​​In the 1970s, the Bronx was on fire. Left unprotected by the city government, nearly a quarter-million people were displaced as their close-knit, multiethnic neighborhood burned to the ground, reducing the community to rubble. While insidious government policies caused the devastation, it was the African American and Latino residents who bore the blame. Through rich archival and home movie footage, testimonials from retired FDNY firefighters and brass, as well as Bronx historians and community 

Co-directed by Bronx native Vázquez Irizarry, who serves as the film’s central character, Decade of Fire confronts the racially charged stereotypes that dehumanized residents of the South Bronx in the 1970s and rationalized their abandonment by city, state and federal governments. Says Vivian, “Growing up in the South Bronx, I often heard that we were the reason our neighborhoods turned to rubble and ruin. After years of seeing outsiders lay claim to our stories, I needed to tell my own.”
 
In Decade of Fire, Vivian speaks to neighbors and historians and digs into city archives, uncovering evidence of years of political policies that led to the devastation, beginning with “redlining” in the 1930s – a policy in which any Black and/or Puerto Rican neighborhood was classified as “declining,” leading banks and insurance companies to step away from investing and insuring. Slum clearance projects in Manhattan flooded the borough with displaced tenants, over-filling the Bronx’s already decaying housing stock. While many of the Bronx’s long-time Irish, Italian and Jewish residents fled to the suburbs, Blacks and Puerto Ricans were often denied mortgages. Many landlords sold their buildings to speculators who found it more lucrative to burn them for the insurance than maintain them. The city’s financial crisis of the 1970s was the final straw, leading to the closing of a third of the city’s fire companies, primarily in the neighborhoods that needed them most. 

By 1977, the Bronx had become the national poster child for urban decay, with images of burning neighborhoods flashed across TV screens as the Yankees played the World Series nearby. But slowly, out of the devastation, a wave of community activism arose in the Bronx, and grassroots organizations began reclaiming the area, building by building, block by block. As Vivian says, “Community organizing is what finally stopped the fires.” A 4.4 billion-dollar city-funded program to rehabilitate 100,000 housing units followed, and the early grassroots development organizations finally had the resources to begin massive rebuilding. 
 
But challenges still continue today as speculators look to the borough as the possible next step in the widespread gentrification of New York City. For Vivian and her neighbors, and for people nationwide struggling to hold on to their communities, the fight to resist and remain continues.
 
“Vivian, Gretchen and Julia’s first feature is ultimately a story of resistance and resilience in a community torn apart by abusive real estate developers and indifferent authorities,” said Lois Vossen, Independent Lens Executive Producer. “Drawing on Vivian’s personal experience growing up in the South Bronx in the 1970s, the filmmakers weave together archival footage, news reel, and evocative home movies to tell the empowering story of how a community came together and against the odds reclaimed and rebuilt their neighborhoods.”
 
Visit the Decade of Fire page on Independent Lens, which features more information about the film.

Marisa Echeverria was born in Los Angeles, California. She grew up in the City of Glendale with her parents and sister, Allegra. They lived next door to Clarence Nash, who was the voice of Donald Duck and only two blocks from her grandparents in what she describes as a "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"-esque childhood.

Growing up she looked a lot like her dad who is from Mexico. She loved to sing and dance following in her paternal grandfather's footsteps, a singer and mariachi violinist. While she barely knew her grandfather as he died from lung cancer when she was two years old, she has fond memories of them kneeling to pray together. She played his violin for many years and still dust it off sometimes.

​As an early member of the Los Angeles Children's Choir, Echeverria sang with music luminaries such as Barry Manilow,

Melissa Manchester, Peabo Bryson, Patti Austin, Michael McDonald, Doc Severinsen, Yo-Yo Ma, and André Previn. She was part of a small group that sang at the wedding of Rod Stewart and Rachel Hunter and she performed on the soundtrack of the Dustin Hoffman/Geena Davis movie, Hero, singing with Luther Vandross. 
 
A fan of Lucille Ball and Carol Burnett, she performed in three operas at the Los Angeles Music Center while still in middle school. It was during one particular opera that she met the Soprano diva backstage who was a total force of nature. Her personality bowled Echeverria over as much as the diva's stunning voice. It was during that show that she realized that she was drawn to acting as well, not just music. 
 
Echeverria's big break came when she was in college, when visiting director and film composer Elizabeth Swados came to direct an original musical, soon casting Echeverria. Everything came together at that point as she realized that acting was a possibility now. Swados asked her to take a semester off and perform in a show she was directing at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in NYC. Echeverria took the leap of faith marking the beginning of her life as an actor. She is also grateful to her mentors which include her parents, maternal grandmother, teachers, especially her drama teacher, Tina Cocumelli. She is also grateful to Elizabeth Swados and Marcus Stern as they were both instrumental in guiding her towards life as an actor. At NYU, Zelda Fichandler, Deb Lapidus, and Ron van Lieu were all vital to her growth.

After college Echeverria applied to graduate schools in acting and received a fellowship to get an MFA at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. 
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In one of those rare occurrences, she booked her very first TV audition through an agent for a Lifetime series called Strong Medicine. Other television credits include Shameless, Pure Genius, The Mentalist, Southland, ER, Canterbury's Law, Law & Order, Rescue Me, Beyond Therapy and most recently, Goliath.
 
Film credits include The Bye Bye Man and Stalked By My Doctor: A Sleepwalkers Nightmare. One of her favorite recent projects was a new musical she workshopped at Sundance, where she played legendary Broadway star Chita Rivera's daughter.
 
Theater credits include The Public Theatre's The Bacchae at Shakespeare in The Park, directed by Joanne Akalaitis
and in which Marisa sang music by Philip Glass. Marisa was also the dance captain of this production. 
 
Awards include Outstanding Individual Performance in the Rap/Hip Hop musical Kingdom in NYC. 
 
Echevarria also works closely in support of her community with charities and programs like Immigrant Families Together, Planned Parenthood, Young Storytellers and the World Wildlife Fund.

About Goliath 
 
Billy Mcbride (Billy Bob Thornton) is going through a rough patch. He has been fired from the law firm he helped build, his wife has left him, and he is now a down on his luck ambulance chaser. A lady approaches him to represent her in a wrongful death case. After reluctantly accepting to take on the case a series of strange events befall Billy. Through death threats, harassment and trumped-up arrests, Billy embarks on obtaining justice, and it is one hell of a ride.

With Oktoberfest kicking off and the average flight from New York to Munich from mid-September to late-October costing $500-$1,000, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on 2019's Best Places for Oktoberfest Celebrations as well as accompanying videos, along with fun and interesting facts about the event in its Oktoberfest Facts – History, Beer, Food & More infographic.

To determine the best cities for partaking in the epic German festival, WalletHub compared the 100 largest cities across 24 key metrics, ranging from share of German population to number of beer gardens per capita to average price for Oktoberfest celebration ticket.