He Stands and Delivers New Message to Teens

What makes Edward James Olmos feel alive has nothing to do with celebrity. It’s far more urgent and personal and it crawls under his skin and squeezes his heart in a vise. It’s been happening for 25 years now, most recently when the editor of Olmos’ film “American Me” called him up after a trip to the grocery store. A checkout clerk had noticed the editor was wearing an “American Me” T-shirt.

“The kid didn’t know my friend edited the movie,” says the Emmy-winning actor, director, producer and community activist, “but he looked up from bagging the groceries and he said, ‘I saw that movie when I was in the joint and it saved my life. It made me straighten out. If not for that movie I’d be dead.’ ”

Olmos pauses, savoring the memory. “That’s the soul food,” he says quietly. “That stuff just knocks me out, and it’s what so many people in the world can’t get close to understanding. That’s why I do what I do.”

Those who know Olmos as the tragically fiery El Pachuco in Luis Valdez’s “Zoot Suit” or Garfield High teacher Jaime Escalante in his Oscar-nominated performance for “Stand and Deliver” or the enigmatic Lt. Martin Castillo in ‘Miami Vice,” may not know that behind the klieg lights, Olmos, who grew up in East Los Angeles, is in nonstop kinetic motion with a different passion: delivering a message to young people to stay clean, develop their self-esteem and stay in school.

Indeed, far outside Tinseltown, thousands of elected officials, prison wardens, probation officers, high school teachers and domestic abuse counselors know Olmos more for his humanitarian roles than his on-screen ones.

Today, one of Olmos’ most heartfelt missions is educating young people about domestic abuse, a pervasive and hidden problem that he believes is handed down for generations from father to son, teaching boys that it’s OK to hit women, and girls that it’s normal to be abused.

“We have to stop dealing with domestic violence as a judicial problem and start dealing with it as a health problem,” says Olmos. “It’s a learned behavior, as learned as racism. Our children do not come out of their mothers’ wombs with pistols in their hands or hitting women.”

That message is particularly potent coming from a man, and a celebrity at that, says Carolee Newman, executive director of the Valley Women’s Center, a nonprofit organization that provides services for women and families at risk. “Young people today really do see actors as role models, so it’s wonderful that [Olmos] is willing to lend his energy to such an important issue.”

Exploring Concept of Teen Domestic Violence

Two years ago, Olmos decided to produce “It Ain’t Love,” a riveting look at youth domestic violence that features a teen theater troupe from Brooklyn called Faces, many of whose members have experienced domestic violence firsthand, either as victims or perpetrators. (The troupe is giving a special performance at the Festival of Health on Sunday.)

“Everybody talks about domestic violence like it’s a grown-up thing and it only happens between a husband and a wife,” a young Latina says directly into the video camera, describing a boyfriend who broke her nose while drunk. “But the shocking thing is that it happens to us teenagers and no one knows about it.”

The graphic, no-holds-barred documentary uses rap and alt rock, ‘50s films, TV clips and the reenactment of real-life experiences with abusive relationships to explore the tangled up fear, love and anger that keep young women chained to abusive men.

‘It Ain’t Love’ Video Shown in 50 States

More than 20,000 copies of “It Ain’t Love” are in schools, shelters, police departments and juvenile halls throughout America. It is shown in health education classes in all 50 states. “It Ain’t Love” has also won the Golden Apple award from the National Education Film and Video Awards and an award from the National Council on Crime and Delinquency.

And early on, it won the backing of the California Wellness Foundation, a Woodland Hills-based health philanthropic organization that helped fund the video and an accompanying study guide for teachers to use in the classroom. “We see youth violence as a public health issue and this is a hard-hitting piece--Eddie’s marvelous at doing that and he doesn’t skirt the issues,” says Frank Acosta, senior program officer for the Foundation’s Violence Prevention Initiative.

“We keep on building more prisons instead of fighting violence at its core, which people figure is something the community should take care of,” Olmos says. “They should, but they need help.”

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Olmos is a keynote speaker Sunday at 1:30 p.m. on the Main Stage at The Times’ Festival of Health. A special performance of “It Ain’t Love” follows at 2:30 p.m. in Bovard Auditorium.