Sylvia Morales (born 1943 in Phoenix, Arizona) is an American film director, writer, producer, and editor.

[2] Morales has won multiple awards for her documentaries, which portray various aspects of Hispanic American society and culture, including the farm workers struggle, Chicana feminism, and the music of Los Lobos.

[5] Jose Luis Ruiz who was the producer of the program was in need of a new camera operator since the person who he had hired for the job decided to quit the night before the shoot.

[6] Emerging out of the late-1960s and 1970s political milieu, Sylvia Morales along with other early Latino activist filmmakers which include Moctesuma Esparza, Jesus Salvador Treviño, Susan Racho, and Luis Valdez became involved with civil rights activism.

[9] Morales first emerged with Chicana (1979), a film that traces the history of the Mexican indigenous woman from pre-Columbian time to the present.

[11] Her most important work according to Osa Hidaldo de la Riva would be in broadcasting television since the media allows Morales to reach a much larger audience.

The Mexican Civil Rights Movement for PBS, in which She produced Struggle in the Fields (1996), a 60-minute documentary that was part of the four-hour series.

[13] Another book that she wrote is Children With Autism : The Roles and Coping Strategies of Latino Families in 2010, which is a considered a thesis.

[5] Morales' work has been shown in film festivals, universities, and in community gatherings throughout the U.S., Mexico, South America, Spain and France.

[6] She mentions in her interview with Osa Hidalgo de la Riva that the documentary might take a long time to get done since she has a variety of respsibilities as a professor and mother.

She did mention in her interview that she is putting together a research proposal so she can acquire the funds to hire people to help her complete her project.

This landmark documentary is the first to demonstrate contemporary U.S. nuns living out a mission of social justice, even when it brings them into conflict with the Catholic church.

It follows the stories of three nuns: Rosa Martha Zarate, Judy Vaughan and Marie de Pores Taylor.

[24] Linda Gross from Los Angeles Times, describes Chicana as "A well-researched and spirited documentary made with much love.

Her film honors the work of five activist Latinas, Dolores Huerta, Elizabeth Martínez, Cherríe Moraga, Alicia Escalante, and Martha P. Cotera.

According to Prof. of Television, Film & Media Studies at CSU Los Angeles, John Ramirez states:“Morales comes full circle to an unprecedented chronicle of the rich history of US Latina women’s leadership, strength and struggle in the workplace, the family, community, society, the world.”[7] Sylvia Morales has been the recipient of the prestigious Rockefeller Fellowship Award in media.

[1][12] In 2021, "Chicana" was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".