After a welcome message from DGA Past President Gene Reynolds (Lou Grant), actor/Director Edward James Olmos (Battlestar Galactica) stepped up to the podium to serve as Master of Ceremonies. Olmos who early in his career appeared as General Santa Anna in Treviño’s 1982 American Playhouse drama Seguin — which tells the story of the Alamo from the Mexican perspective — spoke about his long friendship with the director before calling to the podium a cast of guest speakers that included United Farmworkers Union Co-Founder/Past Vice President Dolores Huerta; actor/Director Hector Elizondo (Monk); actors Lupe Ontiveros (Desperate Housewives), Richard Yniguez (The Shield), Herbert Siguenza (Culture Clash in AmeriCCa); and producer/Director Howard Meltzer (The Brooke Ellison Story), all of whom shared tales of their experiences working with Treviño.
A member of the Guild since 1980, Treviño has served in numerous capacities including co-founding the DGA Latino Committee (LC) which he chaired for the first five years. He is also a member of the DGA’s Creative Rights Committee, Diversity Task Force, Negotiating Committee, PAC Leadership Council and has served on the DGA National Board since 2007 and the Western Directors Council since 1991.
Treviño began his career as a student activist documenting the 1960s Chicano civil rights struggle with a super-8 camera. He would go on to helm PBS documentaries such as America Tropical, Yo Soy Chicano and La Raza Unida. He wrote and directed the feature film Raices de Sangre (Roots of Blood), that was included in an anthology of the “25 Most Significant Films of Latin American Cinema” at the 36th Annual International Film Festival of Valladolid, Spain. He also Co-Executive Produced the PBS documentary series, Chicano! History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement and the Alma Award-winning Showtime drama Resurrection Blvd., of which he also directed several episodes.
Treviño is perhaps best known for his prolific career as a director of series television where his credits include Prison Break, Bones, NYPD Blue, ER, The Practice, Chicago Hope, New York Undercover, Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Babylon Five. In 1988, he won the DGA Drama Show Day Award for the Schoolbreak Special episode “Gangs.” He received his second DGA Award in 1994 for the HBO Lifestories, Families in Crisis episode “P.O.W.E.R., The Eddie Matos Story.” His memoir, Eyewitness — A Filmmaker’s Memoir of the Chicano Movement was published in 2001.
The audience got to see snippets of that work via a montage of retrospective clips from Treviño’s career edited together by Armando Acevedo. Then the guest of honor sat down for an entertaining conversation about his life in the business, moderated by Director Sylvia Morales (Resurrection Blvd.).
After the discussion, Latino Committee Co-Chair A. P. Gonzalez presented Treviño with both an official proclamation from the City of Los Angeles and a gift from the Committee. This was followed by a surprise performance by the music group Los Pochos.
Treviño currently Co-Chairs the Guild’s new Website Committee with fellow Director-Member Thomas Schlamme, and is also developing a major work on the Chicano/Latino experience for the web.
