Actor and activist Edward James Olmos has created a string of iconic roles over the past 45 years, including in 'Battlestar Galactica,' 'Zoot Suit,' 'Bladerunner,' 'Miami Vice,' and 'Stand and Deliver.' My partner Andrea Vaucher and I caught up with Olmos last month at the Panama International Film Festival, at festival headquarters in the Central Hotel in the Casco Viejo, the oldest area of 500-year-old Panama City, Panama. 

Olmos at the festival for a 30th anniversary screening of 'Stand and Deliver,' the biopic about East Los Angeles high school math teacher Jaime Escalante. His portrayal of Escalante brought Olmos his first Academy Award nomination, though, as Olmos tells it, cobbling together the funds to get "Stand" made was one of the more unusual film finance stories ever. Olmos also introduced the festival's closing-night film, 'The Sentence,' a documentary about controversial drug-conspiracy laws in the United States. 

He also talked about why 'Battlestar Galactica' remains important, a decade after its last episode, as it dealt with some of the most meaningful issues ever in a television show. Other topics include what it was like growing up in wildly diverse East L.A. after WWII,  how Olmos tried, repeatedly, to turn down the role of Lt. Castillo in 'Miami Vice.'  and why he takes on roles to make a difference in his own growth and that of his community. Give a listen.