A Martinez:  Exploring Different Avenues

June, 1996

   A Martinez (Cruz Castillo, Santa Barbara) hasn't been working much lately, but he explains that it's by choice.  "I've been very careful about what I do, and I try not to make the wrong moves," he says.

    He didn't have any doubts about the HBO miniseries Grand Avenue, debuting June 30.  "This definitely declared itself as something I had to do," the actor notes.

    Based on the book by Greg Sarris, Grand Avenue is the dramatic story of three Native American families struggling to find their place in American society.  According to the actor, Sarris "was a Native American who made the transition from life on the reservation to living in other parts of Santa Rosa, California," he explains.  "We shot on the actual street where he grew up and various parts of the town, telling a story about coming of age in the midst of such a transition.  We actually used some of his real relatives in the movie."

    Martinez portrays Steven Toms, "one of the few guys in the story who is legitimately upwardly mobile" he explains.  "Steven is a teacher -- a man who came off the reservation, went to college and got his degree.  He married a woman, Reyna (Irene Bedard), who practices medicine.  Between the two of them they're making a good living and starting a family."

    Steven's life "explodes," Martinez says, when Mollie (Sheila Tousey), an old girlfriend, resurfaces.  "Many years ago something happened between them that was very profound, and Steven failed to acknowledge it.  He's been running from it his whole life.  Then Mollie comes to live on the same street where Steven lives, and when she shows up, she brings with her all the evidence of the things he did wrong in his youth -- the lies he told, the secrets that he kept.  It all comes tumbling down, and Steven is forced to confront the true nature of what kind of man he is."

    Martinez says that Grand "is not a period piece.  It's what's really going on in the modern world.   It speaks to issues of community and what the true nature of a family is in ways that are useful to everyone -- especially right now when cohesiveness in our social fabric is so threatened."

    Robert Redford, who serves as one of the executive producers, backed the project wholeheartedly.   "He wasn't involved in the actual filming," Martinez notes, "but his taking an interest in it and lending his stamp of approval definitely had something to do with the movie getting made."

    Check local cable television listings for Grand Avenue.

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