00:00Could we please go down the line and have each of you guys share your cultural identity?
00:05Hmm. Well, I am a queer period first-generation Mexican American
00:10I'm Mexican American with roots in Guadalajara and Oaxaca proud first-generation
00:15Salvadorian American I'm
00:17Mexican with roots in Guerrero Mexico. I am proudly a first-gen American Dominicana from the Bronx and Afro-Latina
00:30You
00:42When was the first time you felt seen on screen it was on Disney XD called star versus the forces of evil
00:48His mom was white
00:49His dad is Latino and literally we like stood up and just started screaming and then for like the rest of the episode
00:55I like looked down at my hands. I could not stop shaking and I was like, wow
00:58So this is what it feels like. Oh my god. And like from that point on I was like
01:03Whoever I can help to have that same feeling like that is like one of my main goals as a filmmaker
01:09It wasn't until I was like older and I remember watching
01:13Dr. Strange like recently. Yeah, Xochitl Gomez on screen
01:16I like started crying because I was like, oh my gosh
01:19I was like the one of the first things you see in like this big like movie
01:22Yeah, like that meant a lot to me. I don't think I ever had that moment of like
01:26Watching something on TV and feeling seen just because I'm like, where are the queer Mexicans at? Yeah nowhere. I
01:33Would love to create that moment for other people. I would love to put
01:37Latinos in stuff like Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, you know build that world. Why can't we exist there, too?
01:43I realize those moments throughout your childhood and throughout your life where you see someone on the screen and you feel connected with them
01:51and you just
01:53Feel that you can be them that you can that you are so much more than you can achieve so much more
01:58It is powerful. What were your abuelos or tias or tios watching that? You also took notos novelas?
02:08Oh my god, I hope you guys ever watch
02:17Like the first Spanish word
02:19I
02:21Power and specificity and being like wait, that's in my household
02:24but a lot of the experiences that I wrote in our mother or based on that and also based on
02:31My grandma's and my mom I grew up with a lot of woman in my family
02:36So just that love that they gave me and that in spite of the fights
02:40They might have or in spite of the passions both of them might experience at the end of the day
02:44It's family and you love them. No matter what. I don't necessarily always think about like tying culture into it
02:50I think just because I am it just naturally will always come out
02:55The idea of wanting to tell a story about my Nana was always kind of there and it's based off one of my fondest memories
03:02Well, everything that I make is inspired by my family is inspired very much by my aunt Olga my tia Olga
03:07She died when I was very very young and that left a really huge profound impact on me
03:12And so I thought about
03:14Okay, how can I tell a story about grief?
03:18My mom and my dad were a hundred percent
03:20Based off of my mom and dad and all that experience 100% based off of me
03:24It was really really exciting that I got to just unapologetically make the movie about being Salvadorian
03:30as Latina people in the entertainment industry, I'm like there shouldn't be stories about us without us and
03:36When you see that on screen it goes. Okay. I'm not alone
03:39I wanted to make sure that my dad got represented as a Salvadorian immigrant
03:45Yeah
03:45Problem is my actor Jose when he sent his first self tape in it was my mom that pointed out
03:51My mom was like kind of has the Chicano accent slipping in there
03:58We all brought family into this yeah, and you know, it wasn't planned they didn't tell us a specific set of things
04:05We had it to add to our script
04:06But just naturally because of how we grew up and because of our values, it's like we come with a package
04:19Speaking of family through this meet through Walmart don't make a mentorship program
04:23What did you guys learn from your mentors Justina Machado and Oz Rodriguez?
04:27I think the biggest thing from both of them was just having like someone to be like you got this
04:31And like we're here to support you and like don't let anything stop you because like you deserve to be here
04:37What's been really great about the program is that it's given us access to resources
04:41We got to meet with storyboard artists that gave us graphic designers for our posters
04:46There was a lot of things that they provided
04:48Including the money that they gave us to be able to make the films
04:51How has the meet the Walmart filmmaker mentorship program pushed your filmmaking dreams forward?
04:56I think just being told and like
04:59Appreciated that like we can enter these spaces have been like one of the biggest things
05:04Cuz you know like imposter syndrome is like a big thing
05:07Like you don't see too many like Latino faces in some of these spaces and especially in the film world
05:12But like going in and knowing like oh
05:14There's a whole community of people rooting for me and who want to help me and are helping each other
05:18I think that's like the biggest thing
Comments