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Despite such caveats, Olmos is proud of the generally high quality of the current Hispanic-themed films and looks forward to the day when Hispanics will be contending for classic roles, playing a Hamlet or a Stanley Kowalski. "Images are changing," he says. "There are more opportunities for Hispanics now, even more than two years ago."
Like any Hollywood animal, Olmos thinks on a grand scale, in broad, confident strokes. It is not inconceivable that he might play Hamlet or Kowalski. Or he might take on heroes like Coriolanus or Willy Loman. But consider this option: suppose he decided to develop a movie, Spielberg-style, about a Hispanic family in the suburbs, coping the American way. Instead of a tragic figure, he would be playing Eddie Average. (Then perhaps Eddie II and III). It would be Close Encounters of a fresh new kind, and the vast audience watching the melodrama might also start to recognize a little bit of Latino in themselves.