The author investigates a grassroots video project in San Antonio, Texas, and the ways it has incorporated two residual cultural identities in the largely working-class Mexican American community, Chicano nationalism and Catholic humanism, to create an emergent culture based on communitarian values and creative expression. Using ethnographic field research, the author traces one video’s conceptualization, production and exhibition to illustrate the tensions and negotiations involved in creating this emergent culture. The author shows that the video project process is double-edged; the video reinforced a Mexican American community based on mutual respect, tolerance and self-esteem, while also unavoidably privileging certain cultural identities over others.
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