Edward James Olmos for Governor?
Olmos knows marketing as well as acting. And The Times proved very accommodating in its story.
As his movie “American Me” is associated with East L.A. gangs, Olmos has played to credentials of the barrio kid. He, however, was raised in suburban Montebello. And the East L.A. in which he was born in 1947 was relatively suburban, with barrios as isolated enclaves, but it was hardly gang-plagued.
In the World War II years, the American-born children of the Mexican immigrants in East L.A., swept as they were by the war cause, sought an American identity. Social worker Beatrice Griffith wrote on that theme in her book “American Me.” (Incidentally, none of those interviewed cited this source.)
Olmos’ script should have followed the book, making for a credible story, with the gang element in it but not dominant.
JOSEPH PLATT
Professor of Chicano Studies, Cal State Fullerton
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