 "Photo: Photos by Jennifer Perez")
 "Photo: Contributed photo George Dunson")
Whispers could be heard inside the La Paloma Art Gallery as the actor was being interviewed. “Dude, that’s Angel from ‘Scarface,’” one voice said.
“Nombre, no it’s not,” answered the other.
The whispers got louder. “Yes, that’s Angel from ‘Scarface,’” the first person said with excitement in his voice.
The person they spoke of was indeed Angel from the movie “Scarface,” aka Pepe Serna who is in town as part of his one-man “El Ruco Chuco, Cholo Pachuco” performance that he is presenting this Friday in Alice at Alice High School at 6:30 p.m. and Sunday in Kingsville at H.M. King High School at 6 p.m.
Serna started his acting career at W.B. Ray High School and continued at Del Mar College as a member of the Red Masque Drama Team.
“While in high school, I attended one of the drama classes that they were offering at Del Mar,” Serna said. “Then in my junior year in high school, I did the production of ‘Oklahoma’ in 1962 at Del Mar. That was a great spot for me.”
Acting was always in Serna’s heart. Although he considered possible careers in speech therapy and physical therapy early in life, he always knew that he wanted to act.
“I was an actor since I was three,” Serna said. “I always knew that was what I was going to do. Everything I ever did, I was on, I was performing.”
Even as an athlete Serna commanded attention. As a football player or a Golden Gloves boxing champion, Serna always performed.
“That was my stage,” Serna said. “Whatever sport I was playing, it was always ‘Look at me, look at me, look at me.’ That was my biggest audience.”
Serna admitted that being the best is not what competition is all about. Teamwork is key to success, according to Serna. It’s a lesson he learned through improvisation techniques and that he passes on to people who attend his workshops.
“It’s about sharing,” Serna said. “I would rather pass the ball to somebody to score. It gave me a bigger thrill than scoring myself. It doesn’t make you as competitive if you’re the top dog.”
This philosophy followed him into his acting career after his first year of acting. During his first year in Hollywood, Serna starred in five movies, but by his second year, the work started to dry up and he questioned his agent about it.
“I asked my agent, ‘Hey what’s going on? I just did five movies,” Serna said, “and he said, ‘We just can’t put you in anything; we’re going to make you a star,’ so I told him, ‘No, I want to work. I just want to work.’”
From that point on, Serna took a large number of roles that includes over 100 movies and over 300 television roles. He has worked with everyone from Jennifer Lopez to Mr. T and everyone in between.
Some of his more popular roles include the part of Mundo in the movie “American Me” with Edward James Olmos, Chuco in the movie “Car Wash” with Richard Pryor and George Carlin, and Mr. Ortiz in the movie “A million to Juan” with Paul Rodriguez.
He also appeared in the recurring role of Ruben Garcia in the drama “Criminal Minds” in 2008.
Still, his most famous role is that of Angel in the movie “Scarface” with Al Pacino. Serna originally auditioned for the part of Manny, Tony Montana’s right hand man, played by Steven Bauer.
“He already had the part,” Serna said. “But he was so clean-cut and good looking and they wanted him to be a little more street and that’s what I had. I told my wife after the first day that if I didn’t get this part, I’d be surprised.”
On the second day, Serna saw Bauer on the set and knew right away that Bauer had the part. Later he received a call asking if he’d like to read for the part of Angel.
“I looked at the script and it was like three lines,” Serna said. “I just read for the co-lead and now I’m going in to read for this little character, and I got it and ended up getting paid for 25 weeks because they had to hold me from the beginning to the end, so it was a smart move.”
For the part, Serna met with members of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) to do research about the Columbian drug trade and found out exactly how brutal the Columbian drug cartel really was.“They were stuffing babies with cocaine,” Serna said, “and they would bring them over. So that research put me in the moment during the scene with the chain saw,”
He also did research on trying to sound Cuban by studying the dialect and learning phrases that were popular during the time, but admits that after hearing it back, he still heard his accent.
“Hey you chicken, you almost made it’ sounded like a Mejicano to me,” Serna said. “It didn’t sound very Cuban to me, but it was improvised – ‘chicken, you almost made it’ – what did that have to do with Tony leaving?”
Movies such as “Scarface” and “American Me” have created a controversy because of accusations that those types of movies are glorifying violence, but Serna believes that many people are missing the intended message of movies like that.
“I think they’re missing it big time,” Serna said. “Schools would be smart in showing those movies and teachers should discuss (with students) and ask, ‘What is it that you love so much about ‘Scarface?’ and have discussions about that and ‘American Me.’”
He recently received an e-mail from somebody who accused him of glorifying violence in “American Me” and being irresponsible for being involved in such a project.
“I wrote her back and told her that she missed the point,” Serna said. “We did it for the exact opposite reason. We don’t want the kids doing that. We want them to see how horrible it is when you go to prison. It’s not glorifying at all – that reality is there.”
According to Serna, movies like these convey a message that responsible discipline is necessary to avoid falling into such situations.
His workshops convey that very message – finding individuality by working with other people to produce a positive self-image. He uses techniques such as improvisation and role reversal during his one-hour workshops.
His message is that of taking pride in your environment and respecting the property of others, including those places and things targeted by graffiti.
“If you do graffiti, you’re an artist,” Serna said. “Put it on canvas, put it on a board, put it on something that you could keep or sell. Think of it in terms like, if you buy a brand new pair of pants, are you going to let your friends mark all over them?”
Another aspect to his workshops is that he is educating his audience by breaking the negative stereotypes of the pachuco and cholo, showing the audience a sense of pride and building off the negativity to encourage a positive movement.
He also brings a historical lesson going back to the Mayans and Toltecs and uses visuals such as traditional costumes and art.
During the interview, Serna paused and beckoned to the two men whispering about “Angel” to join him.
“What’s going on, guys,” Serna asked.
“You’re Angel from ‘Scarface,’” said an excited Angel Lara. “Chicken, you almost made it!”
Lara told Serna he had seen “Scarface” thousands of times and that Serna’s line was one that made an impact on him.
“To me, that line meant that Angel needed Tony to back him up instead of going to Manny to talk about the hit on Rebenga,” Lara said. “We need people to back us up.”
Serna, who obviously enjoys interacting with fans and the public, signed autographs for Lara and his friend Steve Warren and continued with the interview.
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