English | Mexican
I only really became aware that I wasn’t White when I left drama school. Having always played any part at drama school regardless of age, race or gender, suddenly casting directors were only seeing me for ‘sassy Latina’ roles. These castings come up all the time, and they are normally the worst kind of stereo-type. I love Shakespeare but was only auditioned once at a main theatre for a Shakespeare production because they were setting it in Mexico. They ended up not using any actual Mexicans in the production because the Mexicans they saw ‘didn’t look Mexican enough’. It can be incredibly frustrating.
The world of performance is going through a huge change at the moment, so I think it’s becoming more accommodating and inclusive towards female performers and non-White actors. We are in the age of diversity and the age of #MeToo so it’s great that things are changing, but absolutely I’ve experienced harassment because of my gender, and have definitely been racially stereotyped because of my Latina heritage. I now work predominantly in comedy where it was recently said at a topical comedy writing workshop ‘the more diverse voices we have, the richer comedy will be’. I think it’s an exciting time to be a writer-performer.
I’ve never been anything but proud to be of a dual heritage but with an increasing societal awareness of race and ethnicity, I have definitely felt confused and lost in recent years. I still struggle with how I identify myself, especially as I have White privilege being quite light skinned. I feel comfortable identifying as mixed-race but still feel uncomfortable with terms such as BAME, maybe because Mexicans aren’t an oppressed group in the way they are in the United States. I have always found it interesting how people think they have a right to tell you what they see when they look at you. People also are very quick to guess where I am from which I have always found odd, but I think that comes with having an unusual name. My name isn’t actually Spanish, it’s Aztec. When people are constantly questioning your identity, it’s hard not to question it yourself.
Sign up to Patreon or Subscribe to our website to read more