Edward jame olmos4/5/2023 ![]() Your character, Abraham Quintanilla, has that line that speaks to the duality of being Latinx American or Mexican American. Speaking of quotable lines, let’s talk about “Selena.” That’s another film that is not only part of the Chicanx film canon but also the broader Latinx canon, given the universal love that Latinxs still have for Selena. I mean there’s “break your neck like a toothpick!” (Laughter). ![]() ![]() The Educational Testing Service out of Princeton, N.J., made them retake the examination because they couldn’t believe the students didn’t cheat. These kids did so well that it was literally unbelievable. They couldn’t believe that these 18 students could actually do well in one of the most difficult examinations given to high school students in the United States of America. He was so much one of a kind that they couldn’t believe it. No one even came close to what Jaime was doing at that time in the history of the country. I was so grateful that I was prepared to be able to handle the responsibility because it was so important. Can you talk to me about how important this film is to you? It feels very much a part of the broader Latinx consciousness. A lot of us have the shared experience of being in school and having a substitute teacher play “Stand and Deliver” whenever the actual teacher was out sick. I’m a millennial and most of my friends are as well. It’s been amazing that we’ve helped so many people, but we’re still way, way, way behind the curve on the amount of images that you see of Latinos on the screen - or on television or the theater - given how many of us there are. Over the last 30 years, the majority of American films on Latin themes, I’ve either acted in them, or directed them, or helped write them, or helped produce them, or helped distribute them, or helped in a multitude of different ways. That’s the biggest testament to that, I would say. ![]() You’re someone whose films are basically in the Mount Rushmore of Chicanx and Latinx cinema, which is a testament to the quality of your work, but it also feels like an indictment on the lack of Latinx representation in Hollywood … It really does feel like a privilege speaking with you, but in a way it’s kind of bad, right? Your career is legendary. This interview has been lightly edited for clarity. I had a chance to speak with Olmos ahead of the start of the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival, which he co-founded in 1997 and whose 2022 iteration kicked off yesterday with a screening of the documentary “Mija.” Olmos, a native of East Los Angeles, has a career that spans six decades and has arguably been the most visible Latinx actor in that period thanks to movies and shows like “Selena,” “Miami Vice,” “Stand and Deliver,” “American Me,” “Zoot Suit,” and “Battlestar Galactica,” just to name a few. ![]()
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