Miklo, a.k.a. Damian Chapa stops by KWED to talk about Friday night’s Miklo Birthday Bash celebrating the 26th anniversary of the cult classic film Blood In Blood Out. The event will be held at 7 p.m. today at the El Fiesta Ballroom.
(Seguin) — The star of one of America’s most popular cult classics will be in Seguin tonight celebrating his character’s birthday. Damian Chapa, who portrayed Miklo, in the 1993 film Blood In Blood Out will be visiting with fans during today’s Meet and Greet Birthday Bash being held at The El Fiesta Ballroom. The birthday bash is the first of its kind for Chapa’s Meet and Greet Tour which is being held in celebration of the film’s 26th year anniversary. Blood In Blood Out is an American crime-drama that follows the three lives of Chicano relatives and whose life’s events take them from the street gang in East Los Angeles and for some of them inside California’s San Quentin State Prison.
Chapa, who is taking a break from filming, tells the Seguin Daily News that even after all these years, fans of the movie have been some of the most loyal in the industry. He says of the 56 movies that he’s been in, Blood In Blood Out remains his favorite.
Chapa says the twist of hosting a birthday bash celebration for his character is what helps make tonight’s Meet and Greet unique. He says the idea is taken directly from one of the many memorable lines found in the movie.
“I think that one of the lines that is very important to people — there are many lines but Miklo’s character was a guy who was supposed to have a good life and go straight. His father is Anglo. His mother is Mexican. His mother was a very difficult woman and abandoned him when he was young and he comes to see her after he gets into a fight with his Anglo father and he misses the Chicano spirit — the warmth, the love that he got from his Mexican side of the family. So, he goes and says ‘mom, mi cumpleaños, June 28th, remember?’ And, she doesn’t even remember his birthday because she was one of them fancy free women if you will and so she looks at him and says ‘oh, yeah, it’s your birthday!” I think why it resonates with people so much — Miklo’s birthday — is because they see a guy that really has nobody. Miklo is kind of the character and I understand it very well where he gets pushed off in the world with no real paternal love and he has to build everything that he becomes and I understand that a little bit in real life and the reason why that birthday party for Miklo is so important is because everything that Miklo became in the movie — he started with nothing and he became everything. There’s a line that he says near the end of the movie, “when you expect nothing and you get everything, that’s destiny,'” said Chapa.
Chapa says the event will also include free cake, a balloon drop, music, a showing of the movie and a look alike contest for both men and women. Plus, he says fans will be able to pick up some great memorabilia from the movie.
“I’ll tell you what’s there that is not at any other meet and greet for Blood In Blood Out. It’s the 26th year anniversary and we have posters and t-shirts that nobody has from Blood In Blood Out. They are very rare and of course, we sign autographs there and we have t-shirts and we have posters from Blood In Blood Out as I said and we also have a few of the plates from Blood In and Blood Out that are really rare. There’s only 20 of them and it only goes to the first group of people that come in because they are very rare,” said Chapa.
Since Blood In Blood Out, Chapa has continued in the movie business. He says not only has he recently landed a part in a Woody Allen film but he will soon be working on his next film — a movie that might even include a part of Seguin.
“I’m doing a movie called ‘Latin Hit Men’ and we are shooting in San Antonio, Corpus Christi and maybe a little bit in Seguin because on the way here, we are kind of location scouting also — so I saw some places that I thought would be interesting to film. It’s about an Italian American, half Italian, half Mexican-American hit man who gets an assignment in New York and he goes to do the hit and realizes that it is a 13-year-old girl so he can’t do it. He drops it. He says ‘I’m done. I’m not doing this anymore’ and then the mob puts a hit on him because he doesn’t fulfill it. He has to come to Texas and he has to meet with his estranged Mexican-American mother and he rediscovers his Mexican-American roots along with being protected by his people. It’s called Latin Hit Men. We are shooting in September,” said Chapa.
Miklo’s Birthday Bash featuring Damian Chapa gets underway at 7 p.m. Friday Doors open at 5 p.m. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for kids ages 12 and under. The El Fiesta Ballroom is located at 735 Interstate 10.