more. "Life is not just one race," he said. Johnny Ortiz, an actor who held roles in the Kevin Costner-led film "McFarland USA," and "El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie," has been charged with attempted murder, Fox News has confirmed. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). As the race begins, something goes wrong right away. Not immigrant no more. We speak to the gods. Le explica a White que comenz trabajar en los campos a los 10 aos. Jose Cardenas became a writer for The Los Angeles Times and is currently serving his country in the U.S. army. Below are 10 McFarland Fun Facts that will inspire and give you a wonderful background about the movie. Have a team. All he had to do was run as he had all season - not necessarily finish first, just well enough to earn points for a team victory. "People forget that the Army has boats, too, and this has fulfilled my greatest chances to sail all over the world - the Caribbean and now off Dubai.". Danny Diaz. They were a family. A summer and winter resort with a beach on Bourget Lake (Frances largest lake) and an aerial cableway up fir-covered Mount Revard (5,125 feet [1,562 metres]), it is a fashionable Alpine spa maintaining the sedate luxury of the Victorian era. Mr. White was our physical education teacher, and thats when he first encouraged us to run cross-country. The Cougars finished sixth last week at the CIF Central Section Championships at Woodward Park in Fresno. Change). "They have to add up the average.". You inspired me Jose Cardenas!!! I havent ran another race since middle school because of it. In fact quite the opposite it was an inspiring, a wonderful example of perseverance and what it means to work as a team. Try to see differently. Dr. Barragan, I appreciate your comment and couldnt agree more. Jose, you are a success & a hero. The film only depicts two. We watched the movie together and they loved it. On the way home, Jim stops by the beach in Cayucos and lets the runners have an afternoon of fun there because theyve never seen the ocean before. At the end of the celebration, Lupe and Javi take Julie in a traditional parade of cars down the boulevard. Thomas is the head coach of the McFarland Track Club for kids and I help him with that. The company also supplied soft drinks for a gift basket for the speaker, which also includes goodies from Catawba College and the Y. The movie was about much more than a state championship race, it was about the people you became. Thomas Valles attended and ran for the College of the Sequoias after he graduated from high school.

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