The only thing he was missing was a hair net. He was in a County blue shirt buttoned up at the top and flying open on the bottom.
EDWARD JAME OLMOS FULL
I turned around and saw Edward in full cholo wear. We were sitting in a booth, waiting for them to arrive, when Eddie glanced up and said, “They're here.” I knew if anyone could suss out truth from bullshit, it would be Bunker.
Edward was bringing his agent, and I took my friend Eddie Bunker, a screenwriter who had done time with me. We were to meet in Jerry’s Famous Deli in Encino. Their world and their lives were being represented-or, I suspected, misrepresented-in the film, and I couldn’t imagine they'd be happy about it.Įdward James Olmos had arranged a meeting to discuss the script. He was friends with people on both sides of the line, but always got respect.” Ramon “Mundo” Mendoza, a hit man for the Mexican Mafia, later commented on my friendships within the organization. Gilbert was good friends with all of them, especially Joe “Peg Leg” Morgan, the current head of the Mexican Mafia.Įven though we weren't members of a gang, Gilbert and I were classified as “sympathizers,” a designation that wasn’t casual. He said that was a contract for life and we shouldn't have any part of it, so I stayed away, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t friends When I got to prison, Gilbert cautioned me about joining the Mafia. I was lucky because Gilbert was so respected in the pen, I got that level of respect passed on to me. Guys, but my uncle Gilbert was the one who really knew the older shot-callers. I knew it was untrue because Olmos’s character was based on a real guy in the Mexican Mafia named Rodolfo Cadena (aka Cheyenne). In the opening scene, the mother of Montoyo Santana, the character Edward James Olmos plays in the film, is raped by sailors the night of the Zoot Suit Riots, leaving her unsure of who Montoya’s real father is. Ten pages in, I knew there were going to be problems. But my initial excitement quickly changed to dismay.
EDWARD JAME OLMOS MOVIE
Olmos was just coming off an Oscar-nominated performance in Stand and Deliver, and now he was making a movie about a world I knew intimately. When I sat down to read American Me, I was excited. One was called American Me, directed by and starring Edward James Olmos.
They knew my involvement would give them credibility. Since I was a high-profile Chicano who'd done time, both movies reached out to me. In 1991, two Chicano scripts rolled through Hollywood that both centered on the formation and growth of La Eme, the biggest Mexican gang in the California prison system. He and his co-writer Donal Logue will host a virtual book signing event on June 29, which you can check out here. Below is an excerpt from Danny Trejo’s upcoming memoir: Trejo: My Life of Crime, Hollywood, and Redemption, published by Atria Books.
0 kommentar(er)
