Sarah M. Vasquez
In The Community
Alexia Sánchez imagined a different ending for her final semester at the University of Iowa (UI), but she found out shortly before spring break that she wouldn’t be returning to campus because of COVID-19. Her remaining classes would be conducted online, and all events, including her graduation ceremony, were cancelled. “Never in my life would I have expected to end my college career in a pandemic and not finish it out,” Sánchez said in a recent phone interview with Luz Collective.
She’s sad that she missed senior traditions and didn’t get to finish the list of things she wanted to accomplish before graduation. While millions of college seniors around the country are in the same position, this milestone carries more weight for first generation college students like Sánchez. When she was just five, Sánchez’s mom brought her and her older sister from Mexico to Des Moines, Iowa, to provide them a better future. Attending university was always a major goal for Sánchez, but it was not an easy process, especially because since her mom didn’t attend college, she couldn’t turn to her for advice.
Her sister enrolled two years before her, so she could offer some guidance from her experience. Despite the challenges, Sánchez was able to take on different leadership roles and even studied abroad twice. She also double majored in political science and social justice, with minors in philosophy and Latino studies. Her hope is to workin the immigration field. “I was putting myself out there and it was all about making the most out of my college experience, because I know that my mom worked so hard for me to get in,” said Sánchez.
She spent the last two years starting a Latinx organization called Unidos Living Learning Community (LLC) to support and empower the Latinx students, the largest minority population at UI. Sánchez said a lot of students advocated for the LLC in the past, so she decided to help make it happen. The LLC will launch in the fall. “I definitely worked hard and it was not easy,” said Sánchez. “Not only trying to figure out college life and being a college student, but also helping to make a difference for other first generation students and other Latino students who maybe don’t have their family to rely on.”
When Sánchez received the notice that her graduation ceremony was cancelled, she said she hugged her mom and took a day or two to grieve. “I think that’s the heaviest thing on my mind and on my heart–my mom,” said Sánchez. “She crossed the border so I could cross the stage and the fact that that might not be possible, it hurts.”
The news was also hard for Selena Hernandez and her parents after they learned that they wouldn’t see her graduate from The University of Louisiana at Lafayette. The youngest of eight girls, Hernandez is the first in her family to graduate with a college degree. “That’s what they’ve been waiting for the past five years,” said Hernandez.
Her father provided financial assistance with her tuition while she worked two jobs as a waitress and at a hospital to cover her textbooks and other expenses. Hernandez already has a job as a nurse, so her parents understand that cancelling the graduation ceremony is what’s best for everyone’s health to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus.
Most universities are hosting virtual ceremonies with the option for the Spring 2020 graduates to attend in-person graduations for future semesters. Sánchez and Hernandez are not sure if they will be available to participate when that time comes.
Hernandez is invited to walk with the Summer 2020 graduates in July, a month after she starts her full-time job at Our Lady of Lourdes Regional Medical Center in Lafayette, Louisiana. She is thinking about hosting a graduation party with family and friends but not until after Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards’ stay at home order expires on May 15. “There’s not much time between graduation and actually stepping into the real world where I have to work,” said Hernandez.
Sánchez was invited to walk during the December 2020 ceremony, which she tentatively plans to attend. Her grandparents planned to fly from Mexico to attend the Spring ceremony, but Sánchez isn’t sure what will happen. “That’s such a long time from now,” said Sánchez. “I don’t know if I’m still going to be in Iowa or if I’m going to be working somewhere else or if my family will be able to travel.”
Online communities are offering the Class of 2020 celebrations of their own. #WeAllGrow Latina network is hosting theirs on May 15 filled with special guests and a DJ. Graduates are asked to fill out a form and submit a video by May 13 to participate.
Regardless of the ceremony, Hernandez is ready to finish the semester and start her new job in the emergency room at Our Lady of Lourdes. Her last semester of clinical training was cancelled due to the pandemic, but she continued to work her part-time student nursing job. While Hernandez didn’t work directly with COVID-19 patients, she saw how aggressive it was. Everyone who worked at the hospital was screened every day and wore masks while in the building. She saw coworkers dressed head-to-toe in protective gear to guard themselves from the virus.
“It’s scary to be a healthcare worker in times like this, but at the same time it’s an amazing feeling to be one of the special people that can help our community,” said Hernandez. “I can honestly say I’m ready to start this new adventure as a nurse, pandemic or not.”
Tanya Saracho believes if anyone is going to write about Latinas, it should be Latinas. “When you’re writing about culture and society in a moment in time, I think you better access the people who are living that moment in time,” said Saracho.
That’s why Saracho, who was born in Los Mochis, Sinaloa, México and grew up along the border in McAllen, Texas, sought out Latinx staff for Vida, a show for the Starz television network. Vida centers on two Mexican-American sisters who return home to the Boyle Heights neighborhood in Los Angeles after their mother dies. As the neighborhood around them changes due to gentrification, the sisters themselves journey through their own identities and relationships.
Vida joined a short list of Latinx shows when it premiered in 2018. It broke new ground by addressing topics like colorism and classism within the Latinx community, in addition to showcasing a diversity of queer Latinx characters. But Saracho says the team concentrated on the character’s emotional life rather than focusing solely on specific topics or themes.
“There are other Latinx shows that have taken the topical approach, and I respect and appreciate them for that because we need that kind of content,” Saracho said during a recent phone interview with the Luz Collective. “But I selfishly concentrated on keeping the girls as complicated and as true to self as they could be. Hopefully you could recognize yourself in them.”
The writers’ room consisted of all Latinx writers for the first two seasons and became an all Latina writers’ room for the third and final season, which premieres on April 26. Saracho hired all Latina directors for Season 2 and 3 and worked with eleven female artists, nine of them Latina, to write the music for the show. Some positions were harder to fill though. Saracho was finally able to find a Latina production designer for Season 3 after they couldn’t find one for the first two seasons.
“Yes, it takes more effort, but it’s doable. I don’t want to hear that we’re not out there,” said Saracho. “I don’t want to hear that because I’m proof that we are, meaning in the way that Vida was made. I’m proof. Vida is proof.”
Saracho credits Marta Fernandez, the former executive vice president of original programming at Starz, for providing the space for her vision. The showrunner was ready for a fight when she pitched an all Latinx writers’ room, but not only did Starz give her the greenlight, they also had a list of potential writers ready for her.“Because a Hispanic woman was the one who hired me at Starz, I feel like I never got a no,” said Saracho. “Every step of the way, I just got a yes. I didn’t know it was so rare that she said yes.”
After the first season, reporters would bring up her Latinx writers’ room and some made her feel like it was a gimmick Saracho said. But looking at her background, her hiring practices make sense. Saracho started an all-Latina theater company in Chicago called Teatro Luna in 2001 as a response to the lack of representation in the industry. When she was acting, she said she was only offered roles as a maid with one or no lines and saw the same women auditioning for the same roles.
So Saracho decided that the only way to get through the door is to create the door herself. Teatro Luna’s 10-year run wasn’t easy. They didn’t have money to pay royalties for a playwright, so the members would write the plays themselves despite their lack of experience. “By the end of the 10 years, you had writers that we had created, and I directed 16 of our productions,” said Saracho.
Gloria Calderón Kellett, the showrunner for One Day At A Time, a sitcom centered around a Cuban-American family that just released its fourth season, helped Saracho navigate through the process when she started Vida. Calderón Kellett would answer questions and offer her insight from her own experiences navigating the industry as a Latina. Saracho decided that she wanted to offer that same mentorship to new Latina showrunners and created The Untitled Latinx Project. “I could tell they were going to need what I needed and had from Gloria,” saId Saracho.
The Untitled Latinx Project partnered with The Black List for The 2020 Latinx TV List that will select one-hour and half-hour original pilots written by at least one Latinx writer and that feature a Latinx or Latin American character. The last day to submit a pilot is April 29. Saracho said that since the announcement, The Black List has received more submissions than they’ve had in years. “We’re super excited to do that as a group especially because we’re all writers and we all know that that first step is super hard,” said Saracho.
Saracho admits that it does require more effort to allow someone to learn their craft during a production like Vida. But the payoff was worth it. For example, Saracho’s cinematographer, Carmen Cabana, ran the camera department and was responsible for 36 people and herself for the show. That experience has led to new opportunities for Cabana, including recent work on Hulu’s High Fidelity. Vida script coordinator Jenniffer Gomez became a staff writer and a producer and is currently working on a series based on the documentary, The Infiltrators. Helping Gomez was the most fulfilling, said Saracho, because Gomez had been trying for years to get into a writers’ room.
“The first chance is the hardest,” said Saracho. “I’m so proud of those examples. That is building a movement of artists that are ready. We’ve been ready but on the sidelines, and now we’re showing you ‘Look at us.’ It wasn’t a gimmick.”
Film director/writer Kayden Phoenix was tired of seeing how Latinas were portrayed in films. “We’re much more than the typical chola, maid, sex worker, or ‘illegal’ that doesn’t speak English,” said Phoenix.
As her own act of breaking down stereotypes, she created the graphic novel Jalisco, a crime-fighting folklorico dancer who is searching for her mom in the midst of the femicide in Mexico.
To avoid tokenizing her characters, Phoenix’s comic book series includes four other Latina superheroes. While the big screen is her ultimate goal, a graphic novel was the more accessible option.
“I can afford to pay my artists. I can afford the publishing. As opposed to can I afford a multi-million feature film? No, I can’t afford to fund that yet,” Phoenix told Luz Collective in a recent phone interview.
Jalisco is personal to Phoenix because she incorporated parts of her family throughout the story. Phoenix grew up watching her mom, who is her hero, dance folklorico. That’s why Jalisco, named after her grandma’s birthplace, uses the same dancing style.
“She’s not necessarily a [traditional] superhero because she has no powers,” said Phoenix. “But Batman has no powers. He’s just a rich guy. It’s the same mentality.” With Jalisco, it’s quite the opposite in that she and her mother are poor. Jalisco is taken under the wing of Adella, the matriarch of the Latina group called the Adelitas. Adella and the women train her to fight against Malinche, the fictional character behind the femicide in the graphic novel.
Phoenix grew up hearing about the femicides in Ciudad Juarez, where her other grandmother lives and the Mexican border town to the sister city of El Paso, Texas. Phoenix said she uses her graphic novels to address issues that pain her or make her sad. The characters in her future novels will tackle subjects like Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), trafficking and school shootings. “Who gives (the victims of femicide) their justice? Nobody,” said Phoenix. “At least in my graphic novel, I can give them their justice.”
Through a team of Latina artists, Jalisco was produced in six months and released last fall. Phoenix didn’t have any prior graphic novel experience, but she grew up watching action films and Disney animations with her family. To her, graphic novels are like short form features. Instead of a moving picture, a story is told through stills. To prepare for her project, she read The Watchmen, a prolific ‘80s graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons about a group of mostly retired superheroes.
Phoenix wanted to bring Latina representation on and off the page, so she searched the #visiblewomen hashtag on Instagram to recruit female artists. There she found Mirelle Ortega, based in Los Angeles, one of the colorists who added color to the black and white line art.
Ortega was working on other projects simultaneously, so she recruited two friends, Addy Rivera Sondra and Gloria Felix, to split the work between them. “It wasn’t part of the original plan but I’m always open to adapting to better situations and it worked out amazingly,” said Phoenix.
Ortega also helped Phoenix search for other team members with a tweet. Phoenix received 60 responses and through that, she found an inker, Hannah Diaz, who defines the pencil drawings with ink, and an artist, Amanda Julina Gonzalez. Sandra Romero rounded out the team as the letterer who drew all the text in the comic.
Phoenix was so passionate about increasing Latina representation that she started the non-profit Chicana Director’s Initiative two years ago. The members receive sponsorships and resources to further their film careers. Her primary focus is to show the film industry that there are Latina film directors and cinematographers capable and available to work. “Hire Latina artists,” said Phoenix. “Don’t just say you can’t find any. That means you didn’t try. I literally tried, so I hired them because I found them. If you want to do it, do it. There’s no excuse.”
Phoenix wants to eventually take the series to the big screen, but for now, she plans to release the next two novels in the series this year, and is focusing on continuing to promote the first in the series.
In the few months since the book’s release, Phoenix brought Jalisco to comic conventions and book signings in California and the surrounding areas. She was invited to WonderCon in Anaheim, California and to sign books at the Barnes and Noble bookstore at the Grove in Hollywood until both were postponed due to the COVID-19 crisis. The book wasn’t available when Phoenix started attending the events, so she ordered a coloring book based on the novel to have something to offer. She sold half of the 200 copies in three days, mostly to children.
“That was cool. I didn’t expect a coloring book to sell at a comic convention, but it did,” said Phoenix. A parent sent Phoenix a message on Instagram with a photo of her daughter dressed as Jalisco for Halloween. The girl was wearing a black dress with gold embellishments, similar to Jalisco’s dress. Phoenix said that the girl was inspired by the coloring book.
“Just by one coloring book, she’s a superhero now. That is amazing,” said Phoenix. “It’s already bigger than what I expected from that one little girl.”
