In an impassioned address, actor Edward James Olmos concluded the 2003 Annual Conference with a stirring speech.
Olmos, the star of the movies Stand and Deliver and Selena, as well as the Miami Vice television series, spoke about his Mexican-American heritage and the challenges he experienced growing up in east Los Angeles. After beginning his address with almost 20 seconds of Spanish, Olmos cleared his throat. "For those who are Spanish-impaired, don't worry. We live in an ‘English-only’ society," he said wryly. The United States continues thinking of itself as English-only at a time when the rest of the world is bilingual or multilingual, Olmos said. "Think about it: In the United States, the Irish and English get married; so do the Serbians and Croatians. Palestinians and Jews are neighbors. If we only knew how much our diversity is our source of strength, we could bring peace to the planet," he said.
Edward James Olmos
Appreciating diversity was something Olmos learned at a very early age. "Where I grew up, we were not part of a melting pot; we were part of a salad," he said. "We had Korean Americans, Chinese Americans, Japanese Americans, Mexican Americans, first generation Russian Orthodox, and African Americans—but this beautiful salad that we were all a part of had not been tossed yet. It had not been mixed."
The reason the salad remained unmixed was because of the difficulties that minorities faced when trying to blend in with their surroundings, Olmos said. "If you're Mexican-American, you know how difficult life can be in America," he said. "You need to be more Mexican than the Mexican and more American than the American. You don't want to lose your identity, [but] you want so desperately to be a part of the society where you live."
Teaching students to be better citizens who can appreciate the diversity that surrounds them will be one of the most important jobs of educators, Olmos said. It will also be enormously important in the years ahead: "We're heading into difficult times now," he said, referring to events in the world and the war in the Middle East. "We need to do better about preparing for the future."
Meeting the challenges of the future will require collaboration, Olmos said. He expressed confidence that despite their differences, people would ultimately learn to work together because it was in their best interests to do so. "My mother told me that everyone is selfish," Olmos said. "But she also said that there are two kinds of selfish people: foolish selfish people and wise selfish people. The foolish one gets up, goes to work, comes home, makes sure the family is okay, says his prayers, and goes to bed. The smart selfish person, on the other hand, does all of these same things, but just before he goes to bed, he opens his door to make sure his neighbor is okay." Olmos smiled at the audience. "Ladies and gentlemen, be wise selfish people!"
