00:00Could we please go down the line and have each of you guys share your cultural identity?
00:05Well, I am a queer first-generation Mexican-American.
00:10I'm Mexican-American with roots in Guadalajara and Oaxaca.
00:13Proud first-generation Salvadorian-American.
00:16I'm Mexican with roots in Guerrero, Mexico.
00:20I am proudly a first-gen American Dominicana from the Bronx and Afro-Latina.
00:30When was the first time you felt seen on screen?
00:45It was on Disney XD called Star vs. The Forces of Evil.
00:48His mom is white, his dad is Latino.
00:50And literally we like stood up and just started screaming.
00:53And then for like the rest of the episode, I like looked down and my hands like could not stop shaking.
00:57And I was like, wow, so this is what it feels like.
01:00Oh my God.
01:01And like from that point on, I was like, whoever I can help to have that same feeling,
01:06like that is like one of my main goals as a filmmaker.
01:10It wasn't until I was like older and I remember watching Dr. Strange like recently with Xochitl Gomez on screen.
01:16I like started crying because I was like, oh my gosh,
01:19because it was like one of the first things you see in like this big like movie.
01:22And so like that meant a lot to me.
01:24I don't think I ever had that moment of like watching something on TV and feeling seen just
01:28because I'm like, where are the queer Mexicans at?
01:31Yeah.
01:32Nowhere.
01:34I would love to create that moment for other people.
01:35I would love to put Latinos in stuff like Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter,
01:41you know, build that world.
01:42Why can't we exist there too?
01:43And I realized those moments throughout your childhood and throughout your life where
01:48you see someone on the screen and you feel connected with them and you just feel that you can
01:54be them, that you can, that you are so much more and that you can achieve so much more.
01:59It is powerful.
02:00What were your abuelos, your tías, your tíos watching that you also took notice?
02:04Novelas.
02:05Same.
02:06Every day.
02:07That in Caso Cerrado.
02:08Oh my God, Caso Cerrado and Cristina.
02:10I don't know if you guys ever watched Cristina, but like.
02:13Yeah.
02:14I was about to say.
02:15I was about to say, and like the first Spanish word I learned was,
02:19Fuera.
02:20Fuera.
02:21There's power and specificity and being like, wait, that's in my household.
02:25A lot of the experiences that I wrote in Agua Madre were based on that.
02:29And also based on my grandmas and my mom.
02:33I grew up with a lot of women in my family.
02:36So just that love that they gave me and that in spite of the fights they might have or in
02:41spite of the passions both of them might experience at the end of the day, it's family
02:45and you love them no matter what.
02:47I 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.
02:54And the idea of wanting to tell a story about my Nana was always kind of there.
02:59And it was based off one of my fondest memories.
03:02Well, everything that I make is inspired by my family.
03:05It was inspired very much by my aunt Olga, my tia Olga.
03:07She died when I was very, very young.
03:10And that left a really huge profound impact on me.
03:12And so I thought about, oh, okay, how can I tell a story about grief?
03:18My mom and my dad were 100% based off of my mom and dad and all that
03:22experience 100% based off of me.
03:24It was really, really exciting that I got to just unapologetically make the movie about
03:28being Salvadorian.
03:29Yeah.
03:30As Latine people in the entertainment industry, I'm like, there shouldn't be stories about us
03:34without us.
03:35And when you see that on screen, it goes, okay, I'm not alone.
03:40I 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 a little bit.
03:55Okay, mom.
03:56I love that she's a part of the process.
03:57She, oh yeah.
03:58We all brought family into this.
04:01Yeah.
04:01And you know, it wasn't planned.
04:03They didn't tell us a specific set of things we had to add to our script.
04:06But just naturally, because of how we grew up and because of our values, it's like,
04:11we come with a package.
04:12Yeah, same.
04:13We come with our family.
04:14Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
04:15When we go to the mall, we all go.
04:17Oh, let's do it.
04:18And speaking of family, through this Me Too, Walmart, Filmmaker 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 someone be like,
04:31you got this.
04:32And we're here to support you.
04:33And don't let anything stop you because 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.
04:44They 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.
04:52How has the Me Too, Walmart Filmmaker Mentorship Program pushed your filmmaking dreams forward?
04:56I think just being told and appreciated that we can enter these spaces
05:02have been one of the biggest things.
05:04Because, you know, imposter syndrome is a big thing.
05:07You don't see too many Latino faces in some of these spaces,
05:11and especially in the film world, but like going in and knowing like,
05:14oh, there's a whole community of people rooting for me
05:16and who want to help me and are helping each other.
05:18I think that's the biggest thing.
05:20Yeah.
