Can someone shed light on whether racial tension shown in the movie "McFarland USA" was accurate?

There is racial tension everywhere. Everywhere. New Hampshire, Nebraska, New Mexico, it doesn't matter. Sure some locals will try and say "oh no, not here.." But there is always some form of racial tension. For this tension to come to the forefront is for someone to become a little tired of this or that and speak up. And for others to agree. Then Bob's your uncle.

Maybe I wasn't very clear with my post.

My question had to do with whether the movie was accurate in the portrayal of the opposing teams.

I am well aware there is and was racial tension. But it's true that at least in my little corner of the world that was set aside amongst XC teams where I lived. I was wondering if it was the same in McFarland or as the movie showed it to be.

As many of you may know, the movie "Hoosiers" was loosely based on a real Indiana high school (Milan) that won the state championship in 1954, defeating the Muncie Central Bearcats in the final at Butler Fieldhouse. The OP's final sentence gave me a chuckle as it reminded me of a story my dad tells about the movie. Growing up in Muncie as a Bearcat fan, he assumed everyone felt as he and his family did about that game in '54: that it was a sad travesty and that the Milan team were the villains!

I have not yet seen "McFarland USA", but I suppose I can sympathize with the former rivals whose own state championship dreams were crushed by the team portrayed in the movie (less sympathy if they were jerks at the time!).

Without directly answering the question, I thought this summed it up nicely:

http://www.thestranger.com/film/features/2015/02/18/21739144/macfarland-usa-after-kevin-costner-saved-black-people-in-black-or-white-he-sets-his-sights-on-improving-the-lot-of-latinos

Learn South American Spanish and go work the fields for a summer and find out what it's like. Be sure to bring a hat, long sleeves, long pants, and plenty of sunscreen. It will probably alter your world view, as it should.

Seeing as McFarland never raced against Palo Alto that year, those interactions at least were entirely fictional. The "Palo Alto Invitational" in reality was the Stanford Invite (Palo Alto is the high school sponsor still) and McFarland did not attend. Although a much smaller meet back then, there were still more than four teams in attendance.

Also, since Palo Alto is nearly 250 miles away from McFarland, it would have been a hell of a day of driving for Coach White to go there for a job interview.

Needless to say, Palo Alto is not in the same section as McFarland and thus would not have competed with them for a state meet berth.

Final note, McFarland dominated the Central Section Finals (scoring 22 points) and were a heavy favorite to win the state division III title.

At least they got it right that 1987 was the first year of the California State Meet.

First of all, we Mexicans are the locals. The Anglos invaded California.

Yes there was tension in the Central Valley. Mexicans wanted rights and growers didn't want to help us. Jim Crow laws banned Mexican from movie theaters, restaurants, and stores.

My great-grandparents were born after the turn of the former century at the Japanese Hospital in Fresno. The Anglo hosptial refused Mexicans even with dangerous symptoms.

Mexican farm workers hated Anglo farm owners who treated us worse than dogs.

Until Caesar Chavez (who is buried along Hwy 58 in Kern County) preferred picking at Japanese farms, which had clean, fully plumbed, worker managed housing, and had free medical care.

Until Caesar Chavez, school districts would not teach college-prep classes at Mexian schools. Only auto-mechanies, trades, cooking, and inside home oriented classes.

Teach in Taft CA wrote:

First of all, we Mexicans are the locals. The Anglos invaded California.

Yes there was tension in the Central Valley. Mexicans wanted rights and growers didn't want to help us. Jim Crow laws banned Mexican from movie theaters, restaurants, and stores.

My great-grandparents were born after the turn of the former century at the Japanese Hospital in Fresno. The Anglo hosptial refused Mexicans even with dangerous symptoms.

Mexican farm workers hated Anglo farm owners who treated us worse than dogs.

Until Caesar Chavez (who is buried along Hwy 58 in Kern County) preferred picking at Japanese farms, which had clean, fully plumbed, worker managed housing, and had free medical care.

Until Caesar Chavez, school districts would not teach college-prep classes at Mexian schools. Only auto-mechanies, trades, cooking, and inside home oriented classes.

Reposted for emphasis. Good examples of the historical realities.

It's a hollywood movie. That should tell you everything you need to know. If you don't have a clear antagonist and protagonist, you don't have a box office winner. A good example is the movie Rudy. In the movie, Rudy's father and brother became the caricature of all opposition to Rudy which Rudy had to overcome. But in real life, his family was not really against him playing football.

I haven't seen the movie and I am not sure what year it is set in (sounds like the late 80s?) but I grew up in the Central Valley and ran XC and track in the early 90s. My high school was predominately Hispanic / Mexican (I am white) and my team was also predominantly Hispanic / Mexican. We ran against McFarland regularly. There was definitely a lot of racism directed at brown folks back then in society in general but I honestly don't recall a lot of the racism spilling over into races / meets. McFarland and several other teams that were predominately made up of Mexican kids were respected when I was running.

In the movie, "racial" tension was substituted for "competitive" tension...

--- if you compare the move with the original documentary...

My son's nationally ranked HS XC team was "extremely competitive",

--- didn't matter who the other team was! or what color!

As to the movie, unfortunately, he never ran very well at Stanford....

--- after transferring from Harvard ... for whatever reason.

Perhaps I "misread" the movie,

--- I thought it was a "copy" of the native American XC runner documentary.

He won the Arizona XC title and placed 6th at the HS XC nationals,

--- went to Harvard and then transferred to Stanford.

Sorry,

Thank you everyone.

Whenever I see a movie like this I like to know the real story. I think the movie itself is definitely worth seeing. I wish it came out in the fall as I would have brought my whole team to watch it but I'm sure we'll make it into a movie night next year.

California is one of the most racist places on earth. White cops have carte blanche to beat and murder Hispanics for fun and bragging rights. White Hispanic Economic Refugees are denied human rights while Anglo White Economic Refugees are granted drivers licenses, can get jobs, and live at flats w/o harassment.

Sharon C wrote:

In the movie, "racial" tension was substituted for "competitive" tension...

--- if you compare the move with the original documentary...

My son's nationally ranked HS XC team was "extremely competitive",

--- didn't matter who the other team was! or what color!

As to the movie, unfortunately, he never ran very well at Stanford....

--- after transferring from Harvard ... for whatever reason.

All of this is true, and we all know movies are not reality.

But, it also doesn't take away from the harsh realities posted up thread.

I went to HS in the late 90s in So Cal. In the early 90s, my school was state-ranked and once competed in the Sea View League. Back then, the team consisted of mostly Mexicans/Mexican-Americans with a few white athletes as well.

We heard stories of how the opposing teams would nail tortillas on trees over their home courses and would throw tortillas at my HS's team.

I wasn't there, so I can't say for sure, but seems like the tension at McFarland is definitely possible. That was a really messed up era.

Thanks. This makes more sense. I was thinking in the movie that there was no way some team could get their asses beat like that early season, barely scrape into the state meet, and then somehow win with one of their better runners imploding. Them being a pretty dominant team during the season makes it more realistic.

Let me spin this the other way....

I went to a lower income high school and absolutely LOVED crushing the rich kids at cross and track every chance I got. They had all the luxuries I would've killed for (cars, clothes, nice girls).

Mind you they really didn't do anything or say anything different to me than anyone else....but SHIT I loved making them hurt !!!

pop_pop! wrote:

Teach in Taft CA wrote:

First of all, we Mexicans are the locals. The Anglos invaded California.

Yes there was tension in the Central Valley. Mexicans wanted rights and growers didn't want to help us. Jim Crow laws banned Mexican from movie theaters, restaurants, and stores.

My great-grandparents were born after the turn of the former century at the Japanese Hospital in Fresno. The Anglo hosptial refused Mexicans even with dangerous symptoms.

Mexican farm workers hated Anglo farm owners who treated us worse than dogs.

Until Caesar Chavez (who is buried along Hwy 58 in Kern County) preferred picking at Japanese farms, which had clean, fully plumbed, worker managed housing, and had free medical care.

Until Caesar Chavez, school districts would not teach college-prep classes at Mexian schools. Only auto-mechanies, trades, cooking, and inside home oriented classes.

Reposted for emphasis. Good examples of the historical realities.

Reposted for more emphasis. Regardless of whether or not tension was actually real in XC culture, it was real in CA. The movie took artistic liberties in the movie and made it seem as if there was racial tension between XC teams. They did this not to shine a light on the racist culture of XC or anything going on within XC, but rather to shine a light general on the challenges faced by latino/latina americans in the southwest.

So you feel self-righteous for having animosity towards people you admittedly wanted to be like? I'll leave it at that.

lsjfdk;lj;fkj wrote:

Let me spin this the other way....

I went to a lower income high school and absolutely LOVED crushing the rich kids at cross and track every chance I got. They had all the luxuries I would've killed for (cars, clothes, nice girls).

Mind you they really didn't do anything or say anything different to me than anyone else....but SHIT I loved making them hurt !!!