January 8, 2024 • 66 mins
In this episode of the California Frontier Podcast, Damian interviews Trudi Angell, producer of the documentary film La Récua (The Mule Pack Train).
La Récua follows the story of Darío Higuera, a 70-year-old Baja California ranchero, who dreams of recreating an early-20th-century mule train transporting traditional goods from Comondú to La Paz in southern Baja California.
Accompanied by his son, 8-year-old grandson, and friends, Darïo plans to travel 200 miles on mule-back through the daunting Baja outback, retracing historical routes and discovering never-before-filmed sections of El Camino Real.
Along the way, the travelers face dangers, encounter old and new friends, and exchange memories, providing viewers with insights into the traditional lifestyle of Baja California’s backcountry ranchers.
The documentary uses breathtaking cinematography and captivating storytelling to take the viewer on a legendary journey into Californio vaquero history.
The official website of La Récua: https://larecua.com/
The California Frontier Project: https://www.californiafrontier.net
California History Teachers: https://www.californiahistoryteachers.com
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Contact:
damian@californiafrontier.net
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Damian Bacich (00:00):
I am here with Trudy Angel, and this is
something I've really beenlooking forward to talking to
her about this wonderfuldocumentary that she made called
La Récua.
So Trudy, um, can you tell us alittle bit about yourself before
we talk about the, uh, thedocumentary, which I loved and I
(00:21):
hope everybody gets a chance tosee.
Can, can you give us a littlebit about, uh, background about
yourself and, and maybe, youknow, how you wound up exactly
getting into a project likethis.
trudi-angell_2_09-13-2023_ (00:33):
Yes, it's quite a story.
Uh, and thank you Damien, forinviting me on the show, and I
was really thrilled to find yourwebsite.
Uh, as I've been cruising aroundlooking at who might just be
interested in this film, andthat's how I found you is, uh,
going to the al I love yourt-shirt, Alta California
(00:54):
established in 1769.
I need to get
Damian Bacich (00:57):
You know what?
I didn't know when I came upwith the idea for that t-shirt
is that up in the SierraFoothills, there's actually a
town called Alta California, Ihave run into a few people who
were asking me if, if it wasabout that town, I was like, no,
it's
Trudi Angell (01:18):
no then you, then you end up getting into a long
story with them.
I bet.
Damian Bacich (01:22):
yeah, exactly.
Exactly.
Trudi Angell (01:25):
Well, basically that's how I got started with
this whole story and this whole,this whole film.
Um, I started going down toBaja.
I I was born and raised, uh,here in Calistoga, California.
Damian Bacich (01:39):
That's right.
You and I have the Napa Valleyconnection.
Trudi Angell (01:42):
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
You were in Saint Helena and,um, so I was, yeah, born and
raised here.
I had horses when I was ateenager, rode all over the
valley and up into the hillsand, and, um, so that was kind
of my background here.
Did a lot of swimming at thelocal swimming pools here in
Calistoga.
(02:03):
And so I was kind of outdoorsy.
And so back when I was 20, uh,in about, oh, when was that?
Uh, 19, uh, 75, 76.
It was when I picked up acatalog for the National Outdoor
Leadership School, uh, Knowles.
And it's based in Lander,Wyoming, actually, uh, since the
(02:26):
late sixties.
And, because I wasn'tparticularly interested in snow
camping, I.
Uh, this was winter time that Ipicked up the brochure and I saw
this ad for, um, a trip down toBaja to learn sea kayaking.
And I thought, oh, good sun andsand and beaches.
That sounds more my style.
(02:48):
And so I signed up to do a, a 12day course and I ended up
staying six weeks, uh, buying akayak when I got back up here to
California, Alta, California,and then ended up, um, Just
traveling down to Baja quite abit.
And I always did well withlanguage, with Spanish in
(03:10):
school, both in St.
Helena when I went to RobertLouis Stevenson, as you probably
did, and then also to, uh, inCalistoga High School here.
And so I, I just, it kind of fitwhen I went down and I started
driving my old 1964 RamblerAmerican down the Baja Highway
with my folding kayak on top ofit.
(03:32):
Uh, it became a lifestyle, ittruly, or a lifestyle for many,
many years.
And so finally in the earlyeighties, I started, I was, I
was in the right place at theright time when sea kayaking as
adventure travel and, um, Youknow, Baja as a destination kind
of, kind of came together, youknow, and so I knew the
(03:56):
coastline.
I, uh, and I started runningkayak tours small at first, but
then it worked into a nicelittle business and a, and a fun
lifestyle.
But somewhere in there, also inabout the mid eighties, a friend
of mine who had been takingpeople up into the rock art
canyons in Baja, uh, to look atindigenous paintings, amazing,
(04:20):
um, world Heritage class now,uh, indigenous cave paintings.
And they invited me out on amule pack trip.
So I hadn't really ridden sinceI was in high school.
And now I was about in my late,uh, twenties, maybe around 30.
And I got on a mule and thought,Ugh, I wanna be a cowgirl.
(04:42):
I.
And so I, I ended up, uh,starting to ride around, bought
my own horse.
By then I was living in Loretoduring seasonally coming up to
Calistoga as I still continue todo in the summertime.
And then I kept going back downto Baja and I would start
leading some mule pack tripstoo.
(05:04):
Uh, and basically I got out onthose El Camino real trails, the
very first El Camino real trailson the west coast of North
America, which started in whatwe now know as Cabo.
And then, um, you know, ended upall the way up here in, in
(05:24):
Monterey and Sonoma being thefinal one.
And I thought, oh, what a funconnection.
You know, I've been in theSonoma area all my life, and now
I'm in the area in Loreto whereall of this Mission California
missions, um,.The indigenoushistories of, of the people on
(05:45):
the, on the CaliforniaPeninsula.
And of course, as you know,California, the first,
California was where I liveright now in Loreto and farther
south to us.
That's where the Explorers landand first started calling it the
island of California.
And so that's, that's how I kindof became my interest in the
(06:06):
history of the area and ridingwith the cowboys and visiting
the women and the children andthe people on the ranches.
And so it just became anotherpart of a lifestyle.
I kind of handed off my, my simy sea kayaking business to my
other guides.
And then I started exploring themountains because that became,
(06:28):
oh boy, another 30 years ofthings to explore up in this
area.
And it certainly worked intothat.
So on one of our first tripsthat we did from, um, Loreto
area and up to the missioncalled San Javier, which is just
west of Loreto.
(06:48):
I, back in the nineties, lateeighties, probably late
eighties, I heard about thisold, um, not so old then.
He, he was actually forties,fifties, probably at the time.
But a saddle maker, a regionalsaddle maker who was making the
traditional old Californiastyles of saddles, the, the
(07:10):
saddles that were basicallydeveloped in that desert
environment for the type ofcattle, roundups and Uh, travel
that these VAEs had to do inthose areas.
So it was a very unique andspecific to the area type of
saddle.
(07:30):
So I went riding off one daywith my three-year-old daughter
sitting in front of me in thesaddle.
I had kind of tied her on aroundmy waist and we went off and
rode five hours cross countrywith um, one of, one of our
local elderly vaquero guides.
And I couldn't see a trail, butobviously he knew where we were
(07:53):
going.
And went really just crosscountry and ended up down in a
little canyon where a veryamazing, wonderful family was
living.
And that was Rio Ira.
Uh, Rio Ira Mesa was the oldsaddle maker and his family of,
uh, two, three boys.
(08:15):
Three boys and one girl who wereall in, in about their teens at
that point.
Uh, we just all became the bestof friends.
My daughter and I, and anotherfriend we rode in.
They accepted us like family.
We had our cowboy guy.
It was just such a uniqueexperience, um, to arrive at a
(08:37):
roadless ranch, a place wherecars couldn't even get to.
So their way of travel andlifestyle was to load up a
donkey and ride many, many hoursjust to get out to a road head
where they could get supplies.
And so they, they knew how to,of course, raise their cattle in
the back country.
(08:58):
Dario knew what were the plantsthat were needed to build the
tree of the saddle or the baseof the saddle.
What plants and, uh, bark, uh,or roots were needed to tan the
hides.
And it was fascinating and somany, for many years when I
(09:20):
started to run the tours, uh,and that became a popular thing
to do, it was to run these,these tours to go out and visit
these outback families.
Um, they just, we all became thebest of friends.
And after about 25 or more yearsof doing that, riding around to
(09:41):
his ranch and taking peoplethere and discovering how
charismatic he always has been,he's just a natural teacher at
heart.
He loves to tell people abouthis lifestyle, the family, how
he builds things, um, with andhow they survived actually
(10:03):
eating cactus and indigenousfoods when, when that was all
that they could get ahold of.
So he had a fascinatingbackground.
It was like riding back intotime, a hundred years, uh, to,
to go out to their ranch and oneday, so then later on they moved
(10:24):
a little bit farther down canyonand set up a ranch in a little
bit wider area where theircattle could graze.
And they built corrals and, and,uh, made, made it be a place
where they could actually have alittle bit of road access.
It was still about three hoursfrom any major city.
Um, we would still ride, wewould do a loop trip and leave
(10:45):
from Sun Javier or Loreto areaand, and take our guests and go
camp out in the back country andmid Tripp.
We'd end up at his ranch and itwas such a breath of fresh air.
We would, there was fresh waterthere.
We would take baths.
The women would.would cook ameal for us.
(11:06):
We, it was like old home week,it would be like just visiting
friends.
And Dia was always so wonderfulabout, um, teaching the guests
who were on my trip about howthe old saddles were made and
how the old pack saddles weremade.
(11:26):
So after many, many years ofdoing that, like I say, I
started doing that in about, itmust have been about 94 when I
rode into his ranch the firsttime.
And by 2017, I had a small groupwe'd ridden in.
He was doing what he always didwith being charismatic and
(11:49):
showing all these beautiful handtooled saddles to my guests.
And he suddenly looked at me andhe said, Trudy, for years I've
been wanting to reenact.
An old time pack train, justlike my grandfather used to do.
And I used to sit around thecampfires when I was just a
(12:11):
little kid.
And I would listen to thestories about how these old time
packers would load up a dozendonkeys in the village of Du or
Lamo, which is about 300 or somore kilometers to the north of
the capital city of La Paz,which was a port city.
And they would load up and theywould ride for a couple of weeks
(12:34):
down to La Paz, taking goodsfrom the villages or the ranches
along the way, trading it in LaPaz for things that they
couldn't grow on the ranches orrice and, and flour from the
mills there and bring them backagain.
And he said, and I've alwayswanted to do that.
I've always wanted to, to be oneof those old packers and relive
(12:58):
that story and, and You know, Ithink I'd like to do that
sometime and I want it on film.
I went, oh, okay.
Let's do it.
I'll help you.
Oh my God.
that was quite a statement, um,six years ago now.
(13:23):
We now went through the wholeprocess.
It was the first time I've evermade a film.
First time Darío has ever made afilm, although he'd been in a
couple of others.
And I'd been had a little bit ofbackground with, uh, the film
called Corazón Vaquero, uh,which I
Damian Bacich (13:39):
Oh, I love that.
Trudi Angell (13:40):
Yeah.
Okay.
So you'll see in there, um, myfriends Gary McClintock, who is
an old saddle maker and Uh, hepassed away a few years ago,
but, um, that was his, his, uh,dream also was to make a movie
back in the, around 2005, 2006.
(14:02):
Gary called me up and said, Hey,Trudy, can you take me to some
place?
Um, places in Baja where peopleare still doing traditional old
California style of, of um,building things and making
things, and especially saddlemakers.
And I thought, ah, I know wherewe're going.
(14:23):
So we traveled with, uh, Cody,his son and another woman Eve
Ewing, who had been travelingall over the Baja California
Peninsula by Mule since the1960s, uh, and was very famous
in her own right for being oneof the first people to take
(14:43):
people into the, those rock art,the cave cave painting areas.
which is up to the north ofDario.
And so it was, um, it justseemed natural for Dario to say,
okay, I've been in one moviealready, maybe actually he'd
been in couple movies beinginterviewed about his knowledge,
(15:03):
his old traditional Californiaknowledge.
And so he said, well, let's justmake a movie.
And I said, okay, well I'll justhelp you.
But little did I know what itwas going to involve.
And uh, so that was it.
In 2017, he said, I wanna dothis thing.
(15:24):
I want it on film.
And I said, okay, I'll help you.
Damian Bacich (15:28):
That's, that's really something, you know,
just, um, backtracking a littlebit, that movie I, um, I used to
show it in my classes at, uh,San Jose State on, uh, old
California history and alsoLatin American culture.
Students used to love it.
And, uh, it makes sense that,that, that there's a tie in, of
(15:51):
course, that you're that you'rethe link, you know, um, that
yeah, that's an, it's an amazingfilm.
And the protagonist, um, Récua,uh, Dario, you mentioned him a
number of times.
He's a real character for sure,but he's, he's a poet.
(16:14):
it's just fascinating to see himon the trail, you know, creating
little verses, little littlepoems, uh, little songs as he's
going along.
At least for me, somebody who'sstudied, you know, the old, uh,
Spanish ballots, he's sort ofalmost a living example of that,
of these people who, who carryon that, that, that song, that
(16:37):
performance tradition as well,in addition to being very rooted
in, in the land and in and invery practical life, right?
Trudi Angell (16:47):
Yeah, very practical, uh, very resilient in
the back country you go with thepunches, with the weather, with
your cattle.
Um, you just do what you have todo.
And, uh, a really fun backgroundstory you like.
Now that you've seen Dario inboth films, now that I know
(17:09):
that, that, that you, that'sbeen part of your background
too.
Vaquero, he's the guy who getsbucked off the horse.
Right?
Damian Bacich (17:16):
Hmm.
Trudi Angell (17:17):
Okay.
So, um, that, that ranch, RanchoAl is the ranch that we begin to
film from, uh, a little bit.
Uh, we don't include his ranchtoo much into the current story
of La Récua because it's reallymuch more of an abandoned ranch
(17:38):
right now.
Many things have happened in hislife and.
Um, his, his health in someways, and now he's, he's back on
track again, so he's doing well.
Um,
Damian Bacich (17:48):
and sorry I interrupt, but that's also part
of the, of the, the plot of thefilm.
The plot, if you will, the, thestory is his health along the
trail.
Right.
Um,
Trudi Angell (18:00):
Yeah.
He has bronchitis on the trailand we truly do almost lose him
that day.
He couldn't breathe and youdon't see the backstory.
Luckily my editor did a greatjob of cutting out, kind of all
of us rushing in and me givinghim homeopathic remedies and
somebody in the backgroundyelling, give him strong, dark,
(18:23):
hot coffee.
And we happened to have some ina thermos.
And so the story doesn't reallyelaborate on that in, in the
film or the, the visuals don't,but there's a lot of background
that had to be cut out and, andwoven.
Out it, but that's really true.
And then Dios spirit, as hedrinks his strong black coffee
(18:46):
out, opens the aviola in hislungs, and then he's able to
carry on and in fact is theleader of the group and says,
no.
What is, what does he say inthat moment?
He says, Firo, let's put thepedal to the metal And, and Cha,
our actual real trail guidethere is like, oh my gosh, he
(19:09):
should take a rest.
He should he.
But no, that is spirit And his,um, his desire to complete this
trip and do this trip and, andfinish this story is overwhelms
everything and get carries himthrough.
Track 1 (19:25):
So in short, the, the documentary follows him and his
group of, um, friends andrelatives, right, as they kind
of do this.
Um, I don't know what you'd wantto call it.
This, carry out this idea that,that you're not a hundred
percent sure that it can be doneor that it will be done, but
(19:48):
along the way you see hisdetermination, good humor, and,
and, um, and fearlessness thatreally, that really gets them
through.
Trudi Angell (19:58):
Yeah.
So if you, did you get a chanceto listen to that little nine
minute video clip of aninterview that we did in Spanish
and uh, it's on one of mywebsites and
Track 1 (20:10):
No, I wasn't
trudi-angell_2_09-13-2023_130 (20:11):
I might have sent
Damian Bacich (20:12):
Oh, I, okay.
So there's a clip where you're,uh, together with the crew
Trudi Angell (20:17):
Yeah.
Damian Bacich (20:17):
being interviewed.
Yes.
I watched that.
Trudi Angell (20:19):
Yeah.
And one of the things Imentioned there is that.
The children, even the childrenon our trail.
The reason we chose the peoplewho were traveling along with
us, well, for one, Dario wantedhis family there.
He wanted his son, he wanted hisgrandson in particular because
(20:41):
his story, the whole thread ofthe story is he was a child at
eight years old listening to hisgrandfather tell the stories.
And so he built that littlesaddle for his grandson, um, in
order to get him on down thetrail in the old traditional
California style.
(21:01):
And, and he wanted his grandsonto, to be for sure part of this
film.
And so the children, becauselittle Ena who was 10 years old,
lived and grew up on a roadlessranch.
Uh, in the Sierra, there's SanFrancisco where all the cave
(21:22):
paintings are.
And I've known her since beforeshe was born.
I've known her parents sincethey were young people before
they got married.
And um, and then her father,Ricardo, uh, they're two of the
other people on the trip.
So it's Dio is the mainprotagonist telling his story,
his son helping him along.
(21:43):
And you see his expertise as wego along, his complete knowledge
and ability to, um, survive andkeep his animals healthy in the
outback, feed them when theyneed feed, climb up in a tree
and break off branches becausethat's all there is right there.
Uh, it was during the droughtseason, there was nothing on the
(22:04):
ground really to feed them.
And there were many places alongthat trail.
And as a back part of thebackstory of the film, uh, as we
left the village of Du, we wereall riding mules.
And then when we got to SunJavier, then we had actually
support vehicle for parts of therest of the trip all the way
(22:25):
down to La Paz, the 200 milesalong the trails and old roads.
So some of the time, uh, we wereable to have feed for the
animals and make life a littlesimpler and feed them alfalfa
and, uh, not have to look howto, uh, go and tie up a dozen
donkeys and five or six or sevenor eight or 10 mules, uh, every
(22:49):
day to try to feed them.
So we did have, in the backstorythere, is that, yes, we had
some, um, definitely we had thevehicle support for many nights
of those 20 days on the trail,but there were a half a dozen,
maybe seven nights where we as agroup or part of the group were,
(23:12):
were actually on the trail.
Okay.
And had to camp in a place wherethere was no road access.
So that's the time when they hadto resort to traditional feed
that those old Ros, the oldpackers would've had to done on
their whole trip, because wayback then there were, there was
(23:34):
no alfalfa to, to feed youranimals.
Um, so, so as you watch part ofthat history unfold, you get a,
a good sense of what it was liketo, to ride through that back
country because we had threecameras filming five people on
the trail, basically all daylong.
(23:56):
So that was hundreds of hours offilm that was rolling all day
long for 20 days.
And because we call it a"vérité"documentary where you, you don't
script it, you don't know what,you don't know what's gonna
happen.
And so the fun part is then youjust try to film everything
(24:18):
that's going on.
And then the editor has the job--or the editing team has the
job and storytelling team--script writer afterwards has
the job of putting it alltogether in the actual story
that the protagonist wants totell.
Um, or very key elements thatcame out of all of that film and
(24:40):
sound that were so amazing, suchan amazing part of the story
that they got.
It got also woven into the storyover the end as the editing was
going on.
So can we can consider, let'ssee.
Sergio started editing inDecember, 2018.
(25:01):
We rode the trail in March,2018.
It took 20 days to get to LaPaz.
We actually had a whole lot ofTraditional goods that went on
those donkeys
Damian Bacich (25:16):
Right.
And in fact, that's one of the,the great scenes, uh, when they
do.
You know, spoiler alert whenthey do reach La Paz, um, when
the people are, are crowdingaround to get, to get a little
sample of the, the, thetraditional goods, foods that
they brought with them and thewine and yeah.
(25:38):
That's, that's a beautiful thingto see the appreciation of the
people there in La Paz for thisextremely traditional, um, I
don't know what you want to callit, this, this, this, um,
Trudi Angell (25:55):
yeah, the old town caravans.
Mm-hmm.
Damian Bacich (25:58):
Yeah.
This representation of their owntraditions, they appreciate
that.
Trudi Angell (26:02):
Yeah.
Um, yeah, from the whole storyfrom the beginning, when you see
those beginning shots in theVillage of Comondú where Dario
speaks, uh, a little bit, um, aabout the, the dates and the
cheese and the, uh, dried meatthat went along on the trip and
the, um, you know, just whateverand the wine from Comondú
(26:27):
because Comondú the littlevillage of du up in the heart of
the Sierra de La Giganta to thewest of Loreta is pretty famous
for its wine.
There's a lot of water flowingthrough this little canyon, and
they make great wine there.
And so it was so exciting forthe people in La Paz who may
have grown up in that area orgrown up on branches or in the
(26:49):
back country.
Many of them were Dario'srelatives.
Uh, they know the story.
They know the story from theirown background, their own
ancestors, uh, you know, veryclose their, their own parents.
Uh, and grandparents.
And so yeah, as we, as we showthis film, um, to people, and
(27:11):
even as the film was in thedevelopment stage, it wasn't yet
to final cut, Dario and I wouldsometimes, um, just do a
screening of our slideshow aboutwhat the film was going to be
about and bring a saddle to kindof show people.
(27:32):
And elders in our audiences downin Mexico would get up at the
end of our presentation withtears in their eyes and just,
um, you know, lumps in theirthroats and saying, thank you so
much for preserving part of ourpast, and bringing back the
memories of what it was like tohave these pack trains come
(27:53):
through their own ranches backthen.
So that's how I, I can explainand, and say that Making this
film, it is just so wonderfulbecause it takes you to a
really, takes you back in time.
A hun in the reality of 150years ago of how things were, or
(28:14):
even 80 years ago in, in theBaja Peninsula before the road
was put in, in the seventies,uh, so many people still
traveled by mules and hadroadless ranches in the back
country, in the mountains.
And right now there's only afew, uh, mostly in the Sierra,
the San Francisco of ranchesthat are still surviving.
(28:35):
I can probably count them on onehand at this point, but when I
started riding about 40 yearsdown, 4 35 years ago down there,
there were a lot more ranchesthat, where people were living
in the back country andsurviving, making their goat
cheese, packing it on donkeys,taking it out to a road head.
(28:56):
Um, but that's disappearing.
So, so it's, it's just been awonderful thing with the film La
Récua to capture that story andpreserve that story.
Track 1 (29:08):
So would you say, well, you definitely, you just said
that this is a, this is a, a wayof life that's definitely
disappearing.
Um, What, what do you think isthe future this way of life?
Um, and that's one of the thingsthat, that struck me about the
film is that it's, you get thisdichotomy between a very
(29:32):
traditional, self-sufficient,um, off the grid, you know, what
we talk about, uh, lifestylethat's very tied, uh, to the
past.
And then, you know, there's cellphones, there's, um, they're
going to a, a modern, uh, city.
You know, they're trying todecide.
(29:53):
Dario talks about, um, well,well, I don't remember if it was
himself, but this idea about,you know, what are the children
gonna do?
Are they gonna go to the city togo to study, to university?
They're gonna stay.
And I think Azucena talks abouthow she wants to stay on the
rancho.
Right.
So
Trudi Angell (30:11):
Mm-hmm.
Damian Bacich (30:12):
can you talk to us a little bit about how do you
see.
That, um, crossroads that thesepeople are at, you know, in
terms of maintaining this lifeand, but also being immersed in
a modern world that, that, thattouches really everybody now.
Trudi Angell (30:31):
right?
Well, so back in the earlyeighties and the first time I
rode into the canyon, uh, wherethe, where the rock art
paintings are in the north endof the state of Baja California
Sur there.
there was no communication onmany of the ranches.
(30:54):
Then they got radios, they gotthe, the UHF radios, and there
was, wow, there wascommunication before the, you
know, where there wasn't anybefore.
The communication prior to thathad been fayuqueros.
These people who wouldn't be thelong range trucker kinds of mule
(31:16):
pack teams that would go fromone village to LA p, those were
called the arrieros of therécuas.
They would do the long distance,uh, merchant, uh, sell, buying
and selling and trade.
But there were others,fayuqueros, as one of elderly
(31:41):
gentlemen, uh, says in, in thestory, in the kind of the middle
of the story in the film.
He says, yeah, we had a coupleof donkeys and we'd ride into
the town and first we had twodonkeys, and then we had six
donkeys, and we'd buy this andwe'd buy that and we'd buy this
and we'd buy that.
(32:01):
And, and so those were thefayuqueros, those were the
people who would go kind of fromranch to ranch or shorter
distances.
And so they would all be calledrécuas, the, or caravans.
But the ROS would normally dothe shorter routes or, or go do
a loop in a month and visit aranch every night.
(32:22):
They would be the pedalers, thepedalers who didn't have a cart,
all they had were donkeys.
And so they would load up theirgoods, move to the next ranch,
and the ranches were prettyclose together back then because
like I say, there used to be alot more people living on those
outback ranches.
Um, up until the nineties andthe two thousands.
(32:45):
So anyway, the Ros were the oneswho carried the gossip and
carried the news and, andbrought in the goods.
And now then in the eighties,nineties, and up until 2000,
maybe 15, uh, about 2015 peoplestarted getting cell phones and
they would get little internettowers.
(33:08):
I think there's even agovernment program that would
help the ranchers, uh, get somekind of an internet connection
so that they would have, they'dhave a little antenna and you
could place it, and thensuddenly people had internet.
And one of the things we did,and this was about, gosh, must
have been about six, eight yearsago, um, I, I thought uhoh cell
(33:31):
phones are coming into theranches, uh, these really
outback ranches that's gonnachange everything.
And it really did.
Prior to the cell phones, I hadan amazing experience with just
one couple riding into a remoteroadless ranch one time, and we
rode for several hours throughthe mountains.
(33:53):
Ended up down in this canyonwhere two or three families
lived and there were some youngchildren there, excuse me,
several young children.
My two guests got off theirmules, went over and sat on a
log by our little campsite area.
And at that point, of course,the children come running off
the hillside.
They're like little goats.
(34:14):
They're just leaping from rocksto rocks and coming down and,
and climbing up into camp.
And immediately the children,six years old, eight years old,
10 years old, start helping thecowboys, unpack the donkeys.
They bring our gear into thecamp and they see that there are
new people.
They go around, the children goaround to each cowboy.
(34:38):
Shake their hands, say hello,and then they come over to my
guests and I've known them andso that we shake hands and say
hello, give a little hug.
But they go over to my guestswho are sitting there just
dumbfounded and they, each onegoes to each adult, hi, my name
is da da da da.
(34:59):
Welcome to the ranch.
And they shake hands and they gothrough And my two guests were
just jaw drops and said, Trudy,those children, they're so at
home in their place, they're,this is amazing.
We've never had this happenbefore.
(35:20):
And the children are brought upto be very respectful, to go
around and shake everyone'shand, introduce themselves, and
you know, really be with you.
And then they went back over andthey started joking around with
the cowboys and helping'emunpack the donkeys again.
But they, they took the time togo over and greet these people
(35:42):
and say, wLa Récuame to ourranch.
And the people on my trip werejust like, oh, we can't believe
this.
And so the children, becausethey've been raised on those
ranches in the Outback, theywere on our trip on La Récua.
It's just so much fun to watchthem and see how comfortable
(36:05):
they are in the back country andhow polite they are.
Um, and, and in that littleinterview story, uh, that you
may have watched, it's a, the 10minute interview, one of our,
uh, filmmaking crew members whowasn't on the trip but who saw a
(36:30):
lot of the background filming.
Process because he looked at allthe pieces of film.
He was really amazed as wellthat he, he said all these
people on the trip that you,that were being filmed are just
so comfortable in their ownspace in the back country.
(36:53):
It just, it comes across and theheart of the, the family aspect
of the respect that the childrenhave for the cowboys that the
cowboys have for the children,it, it just comes out in the
film and people have commentedon that a lot.
Damian Bacich (37:12):
Yeah, that really, that really comes out.
It's, yeah, you look at it.
I can just imagine, um, I.
My son, I've got a teenage son.
He would love to be there doingthat.
Um, yeah.
So I wanted to go back a littlebit to the whole filmmaking
aspect.
One of the things that, thatblew me away about this, this
(37:36):
film is how beautiful it is.
It's, not only engaging in termsof the story and the, the
people, the characters, um, butit's just, it's visually, uh,
breathtaking.
And so, um, the, yeah, it's justcaptivating.
So I'm wondering, you startedout by saying you really didn't
(37:58):
have a filmmaking background, sohow did you, uh, how did you
become a filmmaker?
How did you assemble the, youhad a crew, you had editors and
camera people.
How did you do that?
What was that like?
Trudi Angell (38:14):
Um, I think because I worked with Gary and
Cody, um, McClintock helping tomake that film Vaquero and in
fact in the credits, um, theynamed me, um, Associate producer
on that film, even though Ithought I was chief cook and
(38:38):
bottle washer And so I thinkjust riding along with them,
riding along with you.
You know who Doug McConnell isin the Bay Area back roads?
Doug McConnell?
Yeah.
Okay.
Well, Doug McConnell, maybe hewas, he might've been my first
experience with, uh, doing somefilming in the Loreto area.
(39:01):
Somehow he was coming down tofilm Wales on the Pacific side,
but he also wanted to, he knewabout the history of the El
Camino Real and the missions andhe wanted, and so somebody
pointed out him out that to meand said, oh, well, Trudy
should, you know, you shouldtalk to Trudy.
So I went and picked him and hiscrew up at the airport.
(39:24):
Uh, in Loreto way back, let'ssee, Olivia was about five years
old, so that was almost 30 yearsago, and he did, uh, the, the
one, uh, his crew came down andthey did the one, um, episode of
Bay Area Back Roads was aboutBaja and about the connection
between the missions and allthat Loretto.
(39:46):
So anyway, it was fun to seeover the years as a couple other
team film teams came down, theyall said, well, go to Trudy if
you wanna know something aboutcowboys and ranches and, and El
Camino oral and, and that kindof stuff.
So I had a few, uh,opportunities to work with some
film crews.
So what I noticed mostly is,yeah, you need a good team and
(40:10):
you need a team who works welltogether and loves what they're
doing in the area that they'redoing at.
So back in 2015, we took Cowboysfrom Baja Dario being one of
them, and Azucena's grandfatherbeing one of them.
Um, out to Elko, Nevada.
(40:33):
And I saw with a display theredone by my friend Fermín
Reygadas, who you also see inthe film a little bit at the
party in La Paz, um, you, he, hehad put together a little museum
piece in Elko, Nevada for the,some number, th number 31
(40:54):
National Cowboy Poetry Gatheringin Elko.
And we, the Cowboys, our cowboysand our singers and our band
were, uh, basically the stars ofthe show for that particular,
particular year.
And I saw some photographs thatmy friend Ferin had gotten ahold
of one of his students.
He's a professor at theuniversity in La Paz about rural
(41:15):
tourism and about cowboys.
And he just did a beautifulbook.
On Old Californio saddle making,and it's in Spanish, and he
published it in Mexico, ofcourse.
So anyway, he knew this student,a young woman who has, who had
her focus for her photography,had been, uh, uh, to capture
(41:39):
ranch life because she also kneweven at a young age that this
was a fading thing and it neededto be captured.
And the, the, the stories of thepeople on the ranches were so
important for her to capture.
And I saw some of herphotography and I went, oh, this
woman really has a, a sense ofheart for these people who live
(42:00):
out here.
So when Dario told me in 2017,Trudy, I wanna make a film, she
was the first person I went to.
She grew up in La Paz, she livedin La Paz.
Um, so Dio told me this in likeFebruary, 2017 and by May, 2017,
I was down in La Paz andinterviewing her and her
(42:23):
husband, who are both filmmakersand photographers and have
already published some booksand, and things.
And I discovered that she hadalso done a trip called a
cabalgata, which is, um, uh, amovement of people on horseback,
usually on some type of apilgrimage mission, or to head
(42:46):
out to a party that's going onabout, um, maybe a Saint Day
Festival at a particularvillage.
And people will do their alGatas and round up a bunch of
folks and, and ride to get to,um, to a, a festivity.
And so she had ridden for 11 or12 days with a group of men from
(43:08):
La Paz all the way to Son Javierfor its traditional annual, uh,
St day festival.
And so I knew that if she likedto do that, she'd probably love
to work on this film.
And so I asked her, and, and shewould know the hardships.
She would know what she wasgetting into.
(43:29):
So I wanted to make sure I had ateam of people that knew what
they were getting into or couldbe really resilient and positive
about, you know, just gettingout there and riding with those
cowboys.
And so the two of them,Alejandro, uh, Rivas and
Elizabeth Moreno is her name,they, they signed on right away.
(43:50):
They were very excited to dothis whole film.
And they were the ones whointroduced me to the sound guy,
young man named Rogelio Munoz,who had to, for the first time
in his life, get on a mule.
(44:11):
Carry his, the boom.
So he's riding along
Damian Bacich (44:14):
Oh wow.
Trudi Angell (44:15):
on the back of a mule with a boom, or he has the
little microphones on the pin tothe lapel of Dio and, and a
couple other people on thetrail.
And he's trying to capture,trying to keep his boom and his
microphone out of the, you know,the visual of the camera And
he's very good at it.
(44:37):
And so that's why they suggestedthat he come along.
And so as a big plus beyond allthat skill of, of his being able
to know what he has to captureon the trail to make this film
be so realistic.
Like you remember the scenewhere that donkey bites off that
(44:59):
piece of tree, uh, big branchand you hear the crunch, crunch
and you can almost hear thedrool dripping out of his.
Because that was Rogelio's job,was to capture all of that
background view, uh, sound thatwould make a viewer of the film
feel like you're right there.
(45:21):
And he did it wonderfully.
And he did it with a sense ofhumor.
He did it with enthusiasm and heand Dario became best buddies,
on the,
Damian Bacich (45:32):
okay.
Trudi Angell (45:32):
the whole ride.
And so, you know, the whole crewreally clicked as, as a group
moving along down the trail.
The children, Rogelio had tonsof fun with the children.
The children teased him all thetime.
'cause he had a big, longponytail.
He wouldn't wear a cowboy hat.
He, he would wear something likea wrap around his head or
(45:55):
something like that.
And they were teasing him allthe time.
And they just had tons of fun.
So all of that, you know,brought the fla, brought the
flavor into the film of Of justease and friendship and
comradery and uh, yeah, it justbrings it out.
There are so many people whohave said, well, you go riding
(46:19):
along with this team of peopleas they're leaving Kdu and you,
then you see them get into thevillage of Sun, Javier.
This is about 20 minutes intothe film or so, and, and it
shocks them.
They're like, oh, oh, wait aminute.
This is okay.
This is actually, there's carsand there's people using cell
(46:40):
phones, taking pictures of ourcowboys coming in.
And it shocks people that herethey were out in the back
country and just kind of flowingalong.
And Dario does this traditional,very traditional cowboy thing,
um, early on in the film asthey're writing and, and
presents a riddle to the groupif that presents the riddle to
(47:04):
the group and Uh, so that's partof it.
That's part of the, he's thecampfire philosopher.
He's the, he's the mule writingpoet.
He's the keeper of old trackCalifornia traditions.
And, um, and you just learn, youjust begin to love him because
of all that he is sharing withthe world, basically.
Damian Bacich (47:28):
Yeah.
You know, the old Californiatraditions.
Um, what do you think you're,you're a California and Alta
Californian, right?
And residing in Baja California,and one of the, um, I think one
of the, the subtexts of thisfilm is, is the fact that, that
(47:49):
when we say the word California,we're really talking about a
much larger piece of propertythan we normally think of.
Right?
What do you think about thattoday in 2023?
this, this idea, what do you, doyou think that there's hope for
a.
(48:10):
A better sense of continuitybetween two regions on each side
of the border, or, or, yeah.
How do you see that?
Trudi Angell (48:20):
I would hope so.
And I've been involvedperipherally with a group called
em, C A R E M, down in ate.
Um, and together we've kind ofbeen imagining me to a lesser
degree and they to a more formaldegree of trying to put
(48:40):
together, um, the concept of thethree Californias.
So the original California,which goes basically, uh, I
always use my, my arm as a, as amap of California, right?
So the, the knuckle down here isCabo, and then the elbow is up
(49:00):
by Guerrero Negro at the stateline between Baja, California
Sur.
And, and Tijuana and San Diegoare up here at my shoulder.
So I'm using that all the timeas, as a map to, to give people
a sense of the real first.
California is really this wholearea in my lower from my elbow
down.
Damian Bacich (49:21):
Mm-hmm.
Trudi Angell (49:21):
And, um, that has disappeared.
Well, it was even in the mid 18hundreds here, uh, that people
were still referring.
And maybe even in the early 19hundreds, people were still
referring in newspapers and Uh,wasn't there an Alta California
newspaper?
Uh, believe, and it was calledthe Alta California.
(49:43):
And so they were stillunderstanding that, you know,
they, this upper California wasjust basically where the
missionaries came as theytraveled north up from lower
California or Baja California.
And so,
Damian Bacich (50:00):
Or Antigua, California.
Right.
Trudi Angell (50:02):
pardon,
Damian Bacich (50:03):
Or Antigua, California.
Trudi Angell (50:05):
Antigua, California.
Antigua California is a great, agreat way to, um, describe that.
Yeah.
the the old original California.
And so, you know, the, thiswhole sense of how people
traveled, like nowadays, becauseI've ridden mules up and down
(50:25):
the peninsula for many, manyyears, I, I've ridden actually
from Cabo all the way to Tecate.
Uh, one year with, uh, mydaughter and a couple other
women, women friends.
We called it the"Mula Mil" theMule, 1000.
And so, um, and we're hopefullydoing it again pretty soon.
(50:47):
Um, you know, the, the, my senseof how that was done, probably
not too many people get, get it,that that was just a normal way
of life.
Back in the forties, fifties,sixties before, before the, the
(51:07):
Trans Peninsular Highway was putin from Tijuana and finished up
all the way down in the earlyseventies, down connecting Cabo
and La Paz to Ensenada and thatwhole central part of the
peninsula.
There, there are some wonderfulbooks in Spanish written by a
(51:28):
woman named, um, Estela.
Davi.
Damian Bacich (51:34):
Uh, yes.
Trudi Angell (51:35):
Yeah.
Have you read
Damian Bacich (51:36):
I met, I met Estella a number of years ago at
the California MissionsConference
Trudi Angell (51:42):
Perfect.
Okay.
Yeah.
She's a
Damian Bacich (51:45):
Oh, no, excuse me.
No, no, no.
It's Stella AVEs.
That's somebody else.
Esella AVEs came to U C L A andshe spoke about her book.
Um, La perla del mojón",
Trudi Angell (51:58):
mm-hmm.
Yes.
Damian Bacich (52:00):
Estella.
Yes, yes.
Yeah.
have her book autographed byEsella.
Trudi Angell (52:04):
Great.
Well, she, she has interviewed alot of people, um, and, and
written their stories down.
And her, you know, as you knowher, the background of most of
her books have to do with herown family's old stories and the
past down information and, andstuff.
And, uh, yeah, she's wonderful.
(52:24):
She's still, uh, hanging out inLa Paz.
She finished writing anotherbook called"Conversaciones y
memorias" Maybe about five yearsago, and I went to to visit her
and she gave me a copy.
And in that it speaks, she tellsone story about an interview
with an elderly man who, uh, wasvery famous in the Loreto and
(52:50):
Kodu area.
He was a teacher, uh, and wouldride on horseback to go around
to many of the places.
And there was a woman back inthe, uh, forties and fifties,
uh, thirties, forties andfifties.
And she had her, she was afayuquera, she was a paddler,
(53:10):
and she had her route of takinggoods around to all those
ranches.
Her name was Mari...
Maria....
Oh, I'll have to think of itlater.
But, um, there was a story inthere about her, how she She
would help people if they wantedto move farther north with all
(53:31):
of their stuff from DU or um, LaPurísima or Loreto, they would
hire her, she would be themoving van, and they would ride
for two months to get up towhere this, these people might
wanna, wanna move to.
They would load all theirworldly goods onto a dozen
(53:52):
donkeys and they would justtravel for a month or two up the
peninsula, just like the Padresdid with Padre Serra, who went
on foot, of course.
But, uh, Portola and the, thepeople and, and so it's really
fun having done that ridemyself, I really connect with
(54:14):
those old historic stories abouttravel by Mule, um, up the
peninsula.
I get it.
I, I understand now every time Idrive up the Peninsula, Every 10
minutes is, you know, like a dayof travel every 10 minutes on
the highway.
And I can, I can see, and I cankind of visualize, okay, well
(54:36):
Portolá, of course, in this areawould've wanted to go up over
that ridge and down throughvalley.
'cause there's more feed or, uh,there's, there was a little
creek down in there.
So, so those kinds of things arejust things that, that I could
absorb and relate to, uh,because I've done some of that
myself.
Now.
Damian Bacich (54:55):
Well, what I really like about this, uh,
documentary is it kind ofexemplifies how, um, contrary to
maybe to what we might think,how modern technology in some
ways, especially in this case,filmmaking, technology, et
cetera, can put us in touch withthe, the past and with the, the
(55:21):
history that, um, is underneathour feet and with parts of
traditional life that aredisappearing.
So, um, it's one of those caseswhere, where we can, where we
can use modern technology toreally, um, help maintain memory
(55:42):
of the past.
Trudi Angell (55:43):
Mm-hmm.
Damian Bacich (55:45):
And so, Well, I got to see in a, um, I was able
to see the film through, um, youknow, a special, um, streaming
event that you were doing for,for a certain period in August.
I'm wondering now, as we closeout here, how can thousands and
thousands of people see thismovie that I really hope, um,
(56:08):
they'll be able to,
Trudi Angell (56:10):
Right.
Well,
Damian Bacich (56:11):
are plans?
Trudi Angell (56:12):
yeah, the, well, I, I love the full feature film,
uh, because of all of theaspects of what, what is tied
together at the end of the film,talking about the children and
how they're being raised andhow, yes, education is
important, but so is life on theranch and, you know, their,
(56:33):
their own struggles with tryingto decide what they're going to
do in life.
Both those children, actually,by the way, are, are still
living on the ranches and we areSpeaking of technology, um, ASNA
has been learning English from ayoung girl, a woman in La Paz,
(56:53):
who's a friend of ours, who isteaching her, uh, two times a
week.
She has an English class withher, so that Asna will be able
to live on the ranch and also wehope become a guide to take
people down and work with thecowboys who are up there and
maybe even be the first youngwoman guide who will actually,
(57:16):
she knows how to pack a donkey.
So when her father may not beable to do it sometime, well,
she would be next in line.
Her brother, her little brotherwho would be likely to go onto
the guide role up there fortaking people in, uh, and
wouldn't have as many skills.
But she is 16 now.
(57:36):
Uh, since she was 10 on the, onthe filming, and now it's been
years later, so now she's 16.
And when she's 18 we canactually, um, act, uh, see if
she can get onto the guide, roleand do her own donkey packing
up.
Damian Bacich (57:51):
excellent.
Trudi Angell (57:52):
Yeah.
And so one of the things I wouldlike to do with the film is, um,
uh, I, we're working on a PBScut right now, and we already
have it cut down to just aboutan hour.
It has to be a little bit lessthan that for the P B s um,
hour.
It's
Damian Bacich (58:12):
Ah, okay.
Trudi Angell (58:13):
six minutes and 46 seconds or something.
And so we're working on that.
And so I'm hoping that nextyear, uh, about this time, it
might be something that peoplewould, lots of, lots of people
would be able to see on P B S.
uh, but a shortened version.
Damian Bacich (58:30):
Hmm.
Trudi Angell (58:30):
And for the longer version, once we have that out
on p b s, then I would be ableto post it on my website, sell
it at our online store andthings like that.
And, um, and so I, I haven'treally resolved all of the
questions about distribution,but um, it distribution is
(58:52):
changing anyway in the world offilm.
And I'm in a group right now whois discussing and getting their
own films out into the worldand, and, uh, getting more eyes
on their product.
And, and that's hopefully onething that we'll do.
The other thing, like you, youmentioned there's so much
education in there, like you'veshown RA vaquero to your, uh, to
(59:15):
your students in the past.
And I would like to make aneducational cut because there we
have so much footage.
Damian Bacich (59:22):
Yeah.
Trudi Angell (59:23):
Of things that Darrio really had hoped would
come out in the film.
But the editors kind of grabbeddifferent threads and different
storylines to weave the wholestory of the trip together and
left some of what Darrioconsidered important parts about
the history of the arrieros, thehistory of the saddle, making,
(59:44):
the history of, uh, but therewas just too much of it, much,
uh, too much material.
So at some point I would like toput together an educational cut,
maybe a small series of 2, 3 20minutes sections with a, with
some information in thebackground.
You're actually a person who hasnow come into my radar of
thinking, Ooh, you could help mewith this putting together an
(01:00:08):
educational background, uh, andwhat would be the most
interesting.
So at, at some point, it'd bewonderful to speak with you
about that.
Damian Bacich (01:00:16):
Happy to.
Well, Trudy, I want to berespectful of your time.
This is, uh, once again, thishas been a real pleasure.
Um, the, the film is called LaRécua, uh, the Mule Train or the
PAC Train.
And, um, I said, I hopeeverybody gets a chance to see
it and for, uh, people to get alittle idea of what it's all
(01:00:39):
about and, um, more of a tasteof the film and what you do.
Where can they go?
Trudi Angell (01:00:46):
They can go to La Récua.com, so that would be L A
R E C U A qua.com.
And on there you can watch thetrailer for sure.
And that little 10 minuteinterview.
And there's some lot of goodbackground stories and
(01:01:06):
background about the bios ofthe, uh, filmmakers as well.
And, um, And then you can also,there's a little button down at
the bottom of the homepage, uh,that where you can sign up to
get information and get on ournewsletter so that the next time
we do another, uh, week longstreaming screening, uh, on a
(01:01:30):
platform that I'm using, thenyou, you could be on that list
to, to find out about, um,when's the next time.
It might, might do it in lateOctober, also if you're in the
Sacramento area, uh, inCalifornia.
Then in, on October 3rd at the,um, uh, the Department of
(01:01:55):
Natural Resources, the newbuilding, downtown Sacramento
Department of Natural Resources,uh, La Récua has been chosen to
be a film presented there onOctober 3rd.
To honor Latino Heritage Month,basically starts this Friday, I
(01:02:15):
think, uh, up
Track 1 (01:02:16):
The 15th.
Trudi Angell (01:02:18):
Yeah.
And, um, so I hope to see youthere, Damien, and,
Damian Bacich (01:02:23):
I would really to attend.
Trudi Angell (01:02:25):
and, and you'll be receiving actually a special
invitation pretty soon in themail.
We have a, a discussion withthe, um, the people.
Tomorrow I have a Zoom meetingwith the, the woman who's
getting the official invitationsready to send out.
And, um, and other people, uh,on, on the radar who are very
(01:02:47):
interested in California historyare, are on that list.
But also it will start to beannounced, I think, in the
Sacramento Bee and other places,uh, with a link to be able to,
uh, reserve a space.
So they, they'll definitely,there's only 300 seats in the
theater.
So they'll want, uh, to makesure that, that people reserve a
(01:03:09):
space so that we limit thatthere will, it'll cut off at
300.
So, yeah.
Damian Bacich (01:03:16):
Well, that's great that I'm, I'm really
looking forward to that and onceagain, all my compliments on the
film and, um, I think whatyou're, what you're doing is
wonderful and I hope more andmore people hear about it.
And, um, looking forward to thefilm getting, uh, greater
distribution and the wordgetting out about what you're
(01:03:38):
doing and about Darrio and hislegacy.
Trudi Angell (01:03:41):
Mm-hmm.
and especially in Baha,California Sur, uh, we're also
working on a project to get the,the film, uh, is in its feature
film format out to all thelittle villages and all the
people who really deserve to, tosee this film and understand
that their heritage, theirbackground, their knowledge, Um,
(01:04:05):
and their history is so, soimportant so that it will honor
them as well.
Damian Bacich (01:04:13):
Wonderful.
Well, thank you Trudy.
Uh, it's been a real pleasure.
Trudi Angell (01:04:18):
Okay, Igualmente and hope to see you soon on the
third, if not sooner.
And St.
Helena.
Damian Bacich (01:04:24):
Okay.
I am here with Trudy Angel, and this is
something I've really beenlooking forward to talking to
her about this wonderfuldocumentary that she made called
La Récua.
So Trudy, um, can you tell us alittle bit about yourself before
we talk about the, uh, thedocumentary, which I loved and I
(00:21):
hope everybody gets a chance tosee.
Can, can you give us a littlebit about, uh, background about
yourself and, and maybe, youknow, how you wound up exactly
getting into a project likethis.
trudi-angell_2_09-13-2023_ (00:33):
Yes, it's quite a story.
Uh, and thank you Damien, forinviting me on the show, and I
was really thrilled to find yourwebsite.
Uh, as I've been cruising aroundlooking at who might just be
interested in this film, andthat's how I found you is, uh,
going to the al I love yourt-shirt, Alta California
(00:54):
established in 1769.
I need to get
Damian Bacich (00:57):
You know what?
I didn't know when I came upwith the idea for that t-shirt
is that up in the SierraFoothills, there's actually a
town called Alta California, Ihave run into a few people who
were asking me if, if it wasabout that town, I was like, no,
it's
Trudi Angell (01:18):
no then you, then you end up getting into a long
story with them.
I bet.
Damian Bacich (01:22):
yeah, exactly.
Exactly.
Trudi Angell (01:25):
Well, basically that's how I got started with
this whole story and this whole,this whole film.
Um, I started going down toBaja.
I I was born and raised, uh,here in Calistoga, California.
Damian Bacich (01:39):
That's right.
You and I have the Napa Valleyconnection.
Trudi Angell (01:42):
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
You were in Saint Helena and,um, so I was, yeah, born and
raised here.
I had horses when I was ateenager, rode all over the
valley and up into the hillsand, and, um, so that was kind
of my background here.
Did a lot of swimming at thelocal swimming pools here in
Calistoga.
(02:03):
And so I was kind of outdoorsy.
And so back when I was 20, uh,in about, oh, when was that?
Uh, 19, uh, 75, 76.
It was when I picked up acatalog for the National Outdoor
Leadership School, uh, Knowles.
And it's based in Lander,Wyoming, actually, uh, since the
(02:26):
late sixties.
And, because I wasn'tparticularly interested in snow
camping, I.
Uh, this was winter time that Ipicked up the brochure and I saw
this ad for, um, a trip down toBaja to learn sea kayaking.
And I thought, oh, good sun andsand and beaches.
That sounds more my style.
(02:48):
And so I signed up to do a, a 12day course and I ended up
staying six weeks, uh, buying akayak when I got back up here to
California, Alta, California,and then ended up, um, Just
traveling down to Baja quite abit.
And I always did well withlanguage, with Spanish in
(03:10):
school, both in St.
Helena when I went to RobertLouis Stevenson, as you probably
did, and then also to, uh, inCalistoga High School here.
And so I, I just, it kind of fitwhen I went down and I started
driving my old 1964 RamblerAmerican down the Baja Highway
with my folding kayak on top ofit.
(03:32):
Uh, it became a lifestyle, ittruly, or a lifestyle for many,
many years.
And so finally in the earlyeighties, I started, I was, I
was in the right place at theright time when sea kayaking as
adventure travel and, um, Youknow, Baja as a destination kind
of, kind of came together, youknow, and so I knew the
(03:56):
coastline.
I, uh, and I started runningkayak tours small at first, but
then it worked into a nicelittle business and a, and a fun
lifestyle.
But somewhere in there, also inabout the mid eighties, a friend
of mine who had been takingpeople up into the rock art
canyons in Baja, uh, to look atindigenous paintings, amazing,
(04:20):
um, world Heritage class now,uh, indigenous cave paintings.
And they invited me out on amule pack trip.
So I hadn't really ridden sinceI was in high school.
And now I was about in my late,uh, twenties, maybe around 30.
And I got on a mule and thought,Ugh, I wanna be a cowgirl.
(04:42):
I.
And so I, I ended up, uh,starting to ride around, bought
my own horse.
By then I was living in Loretoduring seasonally coming up to
Calistoga as I still continue todo in the summertime.
And then I kept going back downto Baja and I would start
leading some mule pack tripstoo.
(05:04):
Uh, and basically I got out onthose El Camino real trails, the
very first El Camino real trailson the west coast of North
America, which started in whatwe now know as Cabo.
And then, um, you know, ended upall the way up here in, in
(05:24):
Monterey and Sonoma being thefinal one.
And I thought, oh, what a funconnection.
You know, I've been in theSonoma area all my life, and now
I'm in the area in Loreto whereall of this Mission California
missions, um,.The indigenoushistories of, of the people on
(05:45):
the, on the CaliforniaPeninsula.
And of course, as you know,California, the first,
California was where I liveright now in Loreto and farther
south to us.
That's where the Explorers landand first started calling it the
island of California.
And so that's, that's how I kindof became my interest in the
(06:06):
history of the area and ridingwith the cowboys and visiting
the women and the children andthe people on the ranches.
And so it just became anotherpart of a lifestyle.
I kind of handed off my, my simy sea kayaking business to my
other guides.
And then I started exploring themountains because that became,
(06:28):
oh boy, another 30 years ofthings to explore up in this
area.
And it certainly worked intothat.
So on one of our first tripsthat we did from, um, Loreto
area and up to the missioncalled San Javier, which is just
west of Loreto.
(06:48):
I, back in the nineties, lateeighties, probably late
eighties, I heard about thisold, um, not so old then.
He, he was actually forties,fifties, probably at the time.
But a saddle maker, a regionalsaddle maker who was making the
traditional old Californiastyles of saddles, the, the
(07:10):
saddles that were basicallydeveloped in that desert
environment for the type ofcattle, roundups and Uh, travel
that these VAEs had to do inthose areas.
So it was a very unique andspecific to the area type of
saddle.
(07:30):
So I went riding off one daywith my three-year-old daughter
sitting in front of me in thesaddle.
I had kind of tied her on aroundmy waist and we went off and
rode five hours cross countrywith um, one of, one of our
local elderly vaquero guides.
And I couldn't see a trail, butobviously he knew where we were
(07:53):
going.
And went really just crosscountry and ended up down in a
little canyon where a veryamazing, wonderful family was
living.
And that was Rio Ira.
Uh, Rio Ira Mesa was the oldsaddle maker and his family of,
uh, two, three boys.
(08:15):
Three boys and one girl who wereall in, in about their teens at
that point.
Uh, we just all became the bestof friends.
My daughter and I, and anotherfriend we rode in.
They accepted us like family.
We had our cowboy guy.
It was just such a uniqueexperience, um, to arrive at a
(08:37):
roadless ranch, a place wherecars couldn't even get to.
So their way of travel andlifestyle was to load up a
donkey and ride many, many hoursjust to get out to a road head
where they could get supplies.
And so they, they knew how to,of course, raise their cattle in
the back country.
(08:58):
Dario knew what were the plantsthat were needed to build the
tree of the saddle or the baseof the saddle.
What plants and, uh, bark, uh,or roots were needed to tan the
hides.
And it was fascinating and somany, for many years when I
(09:20):
started to run the tours, uh,and that became a popular thing
to do, it was to run these,these tours to go out and visit
these outback families.
Um, they just, we all became thebest of friends.
And after about 25 or more yearsof doing that, riding around to
(09:41):
his ranch and taking peoplethere and discovering how
charismatic he always has been,he's just a natural teacher at
heart.
He loves to tell people abouthis lifestyle, the family, how
he builds things, um, with andhow they survived actually
(10:03):
eating cactus and indigenousfoods when, when that was all
that they could get ahold of.
So he had a fascinatingbackground.
It was like riding back intotime, a hundred years, uh, to,
to go out to their ranch and oneday, so then later on they moved
(10:24):
a little bit farther down canyonand set up a ranch in a little
bit wider area where theircattle could graze.
And they built corrals and, and,uh, made, made it be a place
where they could actually have alittle bit of road access.
It was still about three hoursfrom any major city.
Um, we would still ride, wewould do a loop trip and leave
(10:45):
from Sun Javier or Loreto areaand, and take our guests and go
camp out in the back country andmid Tripp.
We'd end up at his ranch and itwas such a breath of fresh air.
We would, there was fresh waterthere.
We would take baths.
The women would.would cook ameal for us.
(11:06):
We, it was like old home week,it would be like just visiting
friends.
And Dia was always so wonderfulabout, um, teaching the guests
who were on my trip about howthe old saddles were made and
how the old pack saddles weremade.
(11:26):
So after many, many years ofdoing that, like I say, I
started doing that in about, itmust have been about 94 when I
rode into his ranch the firsttime.
And by 2017, I had a small groupwe'd ridden in.
He was doing what he always didwith being charismatic and
(11:49):
showing all these beautiful handtooled saddles to my guests.
And he suddenly looked at me andhe said, Trudy, for years I've
been wanting to reenact.
An old time pack train, justlike my grandfather used to do.
And I used to sit around thecampfires when I was just a
(12:11):
little kid.
And I would listen to thestories about how these old time
packers would load up a dozendonkeys in the village of Du or
Lamo, which is about 300 or somore kilometers to the north of
the capital city of La Paz,which was a port city.
And they would load up and theywould ride for a couple of weeks
(12:34):
down to La Paz, taking goodsfrom the villages or the ranches
along the way, trading it in LaPaz for things that they
couldn't grow on the ranches orrice and, and flour from the
mills there and bring them backagain.
And he said, and I've alwayswanted to do that.
I've always wanted to, to be oneof those old packers and relive
(12:58):
that story and, and You know, Ithink I'd like to do that
sometime and I want it on film.
I went, oh, okay.
Let's do it.
I'll help you.
Oh my God.
that was quite a statement, um,six years ago now.
(13:23):
We now went through the wholeprocess.
It was the first time I've evermade a film.
First time Darío has ever made afilm, although he'd been in a
couple of others.
And I'd been had a little bit ofbackground with, uh, the film
called Corazón Vaquero, uh,which I
Damian Bacich (13:39):
Oh, I love that.
Trudi Angell (13:40):
Yeah.
Okay.
So you'll see in there, um, myfriends Gary McClintock, who is
an old saddle maker and Uh, hepassed away a few years ago,
but, um, that was his, his, uh,dream also was to make a movie
back in the, around 2005, 2006.
(14:02):
Gary called me up and said, Hey,Trudy, can you take me to some
place?
Um, places in Baja where peopleare still doing traditional old
California style of, of um,building things and making
things, and especially saddlemakers.
And I thought, ah, I know wherewe're going.
(14:23):
So we traveled with, uh, Cody,his son and another woman Eve
Ewing, who had been travelingall over the Baja California
Peninsula by Mule since the1960s, uh, and was very famous
in her own right for being oneof the first people to take
(14:43):
people into the, those rock art,the cave cave painting areas.
which is up to the north ofDario.
And so it was, um, it justseemed natural for Dario to say,
okay, I've been in one moviealready, maybe actually he'd
been in couple movies beinginterviewed about his knowledge,
(15:03):
his old traditional Californiaknowledge.
And so he said, well, let's justmake a movie.
And I said, okay, well I'll justhelp you.
But little did I know what itwas going to involve.
And uh, so that was it.
In 2017, he said, I wanna dothis thing.
(15:24):
I want it on film.
And I said, okay, I'll help you.
Damian Bacich (15:28):
That's, that's really something, you know,
just, um, backtracking a littlebit, that movie I, um, I used to
show it in my classes at, uh,San Jose State on, uh, old
California history and alsoLatin American culture.
Students used to love it.
And, uh, it makes sense that,that, that there's a tie in, of
(15:51):
course, that you're that you'rethe link, you know, um, that
yeah, that's an, it's an amazingfilm.
And the protagonist, um, Récua,uh, Dario, you mentioned him a
number of times.
He's a real character for sure,but he's, he's a poet.
(16:14):
it's just fascinating to see himon the trail, you know, creating
little verses, little littlepoems, uh, little songs as he's
going along.
At least for me, somebody who'sstudied, you know, the old, uh,
Spanish ballots, he's sort ofalmost a living example of that,
of these people who, who carryon that, that, that song, that
(16:37):
performance tradition as well,in addition to being very rooted
in, in the land and in and invery practical life, right?
Trudi Angell (16:47):
Yeah, very practical, uh, very resilient in
the back country you go with thepunches, with the weather, with
your cattle.
Um, you just do what you have todo.
And, uh, a really fun backgroundstory you like.
Now that you've seen Dario inboth films, now that I know
(17:09):
that, that, that you, that'sbeen part of your background
too.
Vaquero, he's the guy who getsbucked off the horse.
Right?
Damian Bacich (17:16):
Hmm.
Trudi Angell (17:17):
Okay.
So, um, that, that ranch, RanchoAl is the ranch that we begin to
film from, uh, a little bit.
Uh, we don't include his ranchtoo much into the current story
of La Récua because it's reallymuch more of an abandoned ranch
(17:38):
right now.
Many things have happened in hislife and.
Um, his, his health in someways, and now he's, he's back on
track again, so he's doing well.
Um,
Damian Bacich (17:48):
and sorry I interrupt, but that's also part
of the, of the, the plot of thefilm.
The plot, if you will, the, thestory is his health along the
trail.
Right.
Um,
Trudi Angell (18:00):
Yeah.
He has bronchitis on the trailand we truly do almost lose him
that day.
He couldn't breathe and youdon't see the backstory.
Luckily my editor did a greatjob of cutting out, kind of all
of us rushing in and me givinghim homeopathic remedies and
somebody in the backgroundyelling, give him strong, dark,
(18:23):
hot coffee.
And we happened to have some ina thermos.
And so the story doesn't reallyelaborate on that in, in the
film or the, the visuals don't,but there's a lot of background
that had to be cut out and, andwoven.
Out it, but that's really true.
And then Dios spirit, as hedrinks his strong black coffee
(18:46):
out, opens the aviola in hislungs, and then he's able to
carry on and in fact is theleader of the group and says,
no.
What is, what does he say inthat moment?
He says, Firo, let's put thepedal to the metal And, and Cha,
our actual real trail guidethere is like, oh my gosh, he
(19:09):
should take a rest.
He should he.
But no, that is spirit And his,um, his desire to complete this
trip and do this trip and, andfinish this story is overwhelms
everything and get carries himthrough.
Track 1 (19:25):
So in short, the, the documentary follows him and his
group of, um, friends andrelatives, right, as they kind
of do this.
Um, I don't know what you'd wantto call it.
This, carry out this idea that,that you're not a hundred
percent sure that it can be doneor that it will be done, but
(19:48):
along the way you see hisdetermination, good humor, and,
and, um, and fearlessness thatreally, that really gets them
through.
Trudi Angell (19:58):
Yeah.
So if you, did you get a chanceto listen to that little nine
minute video clip of aninterview that we did in Spanish
and uh, it's on one of mywebsites and
Track 1 (20:10):
No, I wasn't
trudi-angell_2_09-13-2023_130 (20:11):
I might have sent
Damian Bacich (20:12):
Oh, I, okay.
So there's a clip where you're,uh, together with the crew
Trudi Angell (20:17):
Yeah.
Damian Bacich (20:17):
being interviewed.
Yes.
I watched that.
Trudi Angell (20:19):
Yeah.
And one of the things Imentioned there is that.
The children, even the childrenon our trail.
The reason we chose the peoplewho were traveling along with
us, well, for one, Dario wantedhis family there.
He wanted his son, he wanted hisgrandson in particular because
(20:41):
his story, the whole thread ofthe story is he was a child at
eight years old listening to hisgrandfather tell the stories.
And so he built that littlesaddle for his grandson, um, in
order to get him on down thetrail in the old traditional
California style.
(21:01):
And, and he wanted his grandsonto, to be for sure part of this
film.
And so the children, becauselittle Ena who was 10 years old,
lived and grew up on a roadlessranch.
Uh, in the Sierra, there's SanFrancisco where all the cave
(21:22):
paintings are.
And I've known her since beforeshe was born.
I've known her parents sincethey were young people before
they got married.
And um, and then her father,Ricardo, uh, they're two of the
other people on the trip.
So it's Dio is the mainprotagonist telling his story,
his son helping him along.
(21:43):
And you see his expertise as wego along, his complete knowledge
and ability to, um, survive andkeep his animals healthy in the
outback, feed them when theyneed feed, climb up in a tree
and break off branches becausethat's all there is right there.
Uh, it was during the droughtseason, there was nothing on the
(22:04):
ground really to feed them.
And there were many places alongthat trail.
And as a back part of thebackstory of the film, uh, as we
left the village of Du, we wereall riding mules.
And then when we got to SunJavier, then we had actually
support vehicle for parts of therest of the trip all the way
(22:25):
down to La Paz, the 200 milesalong the trails and old roads.
So some of the time, uh, we wereable to have feed for the
animals and make life a littlesimpler and feed them alfalfa
and, uh, not have to look howto, uh, go and tie up a dozen
donkeys and five or six or sevenor eight or 10 mules, uh, every
(22:49):
day to try to feed them.
So we did have, in the backstorythere, is that, yes, we had
some, um, definitely we had thevehicle support for many nights
of those 20 days on the trail,but there were a half a dozen,
maybe seven nights where we as agroup or part of the group were,
(23:12):
were actually on the trail.
Okay.
And had to camp in a place wherethere was no road access.
So that's the time when they hadto resort to traditional feed
that those old Ros, the oldpackers would've had to done on
their whole trip, because wayback then there were, there was
(23:34):
no alfalfa to, to feed youranimals.
Um, so, so as you watch part ofthat history unfold, you get a,
a good sense of what it was liketo, to ride through that back
country because we had threecameras filming five people on
the trail, basically all daylong.
(23:56):
So that was hundreds of hours offilm that was rolling all day
long for 20 days.
And because we call it a"vérité"documentary where you, you don't
script it, you don't know what,you don't know what's gonna
happen.
And so the fun part is then youjust try to film everything
(24:18):
that's going on.
And then the editor has the job--or the editing team has the
job and storytelling team--script writer afterwards has
the job of putting it alltogether in the actual story
that the protagonist wants totell.
Um, or very key elements thatcame out of all of that film and
(24:40):
sound that were so amazing, suchan amazing part of the story
that they got.
It got also woven into the storyover the end as the editing was
going on.
So can we can consider, let'ssee.
Sergio started editing inDecember, 2018.
(25:01):
We rode the trail in March,2018.
It took 20 days to get to LaPaz.
We actually had a whole lot ofTraditional goods that went on
those donkeys
Damian Bacich (25:16):
Right.
And in fact, that's one of the,the great scenes, uh, when they
do.
You know, spoiler alert whenthey do reach La Paz, um, when
the people are, are crowdingaround to get, to get a little
sample of the, the, thetraditional goods, foods that
they brought with them and thewine and yeah.
(25:38):
That's, that's a beautiful thingto see the appreciation of the
people there in La Paz for thisextremely traditional, um, I
don't know what you want to callit, this, this, this, um,
Trudi Angell (25:55):
yeah, the old town caravans.
Mm-hmm.
Damian Bacich (25:58):
Yeah.
This representation of their owntraditions, they appreciate
that.
Trudi Angell (26:02):
Yeah.
Um, yeah, from the whole storyfrom the beginning, when you see
those beginning shots in theVillage of Comondú where Dario
speaks, uh, a little bit, um, aabout the, the dates and the
cheese and the, uh, dried meatthat went along on the trip and
the, um, you know, just whateverand the wine from Comondú
(26:27):
because Comondú the littlevillage of du up in the heart of
the Sierra de La Giganta to thewest of Loreta is pretty famous
for its wine.
There's a lot of water flowingthrough this little canyon, and
they make great wine there.
And so it was so exciting forthe people in La Paz who may
have grown up in that area orgrown up on branches or in the
(26:49):
back country.
Many of them were Dario'srelatives.
Uh, they know the story.
They know the story from theirown background, their own
ancestors, uh, you know, veryclose their, their own parents.
Uh, and grandparents.
And so yeah, as we, as we showthis film, um, to people, and
(27:11):
even as the film was in thedevelopment stage, it wasn't yet
to final cut, Dario and I wouldsometimes, um, just do a
screening of our slideshow aboutwhat the film was going to be
about and bring a saddle to kindof show people.
(27:32):
And elders in our audiences downin Mexico would get up at the
end of our presentation withtears in their eyes and just,
um, you know, lumps in theirthroats and saying, thank you so
much for preserving part of ourpast, and bringing back the
memories of what it was like tohave these pack trains come
(27:53):
through their own ranches backthen.
So that's how I, I can explainand, and say that Making this
film, it is just so wonderfulbecause it takes you to a
really, takes you back in time.
A hun in the reality of 150years ago of how things were, or
(28:14):
even 80 years ago in, in theBaja Peninsula before the road
was put in, in the seventies,uh, so many people still
traveled by mules and hadroadless ranches in the back
country, in the mountains.
And right now there's only afew, uh, mostly in the Sierra,
the San Francisco of ranchesthat are still surviving.
(28:35):
I can probably count them on onehand at this point, but when I
started riding about 40 yearsdown, 4 35 years ago down there,
there were a lot more ranchesthat, where people were living
in the back country andsurviving, making their goat
cheese, packing it on donkeys,taking it out to a road head.
(28:56):
Um, but that's disappearing.
So, so it's, it's just been awonderful thing with the film La
Récua to capture that story andpreserve that story.
Track 1 (29:08):
So would you say, well, you definitely, you just said
that this is a, this is a, a wayof life that's definitely
disappearing.
Um, What, what do you think isthe future this way of life?
Um, and that's one of the thingsthat, that struck me about the
film is that it's, you get thisdichotomy between a very
(29:32):
traditional, self-sufficient,um, off the grid, you know, what
we talk about, uh, lifestylethat's very tied, uh, to the
past.
And then, you know, there's cellphones, there's, um, they're
going to a, a modern, uh, city.
You know, they're trying todecide.
(29:53):
Dario talks about, um, well,well, I don't remember if it was
himself, but this idea about,you know, what are the children
gonna do?
Are they gonna go to the city togo to study, to university?
They're gonna stay.
And I think Azucena talks abouthow she wants to stay on the
rancho.
Right.
So
Trudi Angell (30:11):
Mm-hmm.
Damian Bacich (30:12):
can you talk to us a little bit about how do you
see.
That, um, crossroads that thesepeople are at, you know, in
terms of maintaining this lifeand, but also being immersed in
a modern world that, that, thattouches really everybody now.
Trudi Angell (30:31):
right?
Well, so back in the earlyeighties and the first time I
rode into the canyon, uh, wherethe, where the rock art
paintings are in the north endof the state of Baja California
Sur there.
there was no communication onmany of the ranches.
(30:54):
Then they got radios, they gotthe, the UHF radios, and there
was, wow, there wascommunication before the, you
know, where there wasn't anybefore.
The communication prior to thathad been fayuqueros.
These people who wouldn't be thelong range trucker kinds of mule
(31:16):
pack teams that would go fromone village to LA p, those were
called the arrieros of therécuas.
They would do the long distance,uh, merchant, uh, sell, buying
and selling and trade.
But there were others,fayuqueros, as one of elderly
(31:41):
gentlemen, uh, says in, in thestory, in the kind of the middle
of the story in the film.
He says, yeah, we had a coupleof donkeys and we'd ride into
the town and first we had twodonkeys, and then we had six
donkeys, and we'd buy this andwe'd buy that and we'd buy this
and we'd buy that.
(32:01):
And, and so those were thefayuqueros, those were the
people who would go kind of fromranch to ranch or shorter
distances.
And so they would all be calledrécuas, the, or caravans.
But the ROS would normally dothe shorter routes or, or go do
a loop in a month and visit aranch every night.
(32:22):
They would be the pedalers, thepedalers who didn't have a cart,
all they had were donkeys.
And so they would load up theirgoods, move to the next ranch,
and the ranches were prettyclose together back then because
like I say, there used to be alot more people living on those
outback ranches.
Um, up until the nineties andthe two thousands.
(32:45):
So anyway, the Ros were the oneswho carried the gossip and
carried the news and, andbrought in the goods.
And now then in the eighties,nineties, and up until 2000,
maybe 15, uh, about 2015 peoplestarted getting cell phones and
they would get little internettowers.
(33:08):
I think there's even agovernment program that would
help the ranchers, uh, get somekind of an internet connection
so that they would have, they'dhave a little antenna and you
could place it, and thensuddenly people had internet.
And one of the things we did,and this was about, gosh, must
have been about six, eight yearsago, um, I, I thought uhoh cell
(33:31):
phones are coming into theranches, uh, these really
outback ranches that's gonnachange everything.
And it really did.
Prior to the cell phones, I hadan amazing experience with just
one couple riding into a remoteroadless ranch one time, and we
rode for several hours throughthe mountains.
(33:53):
Ended up down in this canyonwhere two or three families
lived and there were some youngchildren there, excuse me,
several young children.
My two guests got off theirmules, went over and sat on a
log by our little campsite area.
And at that point, of course,the children come running off
the hillside.
They're like little goats.
(34:14):
They're just leaping from rocksto rocks and coming down and,
and climbing up into camp.
And immediately the children,six years old, eight years old,
10 years old, start helping thecowboys, unpack the donkeys.
They bring our gear into thecamp and they see that there are
new people.
They go around, the children goaround to each cowboy.
(34:38):
Shake their hands, say hello,and then they come over to my
guests and I've known them andso that we shake hands and say
hello, give a little hug.
But they go over to my guestswho are sitting there just
dumbfounded and they, each onegoes to each adult, hi, my name
is da da da da.
(34:59):
Welcome to the ranch.
And they shake hands and they gothrough And my two guests were
just jaw drops and said, Trudy,those children, they're so at
home in their place, they're,this is amazing.
We've never had this happenbefore.
(35:20):
And the children are brought upto be very respectful, to go
around and shake everyone'shand, introduce themselves, and
you know, really be with you.
And then they went back over andthey started joking around with
the cowboys and helping'emunpack the donkeys again.
But they, they took the time togo over and greet these people
(35:42):
and say, wLa Récuame to ourranch.
And the people on my trip werejust like, oh, we can't believe
this.
And so the children, becausethey've been raised on those
ranches in the Outback, theywere on our trip on La Récua.
It's just so much fun to watchthem and see how comfortable
(36:05):
they are in the back country andhow polite they are.
Um, and, and in that littleinterview story, uh, that you
may have watched, it's a, the 10minute interview, one of our,
uh, filmmaking crew members whowasn't on the trip but who saw a
(36:30):
lot of the background filming.
Process because he looked at allthe pieces of film.
He was really amazed as wellthat he, he said all these
people on the trip that you,that were being filmed are just
so comfortable in their ownspace in the back country.
(36:53):
It just, it comes across and theheart of the, the family aspect
of the respect that the childrenhave for the cowboys that the
cowboys have for the children,it, it just comes out in the
film and people have commentedon that a lot.
Damian Bacich (37:12):
Yeah, that really, that really comes out.
It's, yeah, you look at it.
I can just imagine, um, I.
My son, I've got a teenage son.
He would love to be there doingthat.
Um, yeah.
So I wanted to go back a littlebit to the whole filmmaking
aspect.
One of the things that, thatblew me away about this, this
(37:36):
film is how beautiful it is.
It's, not only engaging in termsof the story and the, the
people, the characters, um, butit's just, it's visually, uh,
breathtaking.
And so, um, the, yeah, it's justcaptivating.
So I'm wondering, you startedout by saying you really didn't
(37:58):
have a filmmaking background, sohow did you, uh, how did you
become a filmmaker?
How did you assemble the, youhad a crew, you had editors and
camera people.
How did you do that?
What was that like?
Trudi Angell (38:14):
Um, I think because I worked with Gary and
Cody, um, McClintock helping tomake that film Vaquero and in
fact in the credits, um, theynamed me, um, Associate producer
on that film, even though Ithought I was chief cook and
(38:38):
bottle washer And so I thinkjust riding along with them,
riding along with you.
You know who Doug McConnell isin the Bay Area back roads?
Doug McConnell?
Yeah.
Okay.
Well, Doug McConnell, maybe hewas, he might've been my first
experience with, uh, doing somefilming in the Loreto area.
(39:01):
Somehow he was coming down tofilm Wales on the Pacific side,
but he also wanted to, he knewabout the history of the El
Camino Real and the missions andhe wanted, and so somebody
pointed out him out that to meand said, oh, well, Trudy
should, you know, you shouldtalk to Trudy.
So I went and picked him and hiscrew up at the airport.
(39:24):
Uh, in Loreto way back, let'ssee, Olivia was about five years
old, so that was almost 30 yearsago, and he did, uh, the, the
one, uh, his crew came down andthey did the one, um, episode of
Bay Area Back Roads was aboutBaja and about the connection
between the missions and allthat Loretto.
(39:46):
So anyway, it was fun to seeover the years as a couple other
team film teams came down, theyall said, well, go to Trudy if
you wanna know something aboutcowboys and ranches and, and El
Camino oral and, and that kindof stuff.
So I had a few, uh,opportunities to work with some
film crews.
So what I noticed mostly is,yeah, you need a good team and
(40:10):
you need a team who works welltogether and loves what they're
doing in the area that they'redoing at.
So back in 2015, we took Cowboysfrom Baja Dario being one of
them, and Azucena's grandfatherbeing one of them.
Um, out to Elko, Nevada.
(40:33):
And I saw with a display theredone by my friend Fermín
Reygadas, who you also see inthe film a little bit at the
party in La Paz, um, you, he, hehad put together a little museum
piece in Elko, Nevada for the,some number, th number 31
(40:54):
National Cowboy Poetry Gatheringin Elko.
And we, the Cowboys, our cowboysand our singers and our band
were, uh, basically the stars ofthe show for that particular,
particular year.
And I saw some photographs thatmy friend Ferin had gotten ahold
of one of his students.
He's a professor at theuniversity in La Paz about rural
(41:15):
tourism and about cowboys.
And he just did a beautifulbook.
On Old Californio saddle making,and it's in Spanish, and he
published it in Mexico, ofcourse.
So anyway, he knew this student,a young woman who has, who had
her focus for her photography,had been, uh, uh, to capture
(41:39):
ranch life because she also kneweven at a young age that this
was a fading thing and it neededto be captured.
And the, the, the stories of thepeople on the ranches were so
important for her to capture.
And I saw some of herphotography and I went, oh, this
woman really has a, a sense ofheart for these people who live
(42:00):
out here.
So when Dario told me in 2017,Trudy, I wanna make a film, she
was the first person I went to.
She grew up in La Paz, she livedin La Paz.
Um, so Dio told me this in likeFebruary, 2017 and by May, 2017,
I was down in La Paz andinterviewing her and her
(42:23):
husband, who are both filmmakersand photographers and have
already published some booksand, and things.
And I discovered that she hadalso done a trip called a
cabalgata, which is, um, uh, amovement of people on horseback,
usually on some type of apilgrimage mission, or to head
(42:46):
out to a party that's going onabout, um, maybe a Saint Day
Festival at a particularvillage.
And people will do their alGatas and round up a bunch of
folks and, and ride to get to,um, to a, a festivity.
And so she had ridden for 11 or12 days with a group of men from
(43:08):
La Paz all the way to Son Javierfor its traditional annual, uh,
St day festival.
And so I knew that if she likedto do that, she'd probably love
to work on this film.
And so I asked her, and, and shewould know the hardships.
She would know what she wasgetting into.
(43:29):
So I wanted to make sure I had ateam of people that knew what
they were getting into or couldbe really resilient and positive
about, you know, just gettingout there and riding with those
cowboys.
And so the two of them,Alejandro, uh, Rivas and
Elizabeth Moreno is her name,they, they signed on right away.
(43:50):
They were very excited to dothis whole film.
And they were the ones whointroduced me to the sound guy,
young man named Rogelio Munoz,who had to, for the first time
in his life, get on a mule.
(44:11):
Carry his, the boom.
So he's riding along
Damian Bacich (44:14):
Oh wow.
Trudi Angell (44:15):
on the back of a mule with a boom, or he has the
little microphones on the pin tothe lapel of Dio and, and a
couple other people on thetrail.
And he's trying to capture,trying to keep his boom and his
microphone out of the, you know,the visual of the camera And
he's very good at it.
(44:37):
And so that's why they suggestedthat he come along.
And so as a big plus beyond allthat skill of, of his being able
to know what he has to captureon the trail to make this film
be so realistic.
Like you remember the scenewhere that donkey bites off that
(44:59):
piece of tree, uh, big branchand you hear the crunch, crunch
and you can almost hear thedrool dripping out of his.
Because that was Rogelio's job,was to capture all of that
background view, uh, sound thatwould make a viewer of the film
feel like you're right there.
(45:21):
And he did it wonderfully.
And he did it with a sense ofhumor.
He did it with enthusiasm and heand Dario became best buddies,
on the,
Damian Bacich (45:32):
okay.
Trudi Angell (45:32):
the whole ride.
And so, you know, the whole crewreally clicked as, as a group
moving along down the trail.
The children, Rogelio had tonsof fun with the children.
The children teased him all thetime.
'cause he had a big, longponytail.
He wouldn't wear a cowboy hat.
He, he would wear something likea wrap around his head or
(45:55):
something like that.
And they were teasing him allthe time.
And they just had tons of fun.
So all of that, you know,brought the fla, brought the
flavor into the film of Of justease and friendship and
comradery and uh, yeah, it justbrings it out.
There are so many people whohave said, well, you go riding
(46:19):
along with this team of peopleas they're leaving Kdu and you,
then you see them get into thevillage of Sun, Javier.
This is about 20 minutes intothe film or so, and, and it
shocks them.
They're like, oh, oh, wait aminute.
This is okay.
This is actually, there's carsand there's people using cell
(46:40):
phones, taking pictures of ourcowboys coming in.
And it shocks people that herethey were out in the back
country and just kind of flowingalong.
And Dario does this traditional,very traditional cowboy thing,
um, early on in the film asthey're writing and, and
presents a riddle to the groupif that presents the riddle to
(47:04):
the group and Uh, so that's partof it.
That's part of the, he's thecampfire philosopher.
He's the, he's the mule writingpoet.
He's the keeper of old trackCalifornia traditions.
And, um, and you just learn, youjust begin to love him because
of all that he is sharing withthe world, basically.
Damian Bacich (47:28):
Yeah.
You know, the old Californiatraditions.
Um, what do you think you're,you're a California and Alta
Californian, right?
And residing in Baja California,and one of the, um, I think one
of the, the subtexts of thisfilm is, is the fact that, that
(47:49):
when we say the word California,we're really talking about a
much larger piece of propertythan we normally think of.
Right?
What do you think about thattoday in 2023?
this, this idea, what do you, doyou think that there's hope for
a.
(48:10):
A better sense of continuitybetween two regions on each side
of the border, or, or, yeah.
How do you see that?
Trudi Angell (48:20):
I would hope so.
And I've been involvedperipherally with a group called
em, C A R E M, down in ate.
Um, and together we've kind ofbeen imagining me to a lesser
degree and they to a more formaldegree of trying to put
(48:40):
together, um, the concept of thethree Californias.
So the original California,which goes basically, uh, I
always use my, my arm as a, as amap of California, right?
So the, the knuckle down here isCabo, and then the elbow is up
(49:00):
by Guerrero Negro at the stateline between Baja, California
Sur.
And, and Tijuana and San Diegoare up here at my shoulder.
So I'm using that all the timeas, as a map to, to give people
a sense of the real first.
California is really this wholearea in my lower from my elbow
down.
Damian Bacich (49:21):
Mm-hmm.
Trudi Angell (49:21):
And, um, that has disappeared.
Well, it was even in the mid 18hundreds here, uh, that people
were still referring.
And maybe even in the early 19hundreds, people were still
referring in newspapers and Uh,wasn't there an Alta California
newspaper?
Uh, believe, and it was calledthe Alta California.
(49:43):
And so they were stillunderstanding that, you know,
they, this upper California wasjust basically where the
missionaries came as theytraveled north up from lower
California or Baja California.
And so,
Damian Bacich (50:00):
Or Antigua, California.
Right.
Trudi Angell (50:02):
pardon,
Damian Bacich (50:03):
Or Antigua, California.
Trudi Angell (50:05):
Antigua, California.
Antigua California is a great, agreat way to, um, describe that.
Yeah.
the the old original California.
And so, you know, the, thiswhole sense of how people
traveled, like nowadays, becauseI've ridden mules up and down
(50:25):
the peninsula for many, manyyears, I, I've ridden actually
from Cabo all the way to Tecate.
Uh, one year with, uh, mydaughter and a couple other
women, women friends.
We called it the"Mula Mil" theMule, 1000.
And so, um, and we're hopefullydoing it again pretty soon.
(50:47):
Um, you know, the, the, my senseof how that was done, probably
not too many people get, get it,that that was just a normal way
of life.
Back in the forties, fifties,sixties before, before the, the
(51:07):
Trans Peninsular Highway was putin from Tijuana and finished up
all the way down in the earlyseventies, down connecting Cabo
and La Paz to Ensenada and thatwhole central part of the
peninsula.
There, there are some wonderfulbooks in Spanish written by a
(51:28):
woman named, um, Estela.
Davi.
Damian Bacich (51:34):
Uh, yes.
Trudi Angell (51:35):
Yeah.
Have you read
Damian Bacich (51:36):
I met, I met Estella a number of years ago at
the California MissionsConference
Trudi Angell (51:42):
Perfect.
Okay.
Yeah.
She's a
Damian Bacich (51:45):
Oh, no, excuse me.
No, no, no.
It's Stella AVEs.
That's somebody else.
Esella AVEs came to U C L A andshe spoke about her book.
Um, La perla del mojón",
Trudi Angell (51:58):
mm-hmm.
Yes.
Damian Bacich (52:00):
Estella.
Yes, yes.
Yeah.
have her book autographed byEsella.
Trudi Angell (52:04):
Great.
Well, she, she has interviewed alot of people, um, and, and
written their stories down.
And her, you know, as you knowher, the background of most of
her books have to do with herown family's old stories and the
past down information and, andstuff.
And, uh, yeah, she's wonderful.
(52:24):
She's still, uh, hanging out inLa Paz.
She finished writing anotherbook called"Conversaciones y
memorias" Maybe about five yearsago, and I went to to visit her
and she gave me a copy.
And in that it speaks, she tellsone story about an interview
with an elderly man who, uh, wasvery famous in the Loreto and
(52:50):
Kodu area.
He was a teacher, uh, and wouldride on horseback to go around
to many of the places.
And there was a woman back inthe, uh, forties and fifties,
uh, thirties, forties andfifties.
And she had her, she was afayuquera, she was a paddler,
(53:10):
and she had her route of takinggoods around to all those
ranches.
Her name was Mari...
Maria....
Oh, I'll have to think of itlater.
But, um, there was a story inthere about her, how she She
would help people if they wantedto move farther north with all
(53:31):
of their stuff from DU or um, LaPurísima or Loreto, they would
hire her, she would be themoving van, and they would ride
for two months to get up towhere this, these people might
wanna, wanna move to.
They would load all theirworldly goods onto a dozen
(53:52):
donkeys and they would justtravel for a month or two up the
peninsula, just like the Padresdid with Padre Serra, who went
on foot, of course.
But, uh, Portola and the, thepeople and, and so it's really
fun having done that ridemyself, I really connect with
(54:14):
those old historic stories abouttravel by Mule, um, up the
peninsula.
I get it.
I, I understand now every time Idrive up the Peninsula, Every 10
minutes is, you know, like a dayof travel every 10 minutes on
the highway.
And I can, I can see, and I cankind of visualize, okay, well
(54:36):
Portolá, of course, in this areawould've wanted to go up over
that ridge and down throughvalley.
'cause there's more feed or, uh,there's, there was a little
creek down in there.
So, so those kinds of things arejust things that, that I could
absorb and relate to, uh,because I've done some of that
myself.
Now.
Damian Bacich (54:55):
Well, what I really like about this, uh,
documentary is it kind ofexemplifies how, um, contrary to
maybe to what we might think,how modern technology in some
ways, especially in this case,filmmaking, technology, et
cetera, can put us in touch withthe, the past and with the, the
(55:21):
history that, um, is underneathour feet and with parts of
traditional life that aredisappearing.
So, um, it's one of those caseswhere, where we can, where we
can use modern technology toreally, um, help maintain memory
(55:42):
of the past.
Trudi Angell (55:43):
Mm-hmm.
Damian Bacich (55:45):
And so, Well, I got to see in a, um, I was able
to see the film through, um, youknow, a special, um, streaming
event that you were doing for,for a certain period in August.
I'm wondering now, as we closeout here, how can thousands and
thousands of people see thismovie that I really hope, um,
(56:08):
they'll be able to,
Trudi Angell (56:10):
Right.
Well,
Damian Bacich (56:11):
are plans?
Trudi Angell (56:12):
yeah, the, well, I, I love the full feature film,
uh, because of all of theaspects of what, what is tied
together at the end of the film,talking about the children and
how they're being raised andhow, yes, education is
important, but so is life on theranch and, you know, their,
(56:33):
their own struggles with tryingto decide what they're going to
do in life.
Both those children, actually,by the way, are, are still
living on the ranches and we areSpeaking of technology, um, ASNA
has been learning English from ayoung girl, a woman in La Paz,
(56:53):
who's a friend of ours, who isteaching her, uh, two times a
week.
She has an English class withher, so that Asna will be able
to live on the ranch and also wehope become a guide to take
people down and work with thecowboys who are up there and
maybe even be the first youngwoman guide who will actually,
(57:16):
she knows how to pack a donkey.
So when her father may not beable to do it sometime, well,
she would be next in line.
Her brother, her little brotherwho would be likely to go onto
the guide role up there fortaking people in, uh, and
wouldn't have as many skills.
But she is 16 now.
(57:36):
Uh, since she was 10 on the, onthe filming, and now it's been
years later, so now she's 16.
And when she's 18 we canactually, um, act, uh, see if
she can get onto the guide, roleand do her own donkey packing
up.
Damian Bacich (57:51):
excellent.
Trudi Angell (57:52):
Yeah.
And so one of the things I wouldlike to do with the film is, um,
uh, I, we're working on a PBScut right now, and we already
have it cut down to just aboutan hour.
It has to be a little bit lessthan that for the P B s um,
hour.
It's
Damian Bacich (58:12):
Ah, okay.
Trudi Angell (58:13):
six minutes and 46 seconds or something.
And so we're working on that.
And so I'm hoping that nextyear, uh, about this time, it
might be something that peoplewould, lots of, lots of people
would be able to see on P B S.
uh, but a shortened version.
Damian Bacich (58:30):
Hmm.
Trudi Angell (58:30):
And for the longer version, once we have that out
on p b s, then I would be ableto post it on my website, sell
it at our online store andthings like that.
And, um, and so I, I haven'treally resolved all of the
questions about distribution,but um, it distribution is
(58:52):
changing anyway in the world offilm.
And I'm in a group right now whois discussing and getting their
own films out into the worldand, and, uh, getting more eyes
on their product.
And, and that's hopefully onething that we'll do.
The other thing, like you, youmentioned there's so much
education in there, like you'veshown RA vaquero to your, uh, to
(59:15):
your students in the past.
And I would like to make aneducational cut because there we
have so much footage.
Damian Bacich (59:22):
Yeah.
Trudi Angell (59:23):
Of things that Darrio really had hoped would
come out in the film.
But the editors kind of grabbeddifferent threads and different
storylines to weave the wholestory of the trip together and
left some of what Darrioconsidered important parts about
the history of the arrieros, thehistory of the saddle, making,
(59:44):
the history of, uh, but therewas just too much of it, much,
uh, too much material.
So at some point I would like toput together an educational cut,
maybe a small series of 2, 3 20minutes sections with a, with
some information in thebackground.
You're actually a person who hasnow come into my radar of
thinking, Ooh, you could help mewith this putting together an
(01:00:08):
educational background, uh, andwhat would be the most
interesting.
So at, at some point, it'd bewonderful to speak with you
about that.
Damian Bacich (01:00:16):
Happy to.
Well, Trudy, I want to berespectful of your time.
This is, uh, once again, thishas been a real pleasure.
Um, the, the film is called LaRécua, uh, the Mule Train or the
PAC Train.
And, um, I said, I hopeeverybody gets a chance to see
it and for, uh, people to get alittle idea of what it's all
(01:00:39):
about and, um, more of a tasteof the film and what you do.
Where can they go?
Trudi Angell (01:00:46):
They can go to La Récua.com, so that would be L A
R E C U A qua.com.
And on there you can watch thetrailer for sure.
And that little 10 minuteinterview.
And there's some lot of goodbackground stories and
(01:01:06):
background about the bios ofthe, uh, filmmakers as well.
And, um, And then you can also,there's a little button down at
the bottom of the homepage, uh,that where you can sign up to
get information and get on ournewsletter so that the next time
we do another, uh, week longstreaming screening, uh, on a
(01:01:30):
platform that I'm using, thenyou, you could be on that list
to, to find out about, um,when's the next time.
It might, might do it in lateOctober, also if you're in the
Sacramento area, uh, inCalifornia.
Then in, on October 3rd at the,um, uh, the Department of
(01:01:55):
Natural Resources, the newbuilding, downtown Sacramento
Department of Natural Resources,uh, La Récua has been chosen to
be a film presented there onOctober 3rd.
To honor Latino Heritage Month,basically starts this Friday, I
(01:02:15):
think, uh, up
Track 1 (01:02:16):
The 15th.
Trudi Angell (01:02:18):
Yeah.
And, um, so I hope to see youthere, Damien, and,
Damian Bacich (01:02:23):
I would really to attend.
Trudi Angell (01:02:25):
and, and you'll be receiving actually a special
invitation pretty soon in themail.
We have a, a discussion withthe, um, the people.
Tomorrow I have a Zoom meetingwith the, the woman who's
getting the official invitationsready to send out.
And, um, and other people, uh,on, on the radar who are very
(01:02:47):
interested in California historyare, are on that list.
But also it will start to beannounced, I think, in the
Sacramento Bee and other places,uh, with a link to be able to,
uh, reserve a space.
So they, they'll definitely,there's only 300 seats in the
theater.
So they'll want, uh, to makesure that, that people reserve a
(01:03:09):
space so that we limit thatthere will, it'll cut off at
300.
So, yeah.
Damian Bacich (01:03:16):
Well, that's great that I'm, I'm really
looking forward to that and onceagain, all my compliments on the
film and, um, I think whatyou're, what you're doing is
wonderful and I hope more andmore people hear about it.
And, um, looking forward to thefilm getting, uh, greater
distribution and the wordgetting out about what you're
(01:03:38):
doing and about Darrio and hislegacy.
Trudi Angell (01:03:41):
Mm-hmm.
and especially in Baha,California Sur, uh, we're also
working on a project to get the,the film, uh, is in its feature
film format out to all thelittle villages and all the
people who really deserve to, tosee this film and understand
that their heritage, theirbackground, their knowledge, Um,
(01:04:05):
and their history is so, soimportant so that it will honor
them as well.
Damian Bacich (01:04:13):
Wonderful.
Well, thank you Trudy.
Uh, it's been a real pleasure.
Trudi Angell (01:04:18):
Okay, Igualmente and hope to see you soon on the
third, if not sooner.
And St.
Helena.
Damian Bacich (01:04:24):
Okay.
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