American Me (1992)
Actors:
Edward James Olmos (producer),
Edward James Olmos (director),
Pepe Serna (actor),
Randee Lynne Jensen (producer),
William Smith (actor),
Sean Daniel (producer),
Jacob Vargas (actor),
Sal Lopez (actor),
Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (actor),
Tom Bower (actor),
Jaime Gomez (actor),
Edward James Olmos (actor),
William Forsythe (actor),
Corey Burton (miscellaneous crew),
John Achorn (miscellaneous crew),
Plot: This epic depiction of thirty years of Chicano gang life in Los Angeles focuses on a teen named Santana who, with his friends Mundo and the Caucasian-but-acting-Hispanic J.D., form their own gang and are soon arrested for a break-in. Santana gets into trouble again and goes straight from reform school to prison, spending eighteen year there, and becoming leader of a powerful gang, both inside and outside the prison, while there. When he is finally released, he tries to make sense of the violence in his life, in a world much changed from when last he was in it.
Keywords: 1940s, 1950s, 1970s, anal-penetration, anal-rape, anal-sex, aryan-brotherhood, ass, bakery, barrio
Genres:
Biography,
Crime,
Drama,
Romance,
Taglines: In prison they are the law. On the streets they are the power.
Quotes:
Montoya Santana: I hear Little Puppet's name is on a piece of paper, ese.::J.D.: I want you to cosign it.::Montoya Santana: I'm taking it off, ese.::J.D.: That punk got you kicked back in the hole, set us all back. Now he's running around talking loud shit about how he wants out of La Eme. His number's up, homes.::Montoya Santana: I said I'm taking it off, ese.::J.D.: What's gonna happen is gonna happen. Don't try to stop it. You understand me? I'm asking you, carnal.::Montoya Santana: Is that where it's gotten to, ese?::J.D.: Brothers are talking about you.::Montoya Santana: What are they saying, ese?::J.D.: They're saying that you're not showing them anything.::Montoya Santana: You know, a long time ago, two best homeboys, two kids, were thrown into juvie. They were scared, and they thought they had to do something to prove themselves. And they did what they had to do. They thought they were doing it to gain respect for their people, to show the world that no one could take their class from them. No one had to take it from us, ese. Whatever we had... we gave it away. Take care of yourself, carnal.
Montoya Santana: I'm sorry to hear about Neto.::Julie: I don't know what to say to you.::Montoya Santana: Whatever, you know.::Julie: You're like two people. One is like a kid. Doesn't know how to dance, doesn't know how to make love. That's the one I cared about. But the other one, the other one I hate. The one who knows, the one who has this wrapdown, who knows how to run drugs, who kills people!::Montoya Santana: I don't have to listen to this shit, alright? If you were a man, I'd...::Julie: You'd kill me! Oh no. No, you'd fuck me in the ass, right? Right?::Montoya Santana: I guess we got nothing to say to eachother.::Julie: You know when I met you, I was impressed. Yeah, you talked about La Raza and education and the revolution, but you know what man? You really don't care about any revolution, do you? You're nothing but a fucking dope dealer.::Montoya Santana: Just a road to where we're going, esa.::Julie: Bullshit.::Montoya Santana: Sabes que? I don't do drugs, I don't even like them, but they're there, and it's a reality. And if I don't take care of that business, somebody else will.::Julie: Yeah, well, your business kills kids, man! It kills kids! Like Neto and Pablito and, and Miko, my son, who look up to you! Man, they idolize the ground you walk on!::Montoya Santana: What the fuck do you want from me? Do you want me to start over, esa? Get a job? How about become a citizen?::Julie: There's no fucking hope... for our kids, for our barrios... with people like you around.
Montoya Santana: Whatever I did to you or to mama... to make you hate me, I'm sorry.::Pedro Santana: Your mother was a beautiful woman. She made me feel proud. She was 19 years old. Raped... by sailors. After it happened, we never talked about it. Then we got married and we tried to forget. When you were born, I tried to love you. But every time I looked at you, I wondered who your real father was. I wondered which sailor's blood you carried inside of you.
Montoya Santana: You want to know something? I never been to the beach before.::Julie: For reals?::Montoya Santana: Yeah, for reals.
Montoya Santana: The state is so lame, they paid for the game.
Montoya Santana: Little Puppet!::Little Puppet: Orale!::Montoya Santana: Orale! How are you doing?::Little Puppet: Great.::Montoya Santana: It's good, ese. Called you for a little task, all right?::Little Puppet: Simon.::Montoya Santana: Now you'll do El Chucko. Want you to handle it for us, all right?::Puppet: I'll take care of it, ese.::Montoya Santana: Was I talking to you, ese?::Puppet: Santana, let me do it. Mi carnalito... that's not his thing. I mean he's no punk or nothing but...::J.D.: He's not talking to you, Puppet.::Montoya Santana: There's something I want you to understand, Little Puppet. What happened to Pie Face I didn't like it, but it was necessary, especially right now. Take a look over there, ese. El Chucko and La Nuestra Familia is making their play to get some respect, ese. La Eme took a long time earning the respect in this place. And if we wanna keep it we gotta show some class.
Young Montoya Santana: [Mundo is being devoted into the gang] Come on, give me your hand. You know what, ese, White Fence, Maravilla, Lomita, they've been around here longer than us, you know. It's cool. We've got our own clika, strong clika. Finally getting into our own, gaining respect.::Young JD: Our clika, our barrio, our family - that's all we got, ese.::Young Mundo: Simon.::Young JD: When we were kids, belonging felt good. But having respect, that feels even better.::Young Montoya Santana: Cause La Primera lives through us. It gives to us. It is us. We make it, carnal, we don't fake it, we just take it. Cause La Primera, ese...::Young JD: Always has been and always will be.::Young Mundo: Orale!::Young JD: Orale!::Young Montoya Santana: Welcome to the clika, carnal!::Young Mundo: Por Vida, ese, por Vida.
Puppet: Can I talk to you a minute?::Montoya Santana: Simon, ese.::Puppet: I heard about what happened. I'm sorry, Santana. Mi carnalito, he messed up.::Montoya Santana: It wasn't his fault, ese. It was all American beef. When they wanna pop you they're gonna pop you. Want some grill cheese, ese?::Puppet: No, thanks.::Montoya Santana: You sure, ese? It's good.::Puppet: People are saying it's Little Puppet's fault.::Montoya Santana: It wasn't his fault, ese.::Puppet: You know me, carnal, I'll do anything for La Eme. Anything. But I'm asking you, please, take my brother's name off.::Montoya Santana: Your brother's name is on a piece of paper, ese?::Puppet: They want me to kill him.::Montoya Santana: It's a mistake, ese. Don't worry about it. I'll take care of it. Nothing's gonna happen to your brother.::Puppet: It's good to hear, ese, it's good to hear.
J.D.: We appreciate you've taken a time to talk to us.::Don Antonio Scagnelli: What can I do for you?::J.D.: It's gonna be some changes in the way business is done in East L.A. From now on our people are gonna be responsible for the East L.A. exchange. All deliveries between Mexico and exchange are gonna be done through us, all collections are gonna be done by us.::Don Antonio Scagnelli: Is that what you came here for? To tell me my business?::J.D.: From now on your business in the barrio is gonna be our business too.::Montoya Santana: [Approaches to Don Scagnelli] Let me explain something. For you, for us, for anybody who does business, things happen. And you or your family, your friend can end up doing time. Someone on the line would have to deal with that fact. Now you run the distribution on the outside, we run on the inside. Our offer is this we guarantee your people no problems in the inside.::Don Antonio Scagnelli: You listen to me. I don't know who you think you are, but if anything and I mean anything happens to my son's stay, uncomfortable with over the years, you'll regret the day when you make that choice.
J.D.: If we show weakness now, homes, everybody's gonna see it not just the mayates and wops as La Nuestra Familia as well. They're just waiting to make their fucking move. This way we can do it clean. Do what Scagnelli did, form them shoot out.::Montoya Santana: To who?::J.D.: Aryan Brotherhood. They hate the mayates, mayates hate them and don't be a fucking thing. The AB gives the blacks message then we won't have to risk anything.::Montoya Santana: We're spending all over time dealing with the Italians and now the Black Gorilla Family, ese, instead of getting our people out and keeping them out.::J.D.: You know what,if we don't fight for this shit now,we're gonna lose it all now, homes.