HOUSTON – A new documentary series premiering Monday on A&E is diving into the story of Houston’s “Chicano Squad.”
The squad was an all-Latino group of homicide detectives with the Houston Police Department which began their work in the late 1970s.
Jose Selvera Jr., an original member of the Chicano Squad, said it was formed in August of 1979 following a rash of murders involving Latino individuals which had gone unsolved in Houston. One of the problems the Houston Police Department was dealing with at the time was a language barrier as very few officers spoke Spanish. One officer came up with the idea to create the squad comprised of Spanish-speaking officers.
“(James) “Jim” Montero, great detective, he was one of the very few detectives who was working on robbery during that time and every time there was a high-profile murder or murder that needed to be worked on, he would come out of robbery and they’d bring him up to homicide and he’d work the case. It turned out he’d work the complete case because everybody spoke Spanish,” Selvera said. “So he had the idea and that’s where it was born that maybe we should bring some Spanish-speaking officers to homicide.”
Five officers were brought in to create the original squad.
“Myself, Cecil Mosqueda, (Robert) “Bobby” Gatewood, Urvin “U.P.” Hernandez, Raymond Gonzales, and you know the squad pretty much went from there,” Selvera said.
These five officers went out into the community, the same communities they lived in. At first, Selvera said the group was met with suspicion by the community.
“We got word that the Hispanic community thought we might be spying on them and that type of deal, but it turned out within three days, we showed them it was a different thing,” Selvera said.
Along with the community, the squad also encountered some skepticism from within the department.
“But we won them over and before you knew it they were knocking at the door asking hey, could you help me with this? Can you translate and I’d say, yeah, we got it, no problem,” Selvera said.
Very quickly, the squad proved they were both a critical asset as well as an effective crime-fighting unit within the department.
“After three days, we each got our homicide cases, go at it, and we cleared them,” Selvera said. “That first murder I was telling you, I basically cleared it that day, picked up these ladies and we took them back to homicide, I took two statements, they pointed out the house where the guy was living, I took down the license plate, ran the name, he luckily had a rap sheet, so I went up there, got a photo spread, put it back and said look can you pick out the guy we’re talking about, oh that’s him right there.”
In the first 90 days of the squad’s existence, Selvera said 40 murder cases were solved.
“That’s unheard of. That is like an 80% clearance rate. And that’s why it kind of pushed it home. These guys are here to stay. It was phenomenal. It’s unheard of. You know, 40 murders cleared in just 90 days. There’s some towns that don’t have that many murders in a year,” he said.
The executive producer of the new series, Sergio Selvera, has a special connection to Jose, as Jose is his father.
“It’s exciting to get to do this. You know, I represent so many people and I help them tell their stories, but it’s a lot different when you’re telling your own story. Like, literally your family history,” Sergio said.
Compared to when the Chicano Squad was formed back in 1979, Sergio said policing in Houston has come a long way for the Latino community.
“Two weeks ago, we were at City Hall and they were honoring the 45th anniversary of the Chicano Squad and in the front row, there was a row of Latino assistant chiefs and the new police chief is actually a Mexican-American police chief in Houston, Texas,” Sergio said. “I asked my dad, what do you think about this? He was like I couldn’t imagine that in 1979, like, because they were groundbreaking in 79 just to be in homicide and now you have the top ranks of the department representing what the community looks like. So it’s really exciting.”
Sergio said the two-part documentary series will be chronicling some of the high-profile cases the squad was responsible for solving, including Cartel-type incidents and an international kidnapping. The second part will be going beyond the cases.
“You get to see the emotion and the trauma that these men kind of go through and the toll that it takes on their families and I don’t think a lot of police docs talk about that. And why would they? Because most of the time the production team doesn’t have that direct relationship. But it was very important for us to tell, like the human side of these men, because they are heroes. But you need to know what your heroes go through,” he said.
Sergio says making this series has not only taught him more about his own father, but how to be a father himself and go through trials and tribulation.
“This has really been a rewarding experience and I’ve actually learned more about my father in the last, you know, five years, putting this together as far as, like, how to be a father and what it is to be a professional because, you know, we all hit, you know, trials and tribulations going through our professional lives.,” he said.
The first part of the series premiered Monday at 8 p.m. on A&E. The second part premieres at 8 p.m. Tuesday.