1993_05 The Daily Collegian May 1993

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Page 6— News
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May 6, 1993}
Edward James Olmos signs autographs for CSUF students after his speaking engagement on'April 13. More than 2,300 attended.
H»ctor Amezcua/La Voz
By lana Ballinger
TiVozStarTWKt
Amezcua*
Actor Edward James Olmos learned
he was a role model at the age of two,
when he noticed his little sister mimicking
him rnimicking his Older brother.
Now he's just waiting for the rest of us
to figure it out
"What happened to you?" he asked a
group of Fresno journalists at a press
conference on Tuesday, April 13, before
speaking to a sold-out crowd of more than
. 2^00 in the North Gym.
"Our kids are killing children every
single day — kids of all colors, all levels of
economic value, all religions," he said.
"Drive-by shootings are happening in
Wyoming ... and the kid that's shooting the
gun is as much the victim as the kid
getting the bullet So get your shit to¬
gether."
,  Olmos visited CSUF as part of the
University Lecture Series.
"You think I'm the role model because
I'm the celebrity, but you're all the role
models," he said. "We're all role models
and have been for a long time."
Calling Olmos "a voice needed in
Fresno; as much as Los Angeles," outgoing
Mayor Karen Humphrey introduced him
and gave him a key to the city. Olmos then
proceededTo speak on racial harmony and
unconditional love as a ijeans for stopping
the cycle of gang violence.
On race he said, "I happen to be a
mixture thaf s profound in these times.
A spokesperson for the Chicano'
community, Olmos said he recently found
out his name was Hungarian — a revela¬
tion that came as much a shock to him as
anyone else.
He said his ancestors originally came
from Africa by way of Asia, then the
indigenous Indian combined with the
white man — Spaniards — made him
Mexican, hence the brown skin.'
"If s frightening," Olmos said. "These
are politically unsound concepts."
He also said if s important to celebrate
our differences.
"Chicano pride is as good as African
American pride, is as good as Native
American pride," Ghana aaid.
"I also think we have to realize that
we're all from the same family — whether
they be black, brown, yellow, red, we're all
of the same species. There's only one race
and thaf s the human race and we're all
different, too."
. Racism is unforgivable, he said, "but
as soon as you put your own culture before
another culture you're doing the same
thing they've been doing from the begin¬
ning of time."
And, "Unconditional love for children
comes in all colors," said Olmos. He said it
took our society 250 years to get to this
That one person with the broom
turned into 20, then 50, then 50,000 people
with brooms.
"Every single area that had been
burned had been touched," he said. "You
see, it takes one person in the community,
doing what he feels, to make a change."
Olmos spoke informally for about 20
minutes, then spent close to three hours
answering audience questions.
One student asked him why there are
no Chicano situation comedies on televi¬
sion.
"They only understand orie color and
that's green," said Olmos. "If s about
dollars, not sense."
"You think I'm the role model because I'm
the celebrity, but you're all the role models.
yVe're all role models and have been for a
ise   /. y
long time."
— Edward James Olmos
place, so its important to "go back and
understand our history, understand our
presence."
Olmos asked the crowd if they knew
how the Los Angeles riots — in which 52
people were killed in 48 hours — ended.
"It was the clean-up that actually
stopped the turmoil. It wasn't the military,
" he said of the end of the single largest
conflict on American soil. "What stopped it
was a group ot residents who started to
clean dp in the middle of the turmoil.
"One vato loco got out there on
rnorning with a broom... I swear to you, •
honest. There were people running
through the streets, bullets flying, and
there's this vato."
Another wanted to know how to get
more Chicano films.
"By being a^hicano making films,"
said Olmos, lairghing. "Seriously, the best
way to inspire is to honestly go out and do
it."
Keeping more than 150 speaking
engagements a year, Olmos recently acted
and made his directorial debut1, in "Ameri¬
can Me", a story which takes a stark look at
the life of a Chicano family in East Los
Angeles.
. Having grown up in the East Los
Angeles barrio, Olmos barely escaped the
vicious violent cycle of gang life. ».
After graduating from Montebello
High School, he^ttended East Los Angeles
'-£?;
College and Graduated from CSU, Los
Angeles. In 1980 Olmos received his "big
break" and starred as El Pachuco in the
theater production of Zoot Suit which ran
for two years at the Mark Taper Forum in
Los Angeles.
For this role he won The Los Angeles
Drama Critics Circle Award, a Theatre
World Award and a Tony nomination.
Olmos starred and associate produced The
Ballad of Gregorio Cortez.
Originally made for the American
Playhouse on PBS, the movie was ulti-   '    •
mately distributed to theaters.
The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez became
one of the cornerstones of Chicano studies   ,
and is acknowledged by the American
Historical Society as one of the most
authentic western's in Hollywood history.
Playing Jaime Escalante in Stand and
Deliver, Olmos received an Academy
Award nomination. For his role as Lieuten¬
ant Castillo on Miami Vice, Olmos won a
Globe award and an Emmy Award for Best
Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.
" He attributes his successes not to a
god-given knack for acting or a high I.Q.,
but hard work.
"1 ain't more talented and I ain't
smarter than you. 1 didn't come out of my
mother's womb saying, 'To be or not to
be,'" Olmos said. "But I've been living this
dream, I put it in my pocket and I haven't
brought it out yet."
He says when you do what you love
seven days a week, for that long, you get
very good at it.
"1 love doing what I do," said Olmos.
"And I just happened to be pretty good."
Several young Chicano men testified
that they had no male figure in the home,
and said Olmos had served as an example
to them.
And others wanted to know how he'd
escaped a life of wrongdoing, and chose to
do good instead.
"I had a choice. There are many of us
in here who will say they did not have a
choice, or that the choices they made they
didn't want," he said.
, -' '""You can use any excuse you want,
but the choice is yours."