Cheers for Chachi
Follow Chachi Ramirez’s career on Instagram @chachiramirezfilms. View his films online at vimeo.com/mercybrothers. Learn more about his Central Coast creative agency, Suede and Pomade, at suedeandpomade.com.
Chachi Ramirez’s career in film has led him across the globe.
“I’ve shot documentaries that have taken me into really, not to say hostile, but maybe uncertain places,” Ramirez told the Sun one September morning over coffee, his 7-month-old puppy in his lap.
Twenty years ago, he flew into Lebanon, landing on a runway that had recently been rebuilt after it was bombed by Israel. He was part of a mission to assess damage, share the story, and help raise money to deliver relief.
“Parts of the trip were being led by Hezbollah—so like in bombed-out Beirut, I asked questions to the PR guys from Hezbollah,” Ramirez remembered. “It was all very civil, but that 25-year-old kid from Texas, I didn’t really know what I was doing.”
After a couple of decades in Hollywood, the South Texas native is now content in Nipomo crafting local stories. Plus, as a father and husband, the artist has less of a desire to take his camera abroad into potentially dangerous scenarios.
Three fulfilling short films over the past few years only required brief drives to Guadalupe. Ramirez has highlighted the dunes complex, the Escalante Meadows housing project, and its namesake, World War II Army Staff Sgt. Augustin Escalante.
“I really love Guadalupe. I think it’s such a cool town kind of like out in the middle of nowhere,” Ramirez said. “It’s got that old Americana vibe. It’s just so cool. It’s coastal. It’s got all this great stuff going on.”
Guadalupe was home to Escalante. Ramirez spent two and a half years researching the veteran’s life for a film called Augustin Escalante: Hometown Hero.
“The story kind of needs to tell itself, but I need to do the research to be able to find out what the story is,” the filmmaker said. “It was my first project where I’ve gone in without a kind of understanding of what the story I was telling is.”
Eventually, he found the narrative. It opened with a shot of a spinning globe stopping at the Hawaiian Islands, overlaid by President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s booming voice reading his famous speech after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
‘The film I hope will live on for a long time and be on display in Guadalupe for people to have a place to see something about someone because so many of these stories don’t get told.’
—Chachi Ramirez, filmmaker
For almost 16 minutes the documentary details the life of the decorated World War II service member through interviews with Escalante’s relatives and footage from the war.
“I hired military researchers,” Ramirez said. “They’re able to locate his records, and so they pull every record that’s publicly available about him, which ended up showing every battle he was involved in. If he was ever hurt, if he went to the medic, I have the record.”
A military archivist pulled film from all of the battles that Ramirez requested. The director combed through “reels and reels and reels” of film from war photographers searching for Escalante’s face. Ramirez restored family photos and built maps of the battlefields, too.
“[Escalante] had opportunities to return home from World War II, he had done his service, but he chose to stay. He was like a real GI Joe. He’s an American hero, without a doubt. Injured, shot, Silver Star, three Purple Hearts,” Ramirez said.
The documentary also includes the voices of U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara), 3rd District Supervisor Joan Hartmann, and Guadalupe Mayor Ariston Julian.
Ramirez’s biggest takeaway was learning about Guadalupe’s Latino veterans, especially those who served in World War II. He said he has deep understanding and respect for veterans in that community.
“The film I hope will live on for a long time and be on display in Guadalupe for people to have a place to see something about someone because so many of these stories don’t get told. A lot of veteran stories don’t have the opportunity to be shared,” Ramirez said.
Inspired by the legacy of the Silver Star recipient, Escalante Meadows: Building Community in Guadalupe, California packages the construction of a housing project into a compelling 16-minute narrative about the need for affordable developments in the state.
“We traveled to the governor’s office and talked to the people, the teams that are in charge of affordable housing there,” Ramirez said.
He plans to submit the short documentary to film festivals that have an interest in public service stories. The 80-unit housing development, owned by the Housing Authority of the County of Santa Barbara, is also the site of a child development center, a playground, and a bus stop.
Ramirez completed his third Guadalupe project earlier this year, and he said he’s planning a public screening soon. He directed and produced the 24-minute documentary, Coastal Stories: Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes, about the history of different groups stewarding the land.
“Basically, it’s the voices of cultures over the last, let’s say 5,000 years, that have coexisted with the dunes, and it’s underheard stories,” Ramirez said. “It’s the Chumash. It’s the Japanese, Chinese, Asian farming boom. Then it’s Bracero movement, where we got a lot of influx of Latino and South American workers in the fields. And then to the modern times of what the dunes are like now.”
The three documentaries were produced by Ramirez’s local company, Suede and Pomade, named as an homage to the duality of his background. Suede represents the “rugged cowboy side” of the Central Coast, he described, and pomade represents Hollywood, his “slick, kind of glossy side.”
Suede and Pomade produces marketing content for local businesses, while Ramirez’s other agency, Mercy Brothers Creative, still operates in the LA area.
He dreams of directing his own movie one day and has been writing one piece by piece for years. The filmmaker is also starting a project for Amazon soon, which he can’t talk about, and stays busy as a photographer. His photos have been published in The New York Times, but for the time being he’s content staying close to home.
“The dog, the baby, and my wife,” Ramirez said. “And we live on a 1-acre property that’s like a little bit of a homestead. I’m maxed out.”
Staff Writer Madison White enjoys a good documentary. Send your recommendations to mwhite@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in September 10 – September 17, 2026.
