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Our South Texas success stories often start this way, with little to no resources but ingenuity and fierce determination.
“The Long Game” is a film about five teenage golf caddies from Del Rio who become the 1957 Texas State High School Golf Championship team. Unable to play at the course where they work because of their Mexican American backgrounds, the team builds a rough golf course in the South Texas brush.
It opens Friday nationwide.
Starring Jay Hernandez, an executive producer, and Dennis Quaid, co-producer, the film had its world premiere at the 2023 SXSW Film Festival, where it won the Narrative Spotlight Audience Award and received rave reviews from critics praising its top-notch performances and calling it a crowd-pleasing and uplifting film based on a true story.
The 1957 Mustangs golf team members — Mario Lomas, Felipe Romero, Lupe Falen, Joe Trevino and Gene Vasquez — were students at the segregated San Felipe Independent School District. They reportedly scavenged for discarded clubs and golf balls where they caddied. In February, Texas Monthly reported that Romero, in his mid-80s and living in Houston, attended the film’s debut screening in Austin. Vasquez also attended, but died a few months after the premiere. Trevino died in 2014. Lupe Felan lives in California, and keeps in touch with Romero, but they’ve lost contact with former teammate Lomas.
Inspired by the book “Mustang Miracle” by Humberto G. Garcia, “The Long Game” was co-produced by Rio Grande Valley native Javier Chapa, co-founder of Mucho Mas Media.
“It’s an incredible true story of resilience, a true underdog story … really a story about our identity as a Latino community,” the San Manuel native and Edinburg North High School graduate recently told Edinburg CISD media.
Brownsville native and cinematographer Andrew Barrera also worked on the film, and posted on Instagram, “Being from South Texas and Hispanic, this story hits home. I cannot thank the producers and director enough for bringing me on (to) help tell this story.”
“The Long Game” also stars comedy legend Cheech Marin. Newcomers Julian Works and Paulina Chavez give marquee performances opposite Jaina Lee Ortiz, Brett Cullen, and Oscar Nuñez, known for “The Office” and “The Proposal.”
