New Documentary Explores the Secret Life of Loreta Velazquez, New Orleans Cuban immigrant, Confederate Soldier turned Union Spy
REBEL NEW ORLEANS THEATRICAL PREMIERE
7pm Friday, Jan. 17, 2014 Ogden Museum of Southern Art
Screening starts at 7pm at OGDEN MUSEUM OF SOUTHERN ART, 925 Camp St. , New Orleans.
Instroduction by Latin American film scholar Ana Lopez, followed by Q&A with REBEL Writer/Director María Agui Carter.
Shrouded in mystery and long the subject of debate, the story of Loreta Velazquez is one of the Civil War’s most gripping forgotten narratives. Loreta Janeta Velazquez, a Cuban immigrant raised in New Orleans’ French Quarter, was one of the estimated 1000 women who secretly served as soldiers during the American Civil War. Who was she? Why did she fight? And what made her so dangerous that she has been virtually erased from history?
Actors and historians bring Velazquez’ story to life in this beautifully directed documentary, weaving drama and animation with historical and archival material to unravel the mystery of this secret soldier in a riveting detective story about a woman, a myth, and the politics of national memory.