In an interview on Telemundo, Olmos criticized Jennifer Lopez for not being Hispanic enough. He said ‘You have to understand that the future is in your hands, and I hope you use it not only to advance who you are but also to promote what we represent, as Latino women and men. She has done a lot of things, but she has not dedicated herself to her culture, and that is the most important thing to me”. One thing I love about Edward is that he loves to express that he is Chicano. He is the idol and pride that many famous Chicanos should represent. There are many famous people who have a platform and do not really show that they are Mexican American. Edward James Olmos is not afraid to show where he comes from and that is a big recognition towards …show more content…
He was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, the son of Eleanor and Pedro Olmos, who was a welder and mail carrier. His father was a Mexican immigrant who moved to California in 1945 and his mother was Mexican American too. His parents split up when he was 7 years old, and he was primarily raised by his great-grandparents as his parents worked. He grew up wanting to be a professional baseball player, and at age 13 joined the Los Angeles Dodgers' farm system, playing as a catcher. He left baseball at age 15 to join a rock and roll band. In the late 1960s and the early 1970s, Olmos branched out from music into acting, appearing in many small productions, until his big break portraying the narrator, called "El Pachuco," in the play Zoot Suit, which dramatized the World War II-era rioting in California brought about by the tensions between Mexican-Americans and local police. He and this play relate to what we have discussed in class because we learned the different forms people express the Mexican American culture and he is a great actor who does an excellent job in expressing …show more content…
He has supported numerous causes and has been an advocate for Latino culture, organizing film festivals and other special projects and events. Not only is he very much admired as an actor, but, also, Latinos have found in Olmos a spokesman, an activist whose energies are devoted to help his community. Edward James Olmos, whose grandfather published a radical newspaper during the Mexican Revolution, wants a legacy beyond entertainment. “I would hate to look back on my life and only see myself as a person who made lots of money and was a star and made Rambo and Terminator movies”. In 1999 he launched a nationwide multimedia project cosponsored by Time Warner, Inc., called Americanos: Latino Life in the United States. A celebration of Latino and Latina culture, this high-profile project is designed to expose Latino and Latina culture, diversity, and accomplishments to the world through a five-year traveling photography exhibition organized by the Smithsonian Institution, a music CD, an HBO and a PBS documentary, and a photo-essay
Afterwards, in the 1990s films portraying Latinos would take a somehow new direction, one of the most famous filmmakers would be Gregory Navas, he directed the movie My Family/Mi Familia, a film that portrays the lives of a Mexican-American family and the difficulty that the couple faced in order to establish in the U.S. “by passing as immigrants and all the struggle to integrate their family in another country” (Peña Acuña, 2010). The film let the audience see a potential reality that most immigrants went through when they first moved to the United States and how the system worked differently and the way immigrants had to adapt not only to the system, but also to the language and culture.
All in all, Julio Cammarota was a great man, who was not afraid to question the law. He took a stand and wrote Sueños Americanos: Barrio Youth Negotiating Social and Cultural Identities, which was about how the Latina/o community delt with overwhelming racism and discrimination in California. Sueños Americanos not only gave a voice to the Latina/o community, but also encouraged more Latinas/os to go to school and get an education. Sueños Americanos is a wonderful book that tells how it is really like growing up in America being
Novas, Himilce. "Dolores Huerta." The Hispanic 100: A Ranking of the Latino Men and Women
In the case of José, born and raised in Mexico, he had to assimilate by eventually learning English to acquire a job to support his wife, María, and his children. Movie critics may argue that Rosa and Enrique’s journey to Los Angeles has a greater impact than that of José. Traveling from Central America to North America is a hard journey to go on. While the path Rosa and Enrique had to take to reach the United States may have been more arduous, comparing the two journeys is an unfair assessment. José’s expedition to Los Angeles, while it was not shown as a visually dark time of his life, did portray how an immigrant may cross the border into America in a different way. In addition, since both films have the same director, Gregory Nava, his decision to emphasize the act of illegally crossing into America in one film and not the other allows him to the artistic license to portray other portions of life as an immigrant. In My Family, Mi Familia, Memo and Toni’s characters depicts the generational changes a family living with two cultures may
In Pocho, Rubio could not identify with any group because he didn’t want to be categorized. In fact, Rubio didn’t have a hard time fitting in with the Pachucos or queers. Although, Rubio seemed understanding about other peoples chooses he ultimately decided to identify as American. This was seen when Rubio joined the Army, as a means to escape his reality. Another theme presented was in regards to fighting social inequalities. This ultimately led to Chicano protest, which became essential to the Civil Rights Movements. The strong will of these Chicano/a activists were similar to Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzalez and his “Crusade for Justice”. The film “Quest for Homeland” acknowledged Gonzalez as an important figure for the Chicano Movement because he inspired people to demand for equality. Even though the Chicano Movement had a tragic ending with the death of Ruben Salazar, Chicanos made their voices heard. Similarly, the Chicano walkouts were the beginning of “consciousness”. For instance Castro mentions, “Chicano’s have long been sleeping giants” he continues by stating looks like we woke up”. This shows that students living in these areas were oblivious to their ability of obtaining a higher
As Rodriguez is looking back at the rise of his “public identity”, he realizes that “the loss implies the gain” (Rodriguez 35). He believes that losing a part of who you (such as your “mother tongue” is permitted since
In Michelle's paper she recaps the history of Mexicans in the United States that was not completely dealt with in either the website or the movie. Michelle points out that the Latin@s history is essential to understanding the Mexicans experience. She also wrote of the Mexican's el movemiento and how the website and movie brought about different accounts of this momentous event.
... all as a society can benefit from today. Such as, studying his literature, reading his autobiography, and looking up to him as a role model. Rodriguez is an educated man with a very good grasp on what life and the American society expect from all of us. Speak our language if you're going to live in our country. If one chooses not to make any sacrifice needed to accomplish the basic skills needed to learn English then your chances of belonging and succeeding will not happen easy. While our heritage and culture may remain forever tied to and expressed in our native or "home" language, only through the dominant language of our country (English in most cases) can we achieve a place in society that gives us a feeling that we belong amongst everyone else. The only way we can truly become a part of our community and fit in is to dominate the current spoken language.
The “George Lopez Show” has been very successful up until now in starting to remove the typical Mexican stereotypes in America, but it still has a long way to go.
Latinos who were raised in the United States of America have a dual identity. They were influenced by both their parents' ancestry and culture in addition to the American culture in which they live. Growing up in between two very different cultures creates a great problem, because they cannot identify completely with either culture and are also caught between the Spanish and English languages. Further more they struggle to connect with their roots. The duality in Latino identity and their search for their own personal identity is strongly represented in their writing. The following is a quote that expresses this idea in the words of Lucha Corpi, a Latina writer: "We Chicanos are like the abandoned children of divorced cultures. We are forever longing to be loved by an absent neglectful parent - Mexico - and also to be truly accepted by the other parent - the United States. We want bicultural harmony. We need it to survive. We struggle to achieve it. That struggle keeps us alive" ( Griwold ).
Uno was a half black and half Mexican kid. He grew up in National City with his mom, step-dad, and his brother Manny. His family is a little crazy, his dad wants him to live with him in Oxnard, his step-dad gets drunk and hurts him and his mother, and his brother is in a mental hospital. He gets made fun because his brother is mental, and he takes it and fights back, also because he is black. He speaks Spanish and acts like the rest of them but he looks black so they make fun of him. He wants to move to Oxnard with his dad because he doesn’t like how his step-dad hurts him and his mother, and makes fun of his brother. He is tired of being discriminated against because of who he is.
Torres, Hector Avalos. 2007. Conversations with Contemporary Chicana and Chicano Writers. U.S.: University of New Mexico press, 315-324.
Paco: Eduardo James Olmos, the eldest son of José and Maria, he grew up to be a writer and used his families journey for material.
He also described himself with “disgust” loathing his appearance when he sees himself in the mirror. Stereotypes play a huge role in the Latino culture in the U.S where often the usual stereotype is that Latinos are job-stealers, uneducated, poor and illegal. “Envidia” or jealousy sabotages the Latino community because Latinos begin to question the qualifications of other successful Latinos. No one has the positive thought that Latinos can achieve and triumph in any field; they just can’t believe that. Latinos just stamp other Latinos with those stereotypes Americans say.
To help me understand and analyze a different culture, I watched the film Selena. The film tells the life story of the famous singer Selena Quintanilla-Pérez. Not only does it just tell personal stories from her life, it also gives insight to the Mexican-American culture. Her whole life she lived in the United States, specifically in Texas, but was Hispanic and because of that both her and her family faced more struggles than white singers on the climb to her success. Even though the film is a story about a specific person, it brought understanding into the culture in which she lived. Keeping in mind that these ideas that I drew about the Mexican-American culture is very broad and do not apply to every single person in the culture, there were very obvious differences in their culture and the one that I belong. Mexican-American culture identifies with their family rather than individualized or spiritual identities and the culture has gone through significant changes because of discrimination and the changing demographics of the United States.