Since *Touch of Evil* has come up in this discussion, it
seems worth mentioning some TV show characters from the early
days. Jack Webb, for example, seems to have made a point of
including Chicano characters on
*Dragnet*. Joe Friday's first partner, Sgt. Ben Romero,
played by Barton Yarborough of *I Love a Mystery* and *one
Man's Family* fame, was a Texan of Mexican descent. The
real-life LAPD officer, Det. Sgt. Ector Garcia, a forensic
sketch artist who was called "The Michaelangelo of Murder" by
his peers, was a frequent character in both the radio, '50s
TV, and '60s TV versions of the show. Although *Dragnet*
always claimed that the "names were changed to protect the
innocent," police officers usually appeared under their
real-life names. Except, of course, for the officers who were
most directly involved in whatever real-life case Webb was
fictionalizing. They always had their names change to "Friday
and (Romero, Jacobs, Smith, Gannon, etc.)."
Another early TV cop show, *The New Breed*, which dramatized
cases from LAPD's Metropolitan Division, was Quinn Martin's
first independent production after doing *The Untouchables*
for Desilu. One of the squad members was Officer Pete Garcia.
I can't recall the name of the actor who played him.
Since hard-boiled westerns have come up recently, I should
also note an early TV western series, produced by Disney,
called *The Nine Lives of Elfega Baca*, starring Robert
Loggia, which fictionalized the adventures of real-life
frontier lawman/attorney of Mexican descent.
JIM DOHERTY
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