Lalo Rios: Mexican American Movie Pioneer

Lalo Rios may not be a familiar name to many these days, but he was a pioneering Mexican American actor. In the space of two years, he appeared in two movies dealing with the Chicano experience, playing a central role in The Lawless (1950) and, for all extents and purposes, the lead role in The Ring (1952). His career never quite took off, but he remains a truly groundbreaking Chicano actor.

Lalo Rios was born on February 7, 1927, in San Miguelito, Sonora, Mexico. He was nine years old when his family moved to East Los Angeles. He attended Albion Elementary School and Lincoln High School. Following high school, he became a carpenter in the heavy construction industry. 

It was through actor Don James that Lalo Rios would find his way into acting. Don James and his wife had been hired to stage a Christmas play with a social club of young Mexican American American men and women 18 to 20 years old. One of the young men in the club, Lalo Rios, became close friends with Don James. Don James thought Lalo Rios had real talent, so that when he heard director Joseph Losey was making a film centered on Mexican American, The Lawless (1950), he contacted the director and told him to take a look at Lalo Rios. 

The Lawless (1950) centred on a newspaper editor (MacDonald Carey), who finds himself at odds with his small town with regards to the local Mexican American fruit pickers, particularly when one of them, Paul Rodriguez (Lalo Rios), finds himself in trouble. While Lalo Rios was sixth billed in The Lawless (1950), given the amount of screen time he has and how pivotal Paul Rodriguez is to the plot, he could very nearly be considered one of the leads. What is more, while Lalo Rios had never acted in a movie before, he got good notices from critics for his portrayal of Paul Rodriguez.

Following The Lawless (1950), Lalo Rios appeared in minor roles in such films as The Law and the Lady (1951), Untamed Frontier (1952), and One Minute to Zero (1952). It was in 1952 that The Ring was released. While Lalo Rios was billed after Gerald Mohr and Rita Moreno, he was for all extents and purposes the film's star. The movie centred on centred on young Mexican American  Tomas Cantanios who takes up boxing in an effort to make something better of himself. The Ring (1952) is notable for its portrayal of racism against Chicanos, including the segregation that existed in Los Angeles at the time and for its utter lack of stereotypes. In his book Viva Hollywood: The Legacy of Latin and Hispanic Artists in American Film, author Luis I. Reyes writes of Lalo Rios's character in The Ring (1950), "In The Ring, Rios could e regarded as Hollywood's first Latino working-class rebel, as he expressed postwar concerns that developed into the Chicano (Mexican American) civil rights movement of the 1960s. His character is a progenitor of the teenage antihero that James Dean played in Rebel Without a Cause."

Unfortunately Lalo Rios would never again play a role as big as that of Tomas Cantanios in The Ring (1952). He had minor roles in City Beneath the Sea (1953) Big Leaguer (1953), and Prisoner of War (1954) before appearing as Risto, the hot-headed member of the Grandi crime family who throws a bottle of acid at protagonist Mike Vargas (Charlton Heston) in Touch of Evil (1958). Touch of Evil (1958) would be his last significant appearance in a movie. Afterwards, he appeared in very minor roles in films: one of Calvera's henchmen in The Magnificent Seven (1960), a prisoner in Lonely Are the Brave (1962), and a solder in Villa Rides (1968).

It was during the Fifties that Lalo Rios's acting career turned increasingly to television. He made his television debut in an episode of The Unexpected in 1952. As might be expected. he appeared in several Westerns, including Frontier Doctor, Overland Trail, Tate, Gunsmoke, Laredo, and The High Chaparral. He appeared as gangster Tony Diaz in the two-part Untouchables episode "The Big Train." His final appearance on television was in an episode of Marcus Welby, M.D.

Even as his acting career was unfolding, Lalo Rios continued to work as a carpenter in the construction industry. It was while he was working on a construction job that he was injured in an accident that limited his mobility. As if being a Chicano in Hollywood wasn't hard enough, this made it even more difficult to find acting jobs. 

While Lalo Rios only had a few significant roles in movies and on television, he remains an important figure in the history of Chicanos in movies. Years before the Chicano Movement began, he appeared in movies that addressed racism against Mexican Americans and played characters who would have a lasting impact on Mexican Americans on film. There can be no argument on the significance of The Lawless and The Ring in history of Chicano films, and it is largely Lalo Rios's performances in those films that made them what they are.