"…Quick, name three heavyweights. One lightweight. That this movie makes you remember the name of featherweight Jesus 'El Matador' Chavez is a testament to his amazing story...

"...This is a rare documentary: "Our decisions determine our destiny;" Split Decision speaks of the struggle in all its meanings. It is a story from the heart, a story of strength and perseverance.

Split Decision is the story of a boy with much character and a big heart, who moves forward despite everything, and who has a great talent for boxing which has been stymied by an incident which occurred a long time ago, despite the fact that he has paid the price and is completely rehabilitated. It is a very real and humane story, a story excellently narrated, with brilliantly chosen music, a story that grabs the attention and emotion of the viewer. A story not yet concluded, that faithfully reflects the irony of life. Absolutely don’t miss it."

People en Español (June, 2000, newspaper syndication)

"Fighting For a Chance to Go Home.  In October 1990, three members of the Harrison Gents, a gang in Chicago's West Side, robbed a local grocery store.  One of them was 17-year-old Gabriel Jesus Sandoval Chavez, currently the NABF's super-featherweight champ.

Chavez' journey from street tough to winning athlete is the subject of 'Split Decision,' a documentary hailed for its examination of 'justice, redemption, and a one-size-fits-all criminal justice system.'  This story is not simply that of a street kid who makes good, but also of a man bound forever by his past.

Arrested a week after the robbery, Chavez went to jail for 3.5 years.  The day of his release in 1994, he was deported to Mexico because - though he had lived in the U.S. since age 7 - his father had brought him into this country illegally, and he had remained an undocumented alien.

Feeling like an alien in his native Mexico, Chavez snuck back into the U.S. that same month.  Three years later, the INS caught up with him and deported him once again.

Still, Chavez says, 'America has treated me great.'  And the 27-year-old wants to return 'on good terms.'  So far, though, America says no.  As a derpoted felon, he's not eligible for immigration.

Now living with his paternal grandparents in Delicias, Mexico, Chavez misses his family and place he calls home.  He did get permission from the INS to visit his mother last month because she was ill.  He also is missing the chance to fight American Floyd Mayweather for the world superfeatherweight title because he can't come to the U.S. for the bout...

Chavez's immigration attorney Barbara Hines say she'll ask INS for a pardon, but a decision can take up to a year.

Meanwhile, Chavez vows to keep on fighting, both in and out of the ring:  'It's not my character to just give up,' he says."

Mercedes Perez

"...well-crafted, this advocacy documentary by Texas filmmaker Marcy Garriott examines the predicament of top-ranked featherweight boxer Jesus "El Matador" Chavez...the uncomplicated Chavez ennobles the story with his sincerity and boyish enthusiasm."

"Austin filmmaker Marcy Garriott tracks the checkered boxing career of featherweight contender Jesus Chavez, who accompanied some pals robbing a Chicago grocery store when he was 17, did time in Stateville, and got deported to Mexico.  This impressively researched documentary - receiving its world premiere - recalls the Academy-Award-nominated documentary 'On The Ropes' as an American dream tale of a boxer running afoul of the law."

(by Maria Martin)

He was at the top of his game. Jesus Chavez, the young Mexican boxer living in Austin whom aficionados called "El Matador," had already won 17 out of 18 fights as a professional, most of them by knock-out. And for his winning record, he was ranked number one in the super-featherweight category by the World Boxing Council.

[film audio clips]

But then, while applying for a driver’s license, Chavez’ world changed. It came to light that ten years earlier, when he was a junior in high school living with his family in Chicago, and using his middle name of Gabriel Sandoval, Chavez had been involved in a robbery. And even though he had served his time in an Illinois penitentiary, under new immigration laws Chavez was immediately deportable.

And so his championship season came to an abrupt halt. A new documentary produced by Marcy Garriott of Austin Texas tells Chavez’s tale.

[film audio clips]

"Split Decision" is now making the rounds of film festivals, telling a story both tragic and inspirational, the story of a young Mexican immigrant growing up on the mean streets of Chicago, who at the age of ten found he had a certain talent, in the boxing ring.

[film audio clips]

But, because this talented young man had a felony conviction, he was in this country illegally, unable to apply for legal residency the way his family had done. The immigration laws Congress passed in 1996 increased deportation of non-citizens with criminal records, with virtually to possibility for appeal. While telling the story of Jesus Chavez’s boxing career and of his family’s great support, "Split Decision" also follows Chavez’ legal struggle, with interviews with lawyers, INS officers, and others involved in opposing what they call "one strike and you’re out" policies.

[film audio clips]

For the last three years, Jesus Chavez has been living with his grandparents in Mexico, training as best he can in the town of Delicias, Chihuahua, training for the time he hopes to return and fight for the title, and also learning about his Mexican roots. Chavez has proven himself in Mexico, even beating the Mexican national boxing champion, and becoming a hero in the country he left as a small child.

Recently Chavez was granted a 30-day compassionate leave to return to this country to visit his sick mother. While on a short visit to Austin Texas, he spoke with Latino USA about his life in Mexico, his hopes for the future, the documentary that tells his story, and the youthful crime that changed his life forever...

MM: "How do you feel that you’ve paid your debt to society?"

JC: "I served my time. I haven’t completed serving my debt to society. I never realized the seriousness of armed robbery till I committed it. I think that I am still paying my debt to society, just trying to be a good citizen. I have talked to kids in Chicago and in Austin; some of our fights have been for charitable causes... I think that I will probably never want to stop paying my debt to society, because not only do I owe it to society, but to my family, and most importantly to myself."

And now back in Mexico, it’s the legal fight that Jesus Chavez waits on. An appeal for clemency failed awhile back. Now his lawyers are preparing another plea for a pardon for the governor of Illinois, and his promoters are applying for a waiver to allow him to fight for the world championship.

[film audio clips]

The documentary "Split Decision" is now showing at the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival, and will show at the Smithsonian Latino Film Festival in the fall.

Mr. Showbiz Review 

Just try not to be emotionally KO'd by Split Decision, Marcy Garriott's engrossing documentary about boxer Jesus Gabriel Sandoval Chavez. Told simply and directly, his story packs a wallop, both as an examination of the injustices of American immigration policy and as an inspirational tribute to Chavez's unwavering self-determination.

When he was a kid, Chavez's family left Mexico and moved to Chicago. At only 7, he set his sights on becoming a world-class prizefighter, and by 1989, at the age of 17, he was on his way to getting a boxing scholarship to college and had been voted the city's top amateur boxer with a 90-5-5 record. Then it all went up in smoke when Chavez was arrested for assisting in the armed robbery of a grocery store. Refusing his father's offer to post bail, Chavez served his jail sentence of three and a half years. When he was released in 1994, he was deported back to Mexico, now ineligible for the legal U.S. residency that his family had obtained. Sneaking back into the country, he took the name Jesus "El Matador" Chavez, and within two years became the super featherweight champ of the North American Boxing Federation. In 1996, under stricter immigration laws, Chavez voluntarily returned to Chihuahua, Mexico, to live with his grandparents, hoping in vain to be able to return to the States.

Garriott makes a thoroughly convincing argument for Chavez's return. Not only is the soft-spoken, baby-faced fighter an appealing, articulate subject, but his resiliency — as demonstrated both by his petitioning for a pardon from the Governor of Illinois and by his resuming his boxing career in Mexico — is inspiring. The film's title is both a boxing term that describes a tie and it's also an appropriate characterization of Chavez's fate as he waits, at the age of 27, to see whether he will ever have the opportunity to fight for the world championship. Regardless of whether he's granted his big comeback, Split Decision shows that in or out of the ring, his spirit is indomitable.