June 30, 2022 • 33 mins
Nothing influences our culture more today than media. TV, books, movies, social media - so much of what we consume affects how we connect with each other. How can we harness this power for good? This week, Eva is joined by award-winning writer, director, and show-runner, Gloria Calderón Kellett, about the role of media in connecting the world and why it's crucial to share underrepresented stories.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello, Welcome back to Connections with Eva Longoria. I'm Eva Longoria,
and today we are going to explore our connection to
the media, the media. I don't know why I always
go into an Oprah Winfrey voice, but I'm excited about
this conversation because my industry, my art is in the media,
and I've just been so fascinated with the changes over
(00:22):
the last Honestly, every year, it's not only a tiny change,
it's like a crazy change. What we like and what
we watch, and who we watch, and when we watch,
and how we watch, what we pay attention to. All
of this has changed within the probably the last twenty years,
a lot, the last ten years, super a lot in
the last five years. And so I think what has
(00:44):
happened is audiences now have a very participatory role and
how we create and how they want to consume media,
what they want to consume. And then add on top
of that social media, right, that social media component connects
our conversation, and that connected conversation changes audiences. And so
(01:09):
I think that's what's defining the media environment today. When
I say media, I mean all of it. I mean
TV and film and music and news and blogs and
of course social media, and we've seen it work on
behalf of good, but sometimes it's bad, right, And so
what should our relationship and connection with the media be,
Love it or hate it. It's here to stay, It's
(01:30):
going to continue to evolve at lightning speed. And I
don't think there's a better person to have this conversation
with than my dear friend Gloria called her own kelle It.
Gloria is an actress, a writer, producer, director, creator. She's
worked on shows One Day at a Time, How I
Met Your Mother, Jane, The Virgin, Devious Maids, but recently
(01:51):
she has Amazons with Love, which I love and of
course so much more. I can't enlist your whole damn
res makes it so big, but I love that so
much of her work focuses on sharing positive stories of
underrepresented groups. So I'm so excited to welcome to the show,
Gloria cult around Kellett. Hello Glow, Hello, I kind of
(02:12):
went Carol Channing. I don't know what with that one.
Bring in the greats. The great divas are taking place.
How are you? I am well, I cannot complain. I
cannot complain. So tell everybody where are you from? And
tell them about your roots, because I love your Cuban roots.
I am the daughter of Cuban immigrants. My parents came
(02:33):
here in nineteen sixty two from Cuba and they were
in Miami for a year. What a lot of people
don't know about the Cuban diaspora is that during Operation
Federal Pan, which was nineteen sixty two, over fourteen thousand
Cuban children came to Miami. Miami is largely because of
the Cuban population they came, so it was really just
(02:55):
orange groves and it was not super developed. And then
as Castro did not get kicked out of Cuba, many
of the families were able to then come and so
both of my grandparents were able to come on the
freedom flights. But there was no infrastructure for all of
these parents of these fourteen thousand children. So various churches
all over the country took in Cuban families. So yes,
(03:17):
the vast majority were in Miami and Jersey City, but
we were everywhere. So my mother's family, my father's family,
and about thirty or forty other Cuban families all landed
in Portland, Oregon. Wow. I grew up in a lovely,
thriving Cuban American community in Portland, and then when I
was fourteen, we moved to San Diego, California, and then
(03:40):
I came up to Loyola Marymout University of Los Angeles
for college, and then we went to grad school the
University of London in London. Yeah, but when did the
interest in the industry and because it was acting first, right, yeah, college,
I think it was in college At that time there
was nothing for women. I couldn't on a walk for women.
(04:01):
So at first I thought, oh, this is going to
be the Problem's not enough for women. And then when
I came back from grad school with this master's degree
and like proper drama school. I went to proper British
drama school. Guess who gives no ships about that? Is
that in two dollars will get you a bus pass
and nobody cares in England. They really care in England.
(04:21):
It's what drama school did you go to in l
a if what restaurants you work at? So I was like,
I am a proper trained actress, give me Shakespeare and
they're like, just kidding, you can have Gangbanger number three.
Every audition, every audition was Gang banger's girlfriend or gangbanger sister,
maybe prostitute if I was lucky, and it was like, really,
(04:45):
this is what Like my brain was sort of exploding. Yeah.
I always got the could you do it more like
Rosie Perez? Oh my god. I was like, I don't.
I'm not from New York. I don't way with that.
I didn't have an accent, but I looked the way
I looked, so I was too white for the Latin roles.
I was too Latin for the white roles. And then
(05:07):
finally they go, Longoria, what is that Italian? I go, yes, yes,
it is yes, And I got so many rules as
an Italian. I mean, it's bonkers. What has happened in
the last twenty years in this industry? It is coconuts.
So yes. It was just so out of deep frustration,
I was like, I'm just gonna start writing. I'm just
(05:27):
gonna start writing the stuff I want to do. And
the writing was really what set me free. And I
was writing, I was doing stand up, which is when
I met you for the first time. You came and
saw me in the Gallo gulch to stand up, and
I put up monologue shows all female monologe those different women,
all shape, sizes and colors, and I hustled really hard.
(05:50):
So like, I found out that the Hudson Avenue Theater
on Santa Monica Boulevard is dark on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
So backstage West in l a weekly will review your
show if you have a six week So I was like,
how much for Tuesday nights for six weeks? And they're like,
I don't know, A hundred fifty bucks. Awesome, So I
booked the space. My boyfriend at the time, my now husband,
who's a cartoonist, made the posters. I went to just
(06:11):
to print and got the postcards made. I gave free
tickets to all of my favorite charities. Putting up that
show is how I got my manager. Did you come
to any of the plays? I think I did in
Santa Ma? I remember this, but you know what that
was the game I did the same thing. I did
it at the Improv and I was like, I'm going
to book some comedians here, and they're like, you manage
the door, we got the bar, you got that this,
(06:33):
we split the thing, and I said, great, how much
is it? And then I remember going, I need a
sponsor and going out and asking some Latino lawyer to
give me three hundred bucks so I could pay for
the And I said, I'm gonna put your name on stage.
It'll say Miller Law Firm Presents. And he's like a
little girl, here's three dollars, just go away. But we
(06:58):
were hustitals where hill hustlers, Like, how does this hustle
never end? Never ends? So waiting to be on the
yacht with my feet up? But where's that? I know?
How do you think TV has changed? The mod not
TV media? I mean it's like now we should just
call it short form and long form, right, Like it's
content and you can watch it on your phone, you
can watch it on your iPad, you can watch it
(07:21):
on a wall projected off your watch. I don't know, Like, so,
what do you think is the biggest change? And then
I want to ask you what do you think the
biggest change for you as a creator? Like how does
that change make you pivot two to cater to that? Yeah,
that's the ever evolving question. Well, the first one, how
has it changed? Is there's more stuff, which is great.
(07:43):
More stuff means more opportunity and I'm here for that always,
But more stuff also means less eyeballs at any given time.
So the last hit I was on that people were
talking about as a hit was How I Met Your Mother,
And I remember we would get a two point five
and be like, oh no, two point five is not
good cut to now something's up point five on network
(08:07):
and a hit, right, So it's like, wow, that's just
ten years. That's just ten years, And where did all
those people go? And the idea of appointment television feels
like it's really just for maybe reality shows or sports events,
like that's really the only stuff, with the exception of
the Game of Thrones every once in a while, that
(08:27):
people are consuming at the same time in real time.
And so media in terms of you know, I love
Fabianna Rodriguez, and she is just a cultural ambassador in
terms of studying culture shift, which is the work that
you and I are in. We really take this a storytelling,
but we also are aware of the power of this
(08:47):
medium in terms of changing perceptions about our community. So
she studied in particular and doesn't in depth. I think
it's on YouTube, so please watch it because she's so
much more articulate. But she did a presentation that I
saw where She was talking about the LGBTQ community marriage
equality and how it takes about ten years for something
(09:09):
to hit culturally and then permeate into culture so that
it has effective change on policy in d C. And
she specifically looked at Ellen Will and Grace and how
there is a direct correlation between when those shows came out,
how it affected culture and changed how people felt about
the LGBTQ community and led to marriage equality, because suddenly
(09:31):
ten years later, ten years later, but how these people
being in your household and you being like, oh my god,
they're just like my family. Whatever that was the cognitive
dissidence changed. It shifted something in culture. And so I
was thinking about my parents, right, my parents and their
journey here. My parents came in two and when they
(09:52):
came they were put in detention facilities, but they were
given soap and blankets and places to stay and comforts.
And yes, the Cuban experience is still incredibly painful and
they were away from their parents and there was a
lot of trauma, but in terms of their treatment from
the government, it was very different. And then I was like,
(10:13):
I wonder what was happening in the country in nineteen
fifty two, a decade earlier, and oh, the number one
show in America's I Love Lucy. So a Cuban American
is in everyone's household, being funny and married to the
white lady who's hilarious and having the funny accent, and
it seems really innocuous, right, So it's like, oh, interesting
had desire and has not been on TV? Would these
(10:35):
fourteen thousand Cuban kids not have been able to come here? Maybe?
And am I sitting here right now because of media? Maybe?
So then we look now at the silos, and this
was a time when everybody watched I mean the amount
of people that watched desis little Ricky be born right
born most of the country. And now we have these
(10:59):
media's silos, these echo chambers where you can find something
that's really bespoke to you, that you find interesting. But
I think that there's a direct correlation between the brokenness
of where we are as a country and the brokenness
of how we don't consume the same stuff. So it's
really different, Especially in the last five years, there are
(11:23):
so many shows that I have not like, there were
shows that I was hearing about. The Gun picked up
for a fourth season on deadline, like there were three
other seasons. What is this show? There's so much out there,
and so from one perspective, it's giving more opportunity. That's exciting.
It's allowing other storytellers to come forth. That's exciting, But
it is also segmenting the community. Yeah, as much as
(11:53):
we can build it and they will come, sometimes the
audience doesn't come and you're like, where is our coming entity?
Come on, show up in a powerful way and droves
blecks that buying power muscle. There's an engagement that is
not happening with our community and media. What is that disconnecting?
(12:16):
How can we as creators change it? I think what
you're doing with Love is beautiful because you take the
ethnicity or race off of it and it's a beautiful
family and people are living lives and like, it's your
perspective that makes it special. But at the same time,
this is a family who has kids, they're aspiring adults
(12:37):
and have careers and working hard, and it's it's so beautiful.
We should normalize that, right, Like, we're not all gang bangers.
You know. I did this movie called Sylvie's Love and
it was Sylvie's Love. Well, that writer said I want
to do a movie where and it was almost an
entire black cast, and he said, I want to do
(12:57):
a movie where you know, being black is in the obstacle,
and like, how many movies do you see that your
race is your obstacle? And he goes, I just want
to do a love story. I don't do a story
about these two people who just can't get it together
and be together. And it was beautiful and so I
feel like you were doing that with Love and I
(13:17):
think that with everything that you do, but it affects culture,
it really leaks over. And so what you're saying is
like the segmentation of like I only watch these niche
shows and yeah, we're living in our own little bubbles. Yeah.
And it's so interesting because I brought up Sylvie's Love
when I pitched with Love. Yeah, because I watched that
(13:40):
movie and it made me realize how conditioned I am
to hold my breath because I think something bad is
going to happen to the black people. I was. I
kept on waiting for this, like oh god, oh no,
they're turning the car. Oh it's okay, okay, Oh my god,
this is gonna I'm so preconditioned and it was like, boy,
(14:03):
that speaks to how we're so terrified something bad is
going to happen to them. And then when nothing did
and it was just their stuff, the relief that washed
over me was palpable. And I wanted that same thing.
I wanted that same thing for not just the latinos
on the show, but the trans characters on the show,
and the gay characters on the show, and the Asian
characters on the show. And getting to do that was great,
(14:26):
And it was funny because a lot of the reviewers
were like, they're so happy, and I was like, yeah,
because that can happen to that can be a reality
to you. Just y'all aren't used to see it very much,
but that's how we used mostly having a pretty good
time out here. Y'all. It's just you guys don't see
it very much, but that's that is what's happening. So
I am fascinated by this conversation though, because I do
(14:48):
think it is all connected as well. Is it about
empowering our communities more? I think a big point that
you just made is the conditioning of TV is not
for me. I don't really see myself in it, So
to go elsewhere for my content. And so when you
deliver something, when there's a Dentified or a Selena or
a with Love or whatever show that is inclusive of
(15:13):
our community, we miss it because we've been conditioned to
not go to that well for that water. I think
because you do a great job at engaging your audience.
You're on Twitter, you're on social media, you're doing press junkets,
you're on a panel, You're flying to Chicago to go
to the National Council de Larrasa because you gotta. You're like, okay,
(15:34):
what else could Gloria possibly do to scream from the
highest mountaintop like, we're creating content, please come. How have
you found that journey? Well, it's exhausting. What was really
kind of amazing was with one day at a time
I had Mike Royson, Norman Lear by my side and
to see them acknowledge. There was one day that I
(15:56):
came back from I had done some panels and some
interviews in a podcast and at the and then I
came into the room. But I had done all that
in the morning and Mike said, Okay, why don't you
take a breath, guys, room, let's take a break. I'll
fill in Gloria on what we talked about for the
last thirty minutes, and we went into his office and
he was like, I just want you to know I
see that you're doing five times more than like I
want you to know, I see. And I just burst
(16:16):
into tears because just being seen, just having somebody, a
dominant culture white man who's lovely and supportive and has
been my partner, just to have him say I see
that it's harder for you was kind of incredible in
a way that I didn't know I needed to be seen.
I just needed the acknowledgement of, yeah, we're trying to
(16:39):
shout it from the rooftops. Not only that, I feel
like we've also seen the studies on the damage of
the Narco novella narrative within our own community. Stuff that
our community loves to devour that's bad for them, and
yet they still consume it. So we're also saying you're
eating junk food, please also eat some broccoli, guys, please
(17:00):
also put broccoli into your brains. But it takes time
to make that type of shift. And so when you
and I talk about it, like we're out there talking
about it and engaging with them and when we're engaging,
they're like, oh, because these conversations haven't been had with them.
And social media, I've been really fortunate that Twitter has
been really a lovely place for me. I know it
(17:20):
can be such a dumpster fire for so many people,
but I've loved engaging and even engaging with people who
are angry. If it's just die Latinos, I'm not going
to engage in that, obviously, but if it's here's why
I'm frustrated. I've started to engage on a personal level
with those people and say, here's what you don't understand
(17:40):
that we're doing on this side. That's so hard. So
we need a little bit of grace from you too,
And I feel like your anger is justified. However, we
are like it's a daily battle in here. And what
I want to do for this next generation is I
want to try to unlock what are the difficulties because
I definitely specifically women of color, not just Latin know,
(18:02):
we see it categorically with black women all the time
that they're dying younger because it has a cost on
our bodies, it has a cost on our mental health.
And to do this work, to do the activist work,
to do this work, So how can we make it
so that this next generation it doesn't have to cost
(18:23):
them as much physically, mentally, emotionally. And how can we
engage the community to see not just the Latinos, but
those people like the Norman leaders and the micro Royces
who are powerful Cis white men, who also want this
work because they know it's the right thing. They know
it also makes things better. But how can we make more,
(18:44):
how can we engage more? And does media in its
current paradigm Foster that TV was very archaic. There's development
season and then there's a hundred violet scripts and they
make ten and they put one on the air like
it's the dumbest, most wasteful amount of money. The way
(19:06):
network television cycle was. Obviously the disruptors in that was
a good thing because as a content creator, Okay, then
I don't have to do that over here. I can
just go do this over here and over here, and
I can be YouTuber in my house and sing a
song and get a record deal. Now I don't need
to go through the proper channels of creating media the
(19:28):
way you gatekeepers say, I need to create it. And
so do you feel like our industry is in a
place that welcomes your agenda. Are we in a place yet?
Is the industry in a place yet? Are they still
a bunch of we gotta jump over the Ivy League wall,
not not go through the door? It's both right. Are
(19:50):
there people that care more than ever before? Yes? I
do think there are people that understand the importance of it. Yes,
I don't know that they've properly been able to identify
how to do it in a way that is lasting
and has long lasting effects. I think at the beginning
of this pandemic, we were seeing a moment of culture
(20:11):
shift where I felt like I was seeing on Twitter,
let's support and read black writers and black voices. It
felt like, oh okay. And then now I feel like
there's this faux white awakening where it's like I read
the book last year, racism is bad, and then everything's
(20:31):
kind of the same. But so it's like wait, wait,
wait a minute, wait, you know, like latinos are not
on TV. It's awful anyway, let's cancel three more shows.
So that's where it's like, wait, I don't how is
this how what? That's what I want to engage in
and I want to engage in a honest conversation too
(20:52):
with them, which I think they're a little afraid to
have generally, like who is this audience they're trying to get?
How are they not showing up? Can we think more
holistically about how do we engage with them? And I
want that for voting too, because I want to register
these people to vote. Like you said, it affects everything.
(21:12):
It affects everything. So I feel like it's better and worse.
It's better and worse. I know, I hear what you're saying.
There's no clear answer to it, but at least we're
facing the right direction. I don't know, we've taken a step,
but before we were like whoa, And now we've turned
and we go, oh, okay, it's this way, got it? Okay,
(21:33):
Now we've got to take that step and we got
to educate gatekeepers that make all this media happen. But
at the same time, we've got to become the gatekeepers.
We've got to do both though, because I feel like
now I think the gatekeepers are listening. But like you said,
if we're saying we want to bring these people to you,
and then the people aren't showing up, then we have
to turn around and have a conversation with the people,
and I don't know how to do that other than
(21:54):
the social media stuff that I've been doing. But so
many people earn on social media, how do we reach them?
That's the stuff and super interested in trying to investigate.
And it's also eyeballs per dollars. I'm hearing that more
and more. It's got to be a certain amount of
yourship per dollar amount for anybody who's making anything, which
is why we are in a moment where it is
(22:17):
I P. It is Marvel, and it is blowing up
in superheroes and books and Game of Thrones and Lord
of the Rings like those are the things that are
a lot of money because it's an already existing thing.
So the awareness part of the marketing is done for
them because that's one of the things they're trying to
figure out. It was awareness of the project so that
when it comes out, they'll watch it. And that's what
(22:39):
I think Disney has locked in with Marvel, is that
we all know, even if you don't watch all that stuff,
I know who all the superheroes are. Yeah, I hear
what you're saying. Do you feel like I've always wondered this.
I feel like I've created content this way too. Is
like we have a job also to combat news media,
Like in your job as a creator, another segment of
(23:00):
our media is news and that negativity just bad news.
And do you feel the anxiety to have to really
fight against that machine? Yeah, I do feel that. With Love,
it came out of the pandemic. It was literally my
Instagram feed is a barrage of trauma. It was Asian
hate was on the rise, all the stuff with George
(23:21):
Floyd and all of the stuff with police brutality, all
of the stuff with Latinos that were also in l
A specifically also part of police brutality, and not to
mention the children at the border and the separated families.
So this is what I'm scrolling through, scrolling through, scrolling through,
scrolling through, and I'm like, I just want to make
something that's a salve for this moment. I want us
(23:42):
to just watch something where we're dressed up and we're
having a good time and we're dancing and we're having
a cocktail and people are just having fun and thinking
about things like love and jobs. That's all I want
to make in this moment. And it's like an exhale.
I wanted to make something for these communities that would
be an exhale where they could watch it five times
if they want to, and just laugh to see people
fall in love and lots of makeouts and flirts and
(24:02):
lots of cute boys without their shirts on and who
and just exhale for a moment before having to return
to this heavy, trauma filled, collective, trauma filled moment. Yeah.
(24:22):
What do you think our relationship with the media should
be and as media creators, are we adding to the problem.
I think with all things, we should be mindful of
what our participation is in it. I think the problem
is people are so exhausted that what they do want
for media is to turn it on and zone out,
(24:45):
whether it's good news or bad news. And unfortunately, in
this time, what we need to do more than ever
is engaged. And I think that people are tired, so
engaging seems like more work than they want to put in. Yeah,
but I did read. It was some political book and
it was about our system. Our society is set up
(25:06):
to make us work so hard. Look at today, some
people have four full time jobs to make ends meet,
and that our society in the United States is set
up to make us work so hard we don't have
time to think of politics. I don't have time to
think of the environment and recycling. I can't even keep
(25:26):
my head above water right now because we're working, working, working, working,
and so it's designed that way. And that was an
AHA moment for me. I was like, oh my god,
you're right. Even me, I'm like, I'm just too busy
to think of And if I'm privileged enough to live
where I live and do what I do, imagine families
who really can't think about that stuff, Like I cannot
(25:49):
think about my local politics. I'm trying to keep my
head down and my feet moving and pay my bills.
So then how do we better engage with those people
or make it easier for them to engage, change the
message in some way so that we can help them
to become more engaged. Yeah, what do you think about
(26:11):
in the media about wokeness? Do you think there's been
an overcorrection of like, well, here's a good example, the
being the Ricardos and the backlash at Harvier Bardem received
for not being Cuban wonderful actor, wonderful actor, but as
(26:31):
a Cuban. Were you offended, Well, this is where and
I was so disappointed because it didn't seek to engage
further in the complexities of the conversation. So for me,
I think a thoughtful way to have the conversation would
have been to dig in. Because the digging in is
(26:52):
that the ar Nez family our descendants from Spain, so
they came straight from Spain to Cuba. So while Daisi
was born and his parents were actually Spaniards, well, from
a twenty three and me perspective, having a Spaniard play
him is not actually problematic for me. What's problematic is
(27:13):
that accent better be stellar m because that's the shift, right.
So that's the complexities of that conversation. What I have
preferred it had been somebody like Danny Pino, you bet,
because I love him and I think he looks like Ricky,
and I think he's talented and wonderful, and he is Cuban.
But we have to look at the complexities of it.
Wasn't like the Rnz family was three generations in Cuban
(27:35):
has Tino blood and is like many Caribbeans are. This
is really a first generation thing, so it's a different conversation.
We're so starved that when something's about us, we wanted
to be about us. We want us to capture every
single element. And I had this on one day at
a time with Justine and Rita. The amount of Cubans
that came up to me and they're like, really, you
(27:56):
cast two Puerto Ricans And I was like, yes, I
did cast two Port Reekons. Here's why I saw everybody.
I saw everybody. But you need to know that we
have eight weeks to cast. Okay, we have a limited timetable.
We need people that are at a certain level, that
have reached a certain space in order to be approved
by the powers that be that are above us. Show
(28:17):
me the Cuban egot that's eighty years old. I want
them to exist too. They don't. You're telling me I'm
not gonna read a Mirino playing my mom with by
the way, they look like twins. No, I'm gonna get
Marino and if my twenty three and me and Justina's
twenty three and me virtually identical. We're straight up Caribian.
We are black, weird. Diana, We're like, so the difference
(28:40):
is her great grandparents stopped in Puerto Rico and mind
stopped in Cuba. But that's it, right, So as we
are doing this type of storytelling, we have to give
grace to those that are trying, and it's hard. In
the Heights, like all of it is. Two things can
be true at the same time as well. We can
honor like, oh my god, we ever get a movie
(29:01):
musical about Latinos that's brand new, and oh my god,
that's so exciting, and shoot, why couldn't there be more
after Latinos in it? Two things can be true at
the same time, and so we need to engage in
these conversations in a real way and say, oh wow,
I'm going to take a look at that. Oh I
did have a blind spot about that because of X. Yeah. Well,
John Shoe responded beautiful. Lynn Manuel responded, beautifully. Was the
(29:23):
whole point of In the Heights was to be seen.
I felt like I wasn't being seen, So the fact
that I caused somebody pain of not being seen hurt
his part. But also, one thing can't solve two hundred
years of bullshit, like we need twenty fifty a hundred
things to make up for the lack. So we walk
(29:46):
in as creators constantly doing our very best to represent
but also we have to justify it to the powers
that be for other reasons. So again it's about having
a conversation with the popula aation and explaining here's why
this is tricky, here's why this is hard, here's why
we needed to make these choices. I think, just having
(30:07):
respect for the people and also admitting that this work
is going to take time and we can't do it alone,
and that one thing is not going to fix the
two hundred years. A lot of things is going to
make a tiny dent, and so we need to keep
doing this work. Also, there's been so much where you
(30:29):
have not been listened to. There's been so much where
you have shown up and had your heartbreak. How can
we rebuild trust? How can we make you feel like
if you come here, you're going to be safe. And
that did end up happening with one day at a
time because we had time. So with time, everyone was like, oh,
(30:49):
you did get to tell this story. You did get
to tell the story of your Cuban mother coming here.
You did get to tell the story of colorism within
the Latino community. It just took a minute. And this
is where creates are key in a way that it
didn't used to be. Right, It didn't used to People
didn't used to know even who created the shows. It
was really about the actors that were at the forefront.
(31:10):
And we are really in a new moment with the
Shondas and the Gen D's and the Joey Soloways and
the Tina phase. We are now aware of the power producers,
the power share runners in a way we weren't before
because suddenly we care about who is telling the story,
which is part of our Dear Hollywood initiative. For those
that don't know, go to the untitled Latin X project
(31:32):
and we have a Dear Hollywood letter that that we
have put out. But all of that is part of
the same stuff we are trying to engage to use
this amazing tool that is media for good. Yeah, I
think that's what we have to do, is use media
for good. There's too much negativity in the world. So
(31:53):
I ask everybody at the end of the show, what's
a book everybody must read? Like? It doesn't even have
to be about media any you know. I'm I'm reading
a really interesting book right now called Being Mortal by
a Tool Go one day, and it's about aging, and
I'm not all the way through it, but it's fascinating.
And yeah, because that's the one I'm currently reading, I'll
(32:16):
give love to that one. Being mortal awesome. Thanks Gloria
so much for coming and joining us and connecting with
us on our show. There's so much more to discuss.
We could go off for two more hours and I
could just sit here. We're gonna need a cocktail soon,
just me. Well, thank you Gloria so much. What a
(32:38):
great conversation, so good, so good, smart, Thank you so
much for listening. I'm happy to be connected with you.
Connections with Evil Lagoria is a production of Unbelievable entertainment
in partnership with My Hearts Michael Pura podcast Network. For
more podcasts from my Heart, visit the I Heart Radio app,
(33:01):
Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hello, Welcome back to Connections with Eva Longoria. I'm Eva Longoria,
and today we are going to explore our connection to
the media, the media. I don't know why I always
go into an Oprah Winfrey voice, but I'm excited about
this conversation because my industry, my art is in the media,
and I've just been so fascinated with the changes over
(00:22):
the last Honestly, every year, it's not only a tiny change,
it's like a crazy change. What we like and what
we watch, and who we watch, and when we watch,
and how we watch, what we pay attention to. All
of this has changed within the probably the last twenty years,
a lot, the last ten years, super a lot in
the last five years. And so I think what has
(00:44):
happened is audiences now have a very participatory role and
how we create and how they want to consume media,
what they want to consume. And then add on top
of that social media, right, that social media component connects
our conversation, and that connected conversation changes audiences. And so
(01:09):
I think that's what's defining the media environment today. When
I say media, I mean all of it. I mean
TV and film and music and news and blogs and
of course social media, and we've seen it work on
behalf of good, but sometimes it's bad, right, And so
what should our relationship and connection with the media be,
Love it or hate it. It's here to stay, It's
(01:30):
going to continue to evolve at lightning speed. And I
don't think there's a better person to have this conversation
with than my dear friend Gloria called her own kelle It.
Gloria is an actress, a writer, producer, director, creator. She's
worked on shows One Day at a Time, How I
Met Your Mother, Jane, The Virgin, Devious Maids, but recently
(01:51):
she has Amazons with Love, which I love and of
course so much more. I can't enlist your whole damn
res makes it so big, but I love that so
much of her work focuses on sharing positive stories of
underrepresented groups. So I'm so excited to welcome to the show,
Gloria cult around Kellett. Hello Glow, Hello, I kind of
(02:12):
went Carol Channing. I don't know what with that one.
Bring in the greats. The great divas are taking place.
How are you? I am well, I cannot complain. I
cannot complain. So tell everybody where are you from? And
tell them about your roots, because I love your Cuban roots.
I am the daughter of Cuban immigrants. My parents came
(02:33):
here in nineteen sixty two from Cuba and they were
in Miami for a year. What a lot of people
don't know about the Cuban diaspora is that during Operation
Federal Pan, which was nineteen sixty two, over fourteen thousand
Cuban children came to Miami. Miami is largely because of
the Cuban population they came, so it was really just
(02:55):
orange groves and it was not super developed. And then
as Castro did not get kicked out of Cuba, many
of the families were able to then come and so
both of my grandparents were able to come on the
freedom flights. But there was no infrastructure for all of
these parents of these fourteen thousand children. So various churches
all over the country took in Cuban families. So yes,
(03:17):
the vast majority were in Miami and Jersey City, but
we were everywhere. So my mother's family, my father's family,
and about thirty or forty other Cuban families all landed
in Portland, Oregon. Wow. I grew up in a lovely,
thriving Cuban American community in Portland, and then when I
was fourteen, we moved to San Diego, California, and then
(03:40):
I came up to Loyola Marymout University of Los Angeles
for college, and then we went to grad school the
University of London in London. Yeah, but when did the
interest in the industry and because it was acting first, right, yeah, college,
I think it was in college At that time there
was nothing for women. I couldn't on a walk for women.
(04:01):
So at first I thought, oh, this is going to
be the Problem's not enough for women. And then when
I came back from grad school with this master's degree
and like proper drama school. I went to proper British
drama school. Guess who gives no ships about that? Is
that in two dollars will get you a bus pass
and nobody cares in England. They really care in England.
(04:21):
It's what drama school did you go to in l
a if what restaurants you work at? So I was like,
I am a proper trained actress, give me Shakespeare and
they're like, just kidding, you can have Gangbanger number three.
Every audition, every audition was Gang banger's girlfriend or gangbanger sister,
maybe prostitute if I was lucky, and it was like, really,
(04:45):
this is what Like my brain was sort of exploding. Yeah.
I always got the could you do it more like
Rosie Perez? Oh my god. I was like, I don't.
I'm not from New York. I don't way with that.
I didn't have an accent, but I looked the way
I looked, so I was too white for the Latin roles.
I was too Latin for the white roles. And then
(05:07):
finally they go, Longoria, what is that Italian? I go, yes, yes,
it is yes, And I got so many rules as
an Italian. I mean, it's bonkers. What has happened in
the last twenty years in this industry? It is coconuts.
So yes. It was just so out of deep frustration,
I was like, I'm just gonna start writing. I'm just
(05:27):
gonna start writing the stuff I want to do. And
the writing was really what set me free. And I
was writing, I was doing stand up, which is when
I met you for the first time. You came and
saw me in the Gallo gulch to stand up, and
I put up monologue shows all female monologe those different women,
all shape, sizes and colors, and I hustled really hard.
(05:50):
So like, I found out that the Hudson Avenue Theater
on Santa Monica Boulevard is dark on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
So backstage West in l a weekly will review your
show if you have a six week So I was like,
how much for Tuesday nights for six weeks? And they're like,
I don't know, A hundred fifty bucks. Awesome, So I
booked the space. My boyfriend at the time, my now husband,
who's a cartoonist, made the posters. I went to just
(06:11):
to print and got the postcards made. I gave free
tickets to all of my favorite charities. Putting up that
show is how I got my manager. Did you come
to any of the plays? I think I did in
Santa Ma? I remember this, but you know what that
was the game I did the same thing. I did
it at the Improv and I was like, I'm going
to book some comedians here, and they're like, you manage
the door, we got the bar, you got that this,
(06:33):
we split the thing, and I said, great, how much
is it? And then I remember going, I need a
sponsor and going out and asking some Latino lawyer to
give me three hundred bucks so I could pay for
the And I said, I'm gonna put your name on stage.
It'll say Miller Law Firm Presents. And he's like a
little girl, here's three dollars, just go away. But we
(06:58):
were hustitals where hill hustlers, Like, how does this hustle
never end? Never ends? So waiting to be on the
yacht with my feet up? But where's that? I know?
How do you think TV has changed? The mod not
TV media? I mean it's like now we should just
call it short form and long form, right, Like it's
content and you can watch it on your phone, you
can watch it on your iPad, you can watch it
(07:21):
on a wall projected off your watch. I don't know, Like, so,
what do you think is the biggest change? And then
I want to ask you what do you think the
biggest change for you as a creator? Like how does
that change make you pivot two to cater to that? Yeah,
that's the ever evolving question. Well, the first one, how
has it changed? Is there's more stuff, which is great.
(07:43):
More stuff means more opportunity and I'm here for that always,
But more stuff also means less eyeballs at any given time.
So the last hit I was on that people were
talking about as a hit was How I Met Your Mother,
And I remember we would get a two point five
and be like, oh no, two point five is not
good cut to now something's up point five on network
(08:07):
and a hit, right, So it's like, wow, that's just
ten years. That's just ten years, And where did all
those people go? And the idea of appointment television feels
like it's really just for maybe reality shows or sports events,
like that's really the only stuff, with the exception of
the Game of Thrones every once in a while, that
(08:27):
people are consuming at the same time in real time.
And so media in terms of you know, I love
Fabianna Rodriguez, and she is just a cultural ambassador in
terms of studying culture shift, which is the work that
you and I are in. We really take this a storytelling,
but we also are aware of the power of this
(08:47):
medium in terms of changing perceptions about our community. So
she studied in particular and doesn't in depth. I think
it's on YouTube, so please watch it because she's so
much more articulate. But she did a presentation that I
saw where She was talking about the LGBTQ community marriage
equality and how it takes about ten years for something
(09:09):
to hit culturally and then permeate into culture so that
it has effective change on policy in d C. And
she specifically looked at Ellen Will and Grace and how
there is a direct correlation between when those shows came out,
how it affected culture and changed how people felt about
the LGBTQ community and led to marriage equality, because suddenly
(09:31):
ten years later, ten years later, but how these people
being in your household and you being like, oh my god,
they're just like my family. Whatever that was the cognitive
dissidence changed. It shifted something in culture. And so I
was thinking about my parents, right, my parents and their
journey here. My parents came in two and when they
(09:52):
came they were put in detention facilities, but they were
given soap and blankets and places to stay and comforts.
And yes, the Cuban experience is still incredibly painful and
they were away from their parents and there was a
lot of trauma, but in terms of their treatment from
the government, it was very different. And then I was like,
(10:13):
I wonder what was happening in the country in nineteen
fifty two, a decade earlier, and oh, the number one
show in America's I Love Lucy. So a Cuban American
is in everyone's household, being funny and married to the
white lady who's hilarious and having the funny accent, and
it seems really innocuous, right, So it's like, oh, interesting
had desire and has not been on TV? Would these
(10:35):
fourteen thousand Cuban kids not have been able to come here? Maybe?
And am I sitting here right now because of media? Maybe?
So then we look now at the silos, and this
was a time when everybody watched I mean the amount
of people that watched desis little Ricky be born right
born most of the country. And now we have these
(10:59):
media's silos, these echo chambers where you can find something
that's really bespoke to you, that you find interesting. But
I think that there's a direct correlation between the brokenness
of where we are as a country and the brokenness
of how we don't consume the same stuff. So it's
really different, Especially in the last five years, there are
(11:23):
so many shows that I have not like, there were
shows that I was hearing about. The Gun picked up
for a fourth season on deadline, like there were three
other seasons. What is this show? There's so much out there,
and so from one perspective, it's giving more opportunity. That's exciting.
It's allowing other storytellers to come forth. That's exciting, But
it is also segmenting the community. Yeah, as much as
(11:53):
we can build it and they will come, sometimes the
audience doesn't come and you're like, where is our coming entity?
Come on, show up in a powerful way and droves
blecks that buying power muscle. There's an engagement that is
not happening with our community and media. What is that disconnecting?
(12:16):
How can we as creators change it? I think what
you're doing with Love is beautiful because you take the
ethnicity or race off of it and it's a beautiful
family and people are living lives and like, it's your
perspective that makes it special. But at the same time,
this is a family who has kids, they're aspiring adults
(12:37):
and have careers and working hard, and it's it's so beautiful.
We should normalize that, right, Like, we're not all gang bangers.
You know. I did this movie called Sylvie's Love and
it was Sylvie's Love. Well, that writer said I want
to do a movie where and it was almost an
entire black cast, and he said, I want to do
(12:57):
a movie where you know, being black is in the obstacle,
and like, how many movies do you see that your
race is your obstacle? And he goes, I just want
to do a love story. I don't do a story
about these two people who just can't get it together
and be together. And it was beautiful and so I
feel like you were doing that with Love and I
(13:17):
think that with everything that you do, but it affects culture,
it really leaks over. And so what you're saying is
like the segmentation of like I only watch these niche
shows and yeah, we're living in our own little bubbles. Yeah.
And it's so interesting because I brought up Sylvie's Love
when I pitched with Love. Yeah, because I watched that
(13:40):
movie and it made me realize how conditioned I am
to hold my breath because I think something bad is
going to happen to the black people. I was. I
kept on waiting for this, like oh god, oh no,
they're turning the car. Oh it's okay, okay, Oh my god,
this is gonna I'm so preconditioned and it was like, boy,
(14:03):
that speaks to how we're so terrified something bad is
going to happen to them. And then when nothing did
and it was just their stuff, the relief that washed
over me was palpable. And I wanted that same thing.
I wanted that same thing for not just the latinos
on the show, but the trans characters on the show,
and the gay characters on the show, and the Asian
characters on the show. And getting to do that was great,
(14:26):
And it was funny because a lot of the reviewers
were like, they're so happy, and I was like, yeah,
because that can happen to that can be a reality
to you. Just y'all aren't used to see it very much,
but that's how we used mostly having a pretty good
time out here. Y'all. It's just you guys don't see
it very much, but that's that is what's happening. So
I am fascinated by this conversation though, because I do
(14:48):
think it is all connected as well. Is it about
empowering our communities more? I think a big point that
you just made is the conditioning of TV is not
for me. I don't really see myself in it, So
to go elsewhere for my content. And so when you
deliver something, when there's a Dentified or a Selena or
a with Love or whatever show that is inclusive of
(15:13):
our community, we miss it because we've been conditioned to
not go to that well for that water. I think
because you do a great job at engaging your audience.
You're on Twitter, you're on social media, you're doing press junkets,
you're on a panel, You're flying to Chicago to go
to the National Council de Larrasa because you gotta. You're like, okay,
(15:34):
what else could Gloria possibly do to scream from the
highest mountaintop like, we're creating content, please come. How have
you found that journey? Well, it's exhausting. What was really
kind of amazing was with one day at a time
I had Mike Royson, Norman Lear by my side and
to see them acknowledge. There was one day that I
(15:56):
came back from I had done some panels and some
interviews in a podcast and at the and then I
came into the room. But I had done all that
in the morning and Mike said, Okay, why don't you
take a breath, guys, room, let's take a break. I'll
fill in Gloria on what we talked about for the
last thirty minutes, and we went into his office and
he was like, I just want you to know I
see that you're doing five times more than like I
want you to know, I see. And I just burst
(16:16):
into tears because just being seen, just having somebody, a
dominant culture white man who's lovely and supportive and has
been my partner, just to have him say I see
that it's harder for you was kind of incredible in
a way that I didn't know I needed to be seen.
I just needed the acknowledgement of, yeah, we're trying to
(16:39):
shout it from the rooftops. Not only that, I feel
like we've also seen the studies on the damage of
the Narco novella narrative within our own community. Stuff that
our community loves to devour that's bad for them, and
yet they still consume it. So we're also saying you're
eating junk food, please also eat some broccoli, guys, please
(17:00):
also put broccoli into your brains. But it takes time
to make that type of shift. And so when you
and I talk about it, like we're out there talking
about it and engaging with them and when we're engaging,
they're like, oh, because these conversations haven't been had with them.
And social media, I've been really fortunate that Twitter has
been really a lovely place for me. I know it
(17:20):
can be such a dumpster fire for so many people,
but I've loved engaging and even engaging with people who
are angry. If it's just die Latinos, I'm not going
to engage in that, obviously, but if it's here's why
I'm frustrated. I've started to engage on a personal level
with those people and say, here's what you don't understand
(17:40):
that we're doing on this side. That's so hard. So
we need a little bit of grace from you too,
And I feel like your anger is justified. However, we
are like it's a daily battle in here. And what
I want to do for this next generation is I
want to try to unlock what are the difficulties because
I definitely specifically women of color, not just Latin know,
(18:02):
we see it categorically with black women all the time
that they're dying younger because it has a cost on
our bodies, it has a cost on our mental health.
And to do this work, to do the activist work,
to do this work, So how can we make it
so that this next generation it doesn't have to cost
(18:23):
them as much physically, mentally, emotionally. And how can we
engage the community to see not just the Latinos, but
those people like the Norman leaders and the micro Royces
who are powerful Cis white men, who also want this
work because they know it's the right thing. They know
it also makes things better. But how can we make more,
(18:44):
how can we engage more? And does media in its
current paradigm Foster that TV was very archaic. There's development
season and then there's a hundred violet scripts and they
make ten and they put one on the air like
it's the dumbest, most wasteful amount of money. The way
(19:06):
network television cycle was. Obviously the disruptors in that was
a good thing because as a content creator, Okay, then
I don't have to do that over here. I can
just go do this over here and over here, and
I can be YouTuber in my house and sing a
song and get a record deal. Now I don't need
to go through the proper channels of creating media the
(19:28):
way you gatekeepers say, I need to create it. And
so do you feel like our industry is in a
place that welcomes your agenda. Are we in a place yet?
Is the industry in a place yet? Are they still
a bunch of we gotta jump over the Ivy League wall,
not not go through the door? It's both right. Are
(19:50):
there people that care more than ever before? Yes? I
do think there are people that understand the importance of it. Yes,
I don't know that they've properly been able to identify
how to do it in a way that is lasting
and has long lasting effects. I think at the beginning
of this pandemic, we were seeing a moment of culture
(20:11):
shift where I felt like I was seeing on Twitter,
let's support and read black writers and black voices. It
felt like, oh okay. And then now I feel like
there's this faux white awakening where it's like I read
the book last year, racism is bad, and then everything's
(20:31):
kind of the same. But so it's like wait, wait,
wait a minute, wait, you know, like latinos are not
on TV. It's awful anyway, let's cancel three more shows.
So that's where it's like, wait, I don't how is
this how what? That's what I want to engage in
and I want to engage in a honest conversation too
(20:52):
with them, which I think they're a little afraid to
have generally, like who is this audience they're trying to get?
How are they not showing up? Can we think more
holistically about how do we engage with them? And I
want that for voting too, because I want to register
these people to vote. Like you said, it affects everything.
(21:12):
It affects everything. So I feel like it's better and worse.
It's better and worse. I know, I hear what you're saying.
There's no clear answer to it, but at least we're
facing the right direction. I don't know, we've taken a step,
but before we were like whoa, And now we've turned
and we go, oh, okay, it's this way, got it? Okay,
(21:33):
Now we've got to take that step and we got
to educate gatekeepers that make all this media happen. But
at the same time, we've got to become the gatekeepers.
We've got to do both though, because I feel like
now I think the gatekeepers are listening. But like you said,
if we're saying we want to bring these people to you,
and then the people aren't showing up, then we have
to turn around and have a conversation with the people,
and I don't know how to do that other than
(21:54):
the social media stuff that I've been doing. But so
many people earn on social media, how do we reach them?
That's the stuff and super interested in trying to investigate.
And it's also eyeballs per dollars. I'm hearing that more
and more. It's got to be a certain amount of
yourship per dollar amount for anybody who's making anything, which
is why we are in a moment where it is
(22:17):
I P. It is Marvel, and it is blowing up
in superheroes and books and Game of Thrones and Lord
of the Rings like those are the things that are
a lot of money because it's an already existing thing.
So the awareness part of the marketing is done for
them because that's one of the things they're trying to
figure out. It was awareness of the project so that
when it comes out, they'll watch it. And that's what
(22:39):
I think Disney has locked in with Marvel, is that
we all know, even if you don't watch all that stuff,
I know who all the superheroes are. Yeah, I hear
what you're saying. Do you feel like I've always wondered this.
I feel like I've created content this way too. Is
like we have a job also to combat news media,
Like in your job as a creator, another segment of
(23:00):
our media is news and that negativity just bad news.
And do you feel the anxiety to have to really
fight against that machine? Yeah, I do feel that. With Love,
it came out of the pandemic. It was literally my
Instagram feed is a barrage of trauma. It was Asian
hate was on the rise, all the stuff with George
(23:21):
Floyd and all of the stuff with police brutality, all
of the stuff with Latinos that were also in l
A specifically also part of police brutality, and not to
mention the children at the border and the separated families.
So this is what I'm scrolling through, scrolling through, scrolling through,
scrolling through, and I'm like, I just want to make
something that's a salve for this moment. I want us
(23:42):
to just watch something where we're dressed up and we're
having a good time and we're dancing and we're having
a cocktail and people are just having fun and thinking
about things like love and jobs. That's all I want
to make in this moment. And it's like an exhale.
I wanted to make something for these communities that would
be an exhale where they could watch it five times
if they want to, and just laugh to see people
fall in love and lots of makeouts and flirts and
(24:02):
lots of cute boys without their shirts on and who
and just exhale for a moment before having to return
to this heavy, trauma filled, collective, trauma filled moment. Yeah.
(24:22):
What do you think our relationship with the media should
be and as media creators, are we adding to the problem.
I think with all things, we should be mindful of
what our participation is in it. I think the problem
is people are so exhausted that what they do want
for media is to turn it on and zone out,
(24:45):
whether it's good news or bad news. And unfortunately, in
this time, what we need to do more than ever
is engaged. And I think that people are tired, so
engaging seems like more work than they want to put in. Yeah,
but I did read. It was some political book and
it was about our system. Our society is set up
(25:06):
to make us work so hard. Look at today, some
people have four full time jobs to make ends meet,
and that our society in the United States is set
up to make us work so hard we don't have
time to think of politics. I don't have time to
think of the environment and recycling. I can't even keep
(25:26):
my head above water right now because we're working, working, working, working,
and so it's designed that way. And that was an
AHA moment for me. I was like, oh my god,
you're right. Even me, I'm like, I'm just too busy
to think of And if I'm privileged enough to live
where I live and do what I do, imagine families
who really can't think about that stuff, Like I cannot
(25:49):
think about my local politics. I'm trying to keep my
head down and my feet moving and pay my bills.
So then how do we better engage with those people
or make it easier for them to engage, change the
message in some way so that we can help them
to become more engaged. Yeah, what do you think about
(26:11):
in the media about wokeness? Do you think there's been
an overcorrection of like, well, here's a good example, the
being the Ricardos and the backlash at Harvier Bardem received
for not being Cuban wonderful actor, wonderful actor, but as
(26:31):
a Cuban. Were you offended, Well, this is where and
I was so disappointed because it didn't seek to engage
further in the complexities of the conversation. So for me,
I think a thoughtful way to have the conversation would
have been to dig in. Because the digging in is
(26:52):
that the ar Nez family our descendants from Spain, so
they came straight from Spain to Cuba. So while Daisi
was born and his parents were actually Spaniards, well, from
a twenty three and me perspective, having a Spaniard play
him is not actually problematic for me. What's problematic is
(27:13):
that accent better be stellar m because that's the shift, right.
So that's the complexities of that conversation. What I have
preferred it had been somebody like Danny Pino, you bet,
because I love him and I think he looks like Ricky,
and I think he's talented and wonderful, and he is Cuban.
But we have to look at the complexities of it.
Wasn't like the Rnz family was three generations in Cuban
(27:35):
has Tino blood and is like many Caribbeans are. This
is really a first generation thing, so it's a different conversation.
We're so starved that when something's about us, we wanted
to be about us. We want us to capture every
single element. And I had this on one day at
a time with Justine and Rita. The amount of Cubans
that came up to me and they're like, really, you
(27:56):
cast two Puerto Ricans And I was like, yes, I
did cast two Port Reekons. Here's why I saw everybody.
I saw everybody. But you need to know that we
have eight weeks to cast. Okay, we have a limited timetable.
We need people that are at a certain level, that
have reached a certain space in order to be approved
by the powers that be that are above us. Show
(28:17):
me the Cuban egot that's eighty years old. I want
them to exist too. They don't. You're telling me I'm
not gonna read a Mirino playing my mom with by
the way, they look like twins. No, I'm gonna get
Marino and if my twenty three and me and Justina's
twenty three and me virtually identical. We're straight up Caribian.
We are black, weird. Diana, We're like, so the difference
(28:40):
is her great grandparents stopped in Puerto Rico and mind
stopped in Cuba. But that's it, right, So as we
are doing this type of storytelling, we have to give
grace to those that are trying, and it's hard. In
the Heights, like all of it is. Two things can
be true at the same time as well. We can
honor like, oh my god, we ever get a movie
(29:01):
musical about Latinos that's brand new, and oh my god,
that's so exciting, and shoot, why couldn't there be more
after Latinos in it? Two things can be true at
the same time, and so we need to engage in
these conversations in a real way and say, oh wow,
I'm going to take a look at that. Oh I
did have a blind spot about that because of X. Yeah. Well,
John Shoe responded beautiful. Lynn Manuel responded, beautifully. Was the
(29:23):
whole point of In the Heights was to be seen.
I felt like I wasn't being seen, So the fact
that I caused somebody pain of not being seen hurt
his part. But also, one thing can't solve two hundred
years of bullshit, like we need twenty fifty a hundred
things to make up for the lack. So we walk
(29:46):
in as creators constantly doing our very best to represent
but also we have to justify it to the powers
that be for other reasons. So again it's about having
a conversation with the popula aation and explaining here's why
this is tricky, here's why this is hard, here's why
we needed to make these choices. I think, just having
(30:07):
respect for the people and also admitting that this work
is going to take time and we can't do it alone,
and that one thing is not going to fix the
two hundred years. A lot of things is going to
make a tiny dent, and so we need to keep
doing this work. Also, there's been so much where you
(30:29):
have not been listened to. There's been so much where
you have shown up and had your heartbreak. How can
we rebuild trust? How can we make you feel like
if you come here, you're going to be safe. And
that did end up happening with one day at a
time because we had time. So with time, everyone was like, oh,
(30:49):
you did get to tell this story. You did get
to tell the story of your Cuban mother coming here.
You did get to tell the story of colorism within
the Latino community. It just took a minute. And this
is where creates are key in a way that it
didn't used to be. Right, It didn't used to People
didn't used to know even who created the shows. It
was really about the actors that were at the forefront.
(31:10):
And we are really in a new moment with the
Shondas and the Gen D's and the Joey Soloways and
the Tina phase. We are now aware of the power producers,
the power share runners in a way we weren't before
because suddenly we care about who is telling the story,
which is part of our Dear Hollywood initiative. For those
that don't know, go to the untitled Latin X project
(31:32):
and we have a Dear Hollywood letter that that we
have put out. But all of that is part of
the same stuff we are trying to engage to use
this amazing tool that is media for good. Yeah, I
think that's what we have to do, is use media
for good. There's too much negativity in the world. So
(31:53):
I ask everybody at the end of the show, what's
a book everybody must read? Like? It doesn't even have
to be about media any you know. I'm I'm reading
a really interesting book right now called Being Mortal by
a Tool Go one day, and it's about aging, and
I'm not all the way through it, but it's fascinating.
And yeah, because that's the one I'm currently reading, I'll
(32:16):
give love to that one. Being mortal awesome. Thanks Gloria
so much for coming and joining us and connecting with
us on our show. There's so much more to discuss.
We could go off for two more hours and I
could just sit here. We're gonna need a cocktail soon,
just me. Well, thank you Gloria so much. What a
(32:38):
great conversation, so good, so good, smart, Thank you so
much for listening. I'm happy to be connected with you.
Connections with Evil Lagoria is a production of Unbelievable entertainment
in partnership with My Hearts Michael Pura podcast Network. For
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(33:01):
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