Let's be honest: this is an important film that most families will never watch.

Our Latin Thing is a legitimate cultural artifact—the documentary that captured the moment salsa exploded from New York's barrios onto the world stage. The 1971 Cheetah club concert footage is legendary, the Fania All-Stars were at their peak, and Leon Gast's raw approach gives you an unfiltered look at Spanish Harlem that Hollywood would never show.

But it's also a 1972 documentary shot on a shoestring budget. The footage is grainy, the pacing drags, and unless you're already into salsa or Latin music history, you're going to struggle. The cockfighting scenes are genuinely hard to watch. The Santeria rituals are fascinating from an anthropological perspective but may confuse or disturb viewers unfamiliar with Afro-Caribbean religions.

This belongs in film school curricula and on the watchlist of serious music fans, not on family movie night. If you have a high schooler passionate about music, documentary filmmaking, or Latin American studies, this could be genuinely enriching. For everyone else? Respect its historical importance from a distance.