Film Report on American Me: A Therapeutic Perspective “American Me” is a fiction film with a factual basis, starring and directed by Edward James Olmos. Released on the national theatrical circuit in 1992, "American Me" depicts the life of Rodolfo Cadena, a leading Carnal (gang member) of the La Eme prison gang, also known as the Mexican Mafia. Therapeutically addressing the importance and pervasiveness of gang membership, including its attraction and reinforcers, would be a difficult task for any social service practitioner, involving accuracy of assessment and effectiveness of treatment. However, striving to find and implement such therapeutic methods and procedures to achieve positive results, while preserving Latin American cultural identity and integrity, is precisely the purpose of this article. One of the parallel themes of “American Me” is that prisons are much more than warehouses. for the excluded and the disastrous of society. Instead, they recruit recruiting centers and training camps for future generations of criminals and gang members. “American Me” reveals how much of the crime syndicate was welcomed from “the inside,” from within the many prisons of the U.S. Department of Corrections (Baumgarten, 1992). Knowing the fate of Montoya Santana, the character played by Edward James Olmos, growing up to become a revered and lifelong member of the Mexican Mafia, including 18 years in Folsom Prison, developing a comprehensive intervention plan , although hypothetical, in terms of social services is necessary. This hypothetical, culturally appropriate therapeutic intervention must take place at the time when young (16 year old) Santana is first placed in a juvenile (juvie) institution...... middle of paper ......idual human service needs would ideally involve not only cognitive, behavioral and emotional, but also familial and cultural approaches. The potential for therapeutic success rests on the degree of effectiveness in all of these areas, with the practitioner adopting a holistic approach to Santana in the context of their external and internal environment. References: Atkinson, DR (2004), Counseling American Minorities, 6th edition. , Boston: McGraw-Hill Companies Baumgarten, M. (1992), American Me, Calendar: Film Listings, Austin Chronicle, retrieved March 29, 2008 from: http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Calendar/Film?Film= oid%3A139162Bohmer, P. (1998), African Americans as an Internal Colony: The Theory of Internal Colonialism, retrieved March 29, 2008 from the UOP database, EBSCOhost: http://academic.evergreen.edu/b /bohmerp/internalcolony. htm