On this special edition of SNAPSHOTS, its the 50th anniversary of the Gala Theater in Washington, D.C. and they’re celebrating in style. In fact, our next guest needs no introduction. Since you’ve seen him in Stand and Deliver, Mi Familia, Zoot Suit, and my personal favorite, Battlestar Galactica.
And during the gala, he is honored as the 2026 Artistic Excellence & Advocacy Award.
Let’s welcome to SNAPSHOTS, Edward James Olmos!
How are you doing today?
Very good, Dean. Very, very good.
So good to have you here. How does it feel to be the top honoree at this celebration on the milestone of the 50th anniversary?
I’m honored, simply honored to be here because of the work that they do, and 50 years of it. They’ve given the community such cultural diversity and such cultural voice that they deserve to feel the strength of 50 years pushing forward.
There are a couple of projects I want to talk about in the past, the first one being Zoot Suit, which you were in the original play, and then you became the production of the 1981 movie. Luis Valdez, who was the creator, said you basically created the character of El Pachuco. I want you to talk about playing Pachuco, not only on the Broadway stage, but the film, and what does that film mean to you personally?
The whole event was quite memorable. It was 1978 when we put on the very first performance, and Luis had written many things before that, and had created El Teatro Campesino. He’s a brilliant, brilliant playwright and author and director, and an actor too, but he created Zoot Suit. It became the very first major piece of Latino culture on Broadway in the history of American theater. Then Lin-Manuel Miranda put his pieces on, and we’ve been able to move forward slowly, very slowly. And I felt very honored to play that role.
That role is one of a kind. It’s been well documented, not only as play but also as film, which was made in 1981. I got to tell you, I’m very honored to have been able to play that role more than anything, I’m lucky. Lucky means when opportunity meets your ability to do it. So for me, I’ve been very lucky because I was able to do the role, and I did it in a way that became monumental in scope, and it’s a beautiful piece of work that I’m very proud of.
Well, I’m so glad to hear that you’re proud of that work, especially when I had to do the research. I was probably a few months old when it came out in 1981.
Oh God, the year you were born. There you go. And so all I can tell you, when it came out in ‘78 it was so monumental. They had never seen anything like it on the American stage ever. We started on the West Coast at the Mark Taper Forum, and like I said again, when opportunity meets preparation, you definitely are lucky, I was prepared for the opportunity and started acting in 1964 in my first theater piece. I’d been working as a rock and roll singer before that.
Yes, and then went on to combine music, dance, and theater, and so when I did this piece of work in 1978 and had really had a lot of time in the theater, and a lot of time singing and dancing, so I was very lucky.
Well, I’m so glad you’re lucky, especially you had a six-decade career going all the way to Jaime Escalante in Stand and Deliver to being William Adama in Battlestar Galactica, and here we are over 20 years later, and people still talk about Galactica. I want you to talk about the impact with the cast, with the crew, and its legacy 20 plus years on.
Well, Dean. You know, one of the things that has materialized over the last 23 years, we put it on. First time we reassembled the remake was in 2003 and we went to 2008 Here we are now in 2026, and I can tell you now, it went from science fiction to science fact.
Now it’s factional. What is being created are Cylons. They’re being created as we speak. Musk has been created well, he’s creating over a billion, and I know that China is creating billions of robots, and you can call them replicants if you’re a Blade Runner fan, or you can call them Cylons. They’re humans using technology to create a robot, and that’s what has happened. Now they have created not only robots, but they’ve created the mental stability of AI. AI will be governing and moving these robots around. It’s incredible what they can do now. They’ve only been really pushing them forward for the last four years, but especially now they can do quite a bit. I think that we’re starting to see what AI can do, and most of it’s being used for military purposes, but at the same time there is a lot of medical assistance being done to people, for people to use the advent of AI.
Now, this next part of the question is a visual, because I’m going to take you back a bit. I was at a convention called Shore Leave back in 2010. I took this picture of you, which you were watching the World Cup when it was happening that weekend, and Spain won. They took out Netherlands one to nil. I want you to talk a little bit about this experience, that picture I took, and seeing Spain to win the game that day.
Yeah, it was beautiful. I mean, it’s a beautiful photograph. The twins are in it, my friend Linda, and we were all together, and we were watching them. Of course, it’s wonderful that you’re backing wins the World Cup, and it was amazing. It was one-of-a-kind day for me. I was in Italy when Italy won, and then I was here, like in Spain.
And my last question is this: you began your career back in 1968 and we have seen great strides in Latino actors and actresses throughout the years, from winning countless awards in various degrees of art. Do you feel that we still got a long way to go for Latino representation, or do you feel it’s just the beginning?
It’s just the beginning, even though we’ve been at it for the duration of our understanding of storytelling, we’re great storytellers. Latinos are our stories are not told. That’s why it’s so important. What the Gala Theater is doing has been doing for 50 years. The Gala Theater is like the ray of hope. It allows us to understand bilingually. They speak in Spanish on the stage, and then they do, they put subtitles, so the people that don’t speak Spanish can come and enjoy the piece also, and it’s beautifully created and beautifully done, and the musicals are incredible, dramas are incredible, and to me the most important aspect of life is art, and people say, well, why do you say that?
The key is to make you understand me by me understanding myself and presenting myself in my form of creativity and my craft, and I then you turn and say, “that’s how we’re different, oh, that’s how we’re the same, oh it’s wonderful, and so to me the ability to be able to use the art forms is the key.
That’s what made Battlestar such an incredible piece of work, because the fact that it was so diverse, and I’m very grateful to Gala Theater for what they’ve been able to accomplish in their 50 years. It’s been overwhelming, to be honest with you, and to me it will inevitably become one of the greater institutions that have ever been created in this country. After 50 years, they’ve already done extraordinary work, and I’m very honored and pleased to be here to receive their accolade given to me. I’m here to tell them how great they are. That’s why I came to thank them
It was an honor. For Edward James Olmos, this is Dean on the scene. Until we see each other, see you out there, and so say we all.
So say we all.
About The Author
More Stories
