15th Annual Cesar E. Chavez Commemoration
Edward James Olmos, Keynote Speaker
Thursday, April 17
7:00 p.m. | Kresge Auditorium
Join us for the year's flagship event as we welcome our esteemed keynote speaker renowned actor, director, and Hollywood activist Edward James Olmos. Also featured: Winners of the Art and Essay Contest, a Stanford student speaker, and the Stanford Spoken Word Collective.
"From the depth of need and despair, people can work together, can organize themselves to solve their own problems and fill their own needs with dignity and strength" - César Chávez
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In case you were blissfully unaware of the best show on T.V., Edward James Olmos currently plays Admiral Bill Adama on Battlestar Galactica. He is really amazing on the show, one of the character's key features being an exceptional ability to give motivational speeches to the fleet. Anyway, I have to admit the Cesar Chavez event announcement was a bit jarring for me as I completely displaced the show and cast from the planet we call home, therefore, without realizing it, completely displaced the actors from their ethnic backgrounds. Seriously, I've never even thought about it. So my first reaction was... "Oh yeah! EJ Olmos is Mexican! I totally forgot!" I won't go into it too much here, but I think that says a lot for the show as a science fiction story and their success at creating a new society of humans. It's also nice, I must admit, to be allowed to forget (completely) our standard ethno/racial characteristics once in a while--on a show where everyone is just human, trying to survive. Some pseudo-racial issues are addressed on BG, but they are taken into different categories, just as a group of people from a specific planet or city (who are actors of many different ethnicities, incidentally).
Anyway, too late to say long story short, but in case you hadn't noticed I am really stoked about going to see EJ Olmos tomorrow. So say we all!
(Oh geez, I hope I don't yell that at the end of his speech)
1 comment:
That's very cool! Glad you had the opportunity to attend this!
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