An Educated Choice
By: Mark Holston

Three decades after he captured national attention for his role in the stage production of Zoot Suit, Edward James Olmos remains one of the most visible Hispanic actors of our time. From the back-to-back reruns of Miami Vice that blanket Saturdays on the retro TV Land channel to his key role in the Sci-Fi channel’s hit Battlestar Galactica, it’s clear that the ruggedly handsome Olmos is going to be a glittering star in the vast television universe for many years to come.

But it’s his role behind the camera, and, increasingly, on the solid as a social activist, that’s also winning the Chicano actor new fame and respect. Walkout, a new HBO film scheduled for release this month, was a perfect opportunity for the California native to lend his name and talent to making a film that he believes needed to be made. “It’s a tremendous look at a simple situation that happened in 1968 that really should not be forgotten,” he told HISPANIC Magazine in a recent interview of an incident that many view as the birth of the Chicano civil rights movement. “It’s about a teacher and his students that we should learn from and move forward.”

Olmos plays only a small on-camera role in the film; his major contribution to Walkout is the insight he brought to the production as its director. Having lived through the same tumultuous time in Southern California that produced the social conditions that provoked a strike by some 10,000 Hispanic students at five East L.A. high schools, he drew on his own life experience to frame the film’s emotionally charged theme. His partner in the film, producer Moctezuma Esparza, was an actual participant in the real life events portrayed in Walkout and was arrested for his role in the peaceful student protest.

Olmos’ son Bodie plays Esparza, while student activist Paula Crisostomo, who organized the walkout, is portrayed by Alexa Vega, and teacher Sal Castro, her unswerving mentor, has Michael Pena in the role.

Walkout is exactly the kind of film that gets Olmos’ blood pumping. Since his role as a crusading teacher in the 1988 film Stand And Deliver, the actor has increasingly been drawn to education-related issues, realizing that better educational opportunities lead to more fulfilling lives and a way out of the kind of dead-end existence Chicano high school students found themselves in while attending poorly funded, culturally divisive schools in the 1960s. Preaching a mixture of the fundamental value of education and the need for personal responsibility, he also advocates more understanding of Hispanic contributions to society.

In a recent address to a national conference of community college trustees, he began his comments in Spanish to the chuckles of a handful of Hispanics in the audience before solemnly pointing out to those assembled the painful evidence that they were “linguistically challenged.” He then asked for anyone to raise their hand if they could name one U.S. Hispanic they learned about in their high school studies, producing only a few scattered responses.

Olmos also thinks globally. Asked what he views as the planet’s most perplexing problem, how it could be solved and by whom, he does not mince words. “My biggest concern is overpopulation and the understanding of what exactly it is that we are doing to the planet. A person who leads in this time really has to take into consideration others at all time,” he adds, revealing his core philosophy about life. “It’s a saintly act, because once you start thinking about others and stop thinking about yourself, and you don’t ask for any kind of accolade or acknowledgement, then you do start to go into a higher level of awareness. And that’s really what we need from our leaders. We need more of our leaders to give of themselves without asking anything in return. As soon as they start doing that, for those reasons, a lot will change.”

Looking back over almost 30 years of making movies, Olmos says there’s nothing he would do differently, if given a second chance. “I’m fortunate to say that everything I’ve chosen to do, it’s because I wanted to,” he comments. “I’ve been able to say no to the dollar, which is something I learned to do as a very young man. Once you know how to say no to the dollar, you’re really not strapped by the whole idea of what this life, economically, is all about.”

While Walkout, with a cast of thousands of extras recruited from the Los Angeles area, was a rare opportunity for many Hispanics to get a taste of filmmaking, Olmos says that to a large degree, the industry he’s been a vital part of for so long has yet to give Hispanic actors their just due. “We’re still in the stereotype mode,” he says with a stern glance. “It’s still very difficult to move forward. Nothing has really changed; it’s actually gotten worse.” H