Film festival promotes Latino entertainment

By: ADRIENNE A. AGUIRRE - Staff Writer | Wednesday, March 9, 2005 12:39 AM PST ∞

ESCONDIDO ---- Actor Randy Vasquez wanted to be an actor all his life, but the Escondido native said that to make his dream come true, he had to leave home and make some cultural compromises.

Vasquez, 43, said becoming an actor is particularly hard for Latinos, who find few parts written for them. Since breaking into the entertainment industry, he said, he has slowly been trying to break out of the stereotypical-Latino roles, such as criminals or service workers.

"When an actor has to sell out to make money, it doesn't feel good," he said Thursday. "(But) you couldn't really get anything else if you were a Latino."

In 22 years of acting, Vasquez said he has played a bellhop in "Beverly Hills Cop," a bartender on "The Love Boat," a bank robber in "Almost an Angel," a biker in "The Stranger," and a drug dealer on "Hill Street Blues."

"I never felt I was a very good drug dealer," he said, adding that he grew up in a middle-class family. "I didn't know anything about drugs or drug dealing (before acting)."

After graduating from Escondido High School in 1978, Vasquez said he headed for Los Angeles and took a job in an ice cream parlor just to be close to Hollywood. He has been in Los Angeles ever since.

On Thursday, Friday and March 17, Vasquez will be back in San Diego County ---- on the big screen ---- where his latest movie will be shown at the 12th annual San Diego Latino Film Festival.

"Punos Rosas," or "Pink Fists," is a Mexican-made movie directed by Beto Gomez. Vasquez plays Freddy Garza, a Mexican-American who turns in a "Mafioso" smuggling cars over the U.S.-Mexican border. The feature-length film is in Spanish with English subtitles.

The Media Arts Center of San Diego started the festival in 1994 to promote and support emerging Latino actors, like Vasquez, in independent and foreign films.

Each year, more than 100 films and 17,000 moviegoers visit the Mann Theatres at Hazard Center in Mission Valley for what is now the longest-running Latino film festival in Southern California.

Film festival founder and director Ethan van Thillo said festivals like this provide a more accurate representation of Latinos and encourage the film industry to provide more roles for them.

"The 1 or 2 percent of Latinos you see on the screen is pretty dismal when you compare it to the actual population in the county," he said.

Last week, Vasquez and other Latino actors were recognized at a pre-festival party in downtown San Diego. As he walked off the stage, a mob of reporters competed for a chance to interview him.

"I'm not used to this," he said. "They give me this big reception, and most of my life I struggled to get a job."

Vasquez got his first acting part at 21, but his father says he has always been a character.

"He's always been a clown since day one," said Ralph Vasquez, who still lives in Escondido. "We have films of birthday parties and stuff and he was always acting up."

He said he is proud of his son's career path since his first acting role at Escondido High School in 1978.

"When he told me he was going to try out in the senior play, it blew me away," he said. "He got the part, and everything else followed."

Randy Vasquez said, in recent years, he's gotten more positive roles such as a gunnery sergeant on "JAG," a law clerk on "First Monday," and a cop on "Acapulco HEAT."

He said he has come a long way, but his struggles aren't over.

"I'm a working actor who gets a job every once in a while," he said. "It's getting better slowly but surely."

While Vasquez competes for nontraditional Latino roles, he said he finds other ways to "teach America about America" through his documentaries. He has produced "Testimony: The Maria Guardado Story," about a Salvadorian woman's struggle during that country's civil war in the 1980s; and "Concert of the South," about the Mexican Revolution. He is working on a documentary about the American Indian boarding school experience of a Lakota Sioux man in Wounded Knee, S.D., in the 1940s.

"Latinos have really come to the forefront of entertainment," van Thillo said. "But even though things are better, we still need to support the emerging actors."

San Diego Latino Film Festival

Thursday through March 20

Mann Theatres Hazard Center, San Diego

For information, visit www.sdlatinofilm.com or call (619) 230-1938

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