Ante la aparición de Tierra del chicle, Carlos Velo, México, 1952

A producer, Barbachano Ponce; an ideologue and cultural animator, Fernando Gamboa; an exiled republican cineaste, Carlos Velo, are part of a generation which transformed the way of thinking about documentaries while at the same time applying it to the making of certain works which comprise the body of film work of the New Aztec Cinema (NCA). By means of a small film which has recently been recovered, La Tierra del Chicle, we can follow the auteur’s stamp, its importance in the configuration of the aforementioned NCA and examine realism as a reference for the documentaries in which Velo left his mark. The decade of the 50s, the cinematographic culture of this era, including the conditions of production, and an attitude which exhibits his belief in the works he wanted to make, provides us with numerous clues to construct a space for dialogue in the contemporary debate around the documentary.