Over the past few years some Latina actresses, such as Jennifer
Lopez and Salma Hayek, have risen to prominence in Hollywood. Soon
the UCLA film program may lay claim to having developed a Latina
leading lady, Tonantzin Esparza.
Fifth-year theater and Chicana/o studies student Esparza has now
done five episodes of ABC’s “The George Lopez
Show” as the character Marisol. Originally only featured in
brief supporting roles as Lopez’s secretary, Marisol’s
character has recently been expanded, giving Esparza more
exposure.
“For this next episode that hasn’t aired yet, I get
the script, and I’m like “˜Oh my God, I’m in every
scene!'” Esparza said. “It’s been a very
intense week.”
Esparza’s professional career has developed quickly. It
wasn’t until her senior year in high school, after a summer
job working as a make-up assistant on the movie
“Selena,” that Esparza decided to try acting.
“I just loved the experience hanging out with all the
Latino actors on the film. I got inspired,” Esparza said.
“I liked the really positive portrayal of Latinos.”
After graduating from the Los Angeles County High School for the
Arts, Esparza was admitted to the UCLA theater program. Soon after,
she helped form the theater group Latinos United through Culture,
History and Art. LUCHA’s first play, “Tonantzin: A
Savage Tragic Comedy of Visions of Virgins,” appropriately
starred Esparza in her first leading role.
“Tonantzin is the name of the mother goddess of the
Aztec Indians,” Esparza said.
The play’s basis is that the story of the Virgin of
Guadalupe, a legendary vision of the Virgin Mary that
lead the Aztecs to convert to Catholicism, was in fact a
misunderstanding. In the play, Juan Diego, the peasant who
witnessed the miraculous vision, did not actually see the Virgin
Mary but rather the Aztec goddess Tonantzin.
“With the colonization and the conquest of the Aztecs,
Christianity joined the Tonantzin deity with the Virgin of
Guadalupe,” Esparza said. “After she first appeared, it
was said that she was a brown indigenous woman, Tonantzin, but
because of Christianity she became the Virgin Mary.”
Being the daughter of a first generation Chicano father
and a Native American Yaki Indian mother, both UCLA
alumni, Esparza took it upon herself to become a leader
in the UCLA minority community. She currently serves as a
coordinating member for the student group Conciencia Libre, which
addresses Latino cultural, labor and immigration issues on and
off campus.
Esparza’s big break as an actress came last fall when
she auditioned for the play “Dementia,” produced by
UCLA Professor Jose Luis Valenzuela’s Latin Theater
Company. She won the role of Tamara, a tough Latino teenager
who finds herself pregnant at 16-years-old and caring for an uncle
who is dying of AIDS.
Comedian and actor George Lopez became one of the play’s
biggest fans, buying-out the entire theater one night and
contributing $10,000 to the production. That same night, Lopez
approached Esparza and asked her to be on his show.
“I was like, “˜What? Are you serious?’ And he
said “˜I’m dead serious. I love this character, you did
an amazing job, and I want you on my show. We’ll be calling
you,'” Esparza said.
Esparza attends classes despite her busy schedule, and is
looking forward to graduating in June. She has a new agent and
plans to try out for roles in the upcoming season of television
pilots. Esparza’s real dream, however, is to do things behind
the camera.
“I want to get into producing and writing, because you
don’t have that much control over what’s out there when
you’re just an actor,” Esparza said. “I want to
be able to create work I want to see out there, stories I want to
see told, and to have control over that.”