Olmos Stands; Never Delivers
By Elizabeth C. Holtz
A&F Staff Writer

California native and community activist Edward James Olmos spoke to students and Claremont residents in Bridges Auditorium on Friday night. His lecture, “We’re All Part of the Same Gang,” dealt with a plethora of issues including immigration, education and coffee.

Olmos is famous for his roles in films such as “Selena” and “Stand and Deliver” and while his name may not be known, his face certainly is. However, he has had more impact as an activist than as an actor. He is involved in solving social problems extending from immigrants’ rights and school drop-outs to racial tolerance. For his efforts he has been honored with numerous awards in community service and humanitarian organizations.

After a brief introduction, Olmos bounded on stage, trying to get the audience excited for the evening ahead.

Olmos’ frequent jumping from one topic to another didn’t help matters. While his points were often appealing to the audience and well-received, they didn’t seem to connect. He spoke eloquently about immigration but then switched to education, movies and alcohol. He was passionate about reforming immigration policy to benefit both illegal immigrants and Americans, but instead of developing his ideas he switched to criticizing an entirely different issue. Afterwards, one freshman noted disdainfully, “He didn’t talk about diversity the whole time; he talked about a whole lot of other crap.”

In describing the lectures, Olmos’ website states, “He speaks on a vast range of humanitarian topics that promote tolerance and understanding among all people.”
That is exactly what was delivered on Friday night, but unfortunately without a cohesive structure or main point, his speech was difficult to follow and quickly became boring for some audience members. Other students were willing to forgive his lack of focus, though. And there were many parts of the evening that were worth watching. His stories promoting selflessness pleased many people, as did his liberal politics. One student went as far as to say that Olmos’ story about a wise man who watches out for not only his family but his neighbor as well made the whole evening worthwhile.

Olmos’ contention that American children should be raised speaking multiple languages was also interesting. He believes that “while English is the global language of business, children in other parts of the world are learning to speak three or four different languages.”

While many of his anecdotes contained grains of truth, it seemed as if Olmos didn’t know his audience. He repeatedly emphasized the importance of staying in school, a worthy cause to champion, but not particularly relevant to college students. His failure to connect with the audience was also evident during the question and answer session after the lecture.

His answers often did not have much to do with the questions asked, he merely replied with something general about diversity or the importance of family. Olmos answered a question about the values that an American education instills in children with a long tale about the ancestry of his great grandparents. During one of his answers he talked at length about drinking coffee, referring back to a joke he had made earlier in the show. Needless to say, no question had been asked about his beverage preferences. While his comic facial expressions and energetic motions won him a few laughs, it left some of the audience bewildered.

Despite Olmos’ failure to answer the questions asked he certainly was not hesitant to keep on calling on people to ask them. As the evening wore on, passing the two hour mark, many people began to slip out the doors. At first small groups of two or three people exited quietly but the heat and ridiculousness of the questions and answers proved too much in the end and people left en masse. Yet Olmos forged on pushing the evening until almost 9:30 p.m. and sucking every last drop of patience from his viewers.

Olmos is an engaging, witty speaker with laudable achievements and principles. If he had focused on what he had done in his life rather than rely on bland clichés about family and diversity, perhaps the entire audience would have stayed until the end.