LatinaLista — Loreta Velazquez was a brave woman. She had to be. Her bravery was the only thing that stood between her and execution for being a spy.
Loreta Janteta Velazquez was a Cuban immigrant raised in New Orleans. Her exploits of disguising herself as a man to fight in the Civil War was so unbelievable to all who heard her story that it was immediately discounted as a hoax. Yet, filmmaker María Agui Carter thought otherwise.
In her feature-length documentary titled Rebel, Agui Carter took Loreta’s 600-page memoir to bring to life a woman who some had tried to erase from history.
Because of Rebel, viewers learn that Loreta fought at Bull Run, was wounded at Shiloh and served as a spy for the Confederacy until becoming a double agent for the Union.
Weaving drama, animation, historical and recreated archival material to unravel the mystery of Loreta Velazquez, Rebel is a detective story about a woman, a myth, and the politics of national memory.
