August 20, 2024 • 38 mins
Disclaimer: Please note this episode contains themes and conversations about sex.
On this premiere episode of Señora Sex Ed, Diosa and Mala sit down with Puerto Rican actress, Ana Ortiz. With a career spanning decades, Ana covers all the bases: growing up as a "prudish" kid in New York, her experiences working in Hollywood, and how she first learned about perimenopause.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I can't believe that actress Goma Yama still half naked
on TV at her big age. Viehja, I know the
La Santa. She looks good, like my mother always told me.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Lace Senora, Senora, Senora, Senora, Senora, Senor, Hi Senora, Welcome
(00:31):
to Senora.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Sex Ed.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Senora sex Ed is not your mommy's sex talk. This
show is la platicad like you've never heard it before,
breaking the stigma and silence around sex and sexuality in
LATINX communities. Latinas have been hyper sexualized in popular culture,
but notoriously denied sex education. This podcast is an intergenerational
(00:53):
conversation between Latinas from gen X to Gen Z, covering
everything from puberty and body image to representation in film, television,
and music.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
By the way, before we go any further, we wanted
to find how we're using the word senora on this show.
We know that so many of you are in your
so called senora era, but in this show, a Senora
is a woman with a lot of life experiences and
stories to share. Maybe she's in her thirties, maybe she's
(01:25):
in her forties or fifties or older. Maybe she's trans,
Maybe she says.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Chapter one, mothering on screen with Anna Ortiz.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
It was good, like I think I was healthy experiences
like it was with a boy that I love, that
I thought loved me, That you did love me. I
guess so I felt, I don't know, like kind of
strong about it.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
That was Anna Ortiz, actress, mother and wife. We'll be
learning about her journey with sex education, which is even
continuing now into her fifties, and what it's been like
playing some iconic Latina roles on your favorite TV shows.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
We are your hosts and producers, Viosa and Mala.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
You might recognize us from our flagship podcast, look at
Ora Radio. Since twenty sixteen, we've covered all kinds of topics,
ranging from politics, to mental health, current events, and of
course sex. We still have so much to learn from
each other and from all of you out there. We
hope you listen to each episode with the Senoras and
(02:35):
Senoritas in your life.
Speaker 4 (02:37):
Before Anna Orthis joins us, we thought it'd be fitting
to discuss the Latina representation we grew up with.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
My first memory of seeing Latina representation on film or television,
anything having to deal with sex, sexuality, and body image
was the iconic Real Women Have Curves. I was ten
years old when the film came out, and I don't
I don't think I saw it until I was maybe
thirteen or fourteen, but the storyline around Anna losing her
(03:06):
virginity was eye opening. The scene which sticks out in
my mind so vividly is the one in which Anna's mother,
played by Lupa Antiveros, calls her a puta after she
has sex for the first time, and Anna rebuts and
says to her mother, there's so much more to her
(03:26):
than what's between her legs. And I remember as a
child thinking that this was such a transformative scene, such
transformative dialogue, and it really made me, I don't know,
think about Latina's Maybe at the time, I wasn't thinking
specifically about Latinas, but about women, young women, teens coming
(03:46):
into our own claiming our bodies. And I just will
always remember that scene and still to this day, it
remains one of my favorite films because of the way
that it handles Latina body image, relationships, sexuality.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
One of my first memories of Latina representation is Jennifer
Lopez playing Selena in the iconic biopic The Classic Boustae
scene where Edward James, almost playing Abraham Kinthania, becomes enraged
because his daughter is wearing a quote Busti Kaka. This
scene has become a meme, it's become gifts. It's almost
(04:24):
trite now, But to me at the time, I remember
it being so impactful because it gave me some insight
as to the way men in your family can be
really opinionated about what women and girls do with their bodies,
what they wear. Because how could his daughter, this performer
(04:44):
be wearing a bra in public on stage. It was
an outrage, And so it gave me, like I said,
that insight into what it means when you want to
dress how you want to dress. And you know, having
had my own experiences where brothers or my dad or
deals would comment about maybe what I was wearing, and
so it taught me from a very young age that
(05:06):
lots of people will have opinions about your body, even
if you're a young girl. And the Latina actors that
we mentioned today, like Anna Ortiz, America Ferira, Jennifer Lopez
and so many others have had the staying power to
be in the industry, but not without its challenges.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
According to a two thousand and two media report performed
by the Latino Donor Collective, Latino's represented only three point
one percent of lead actors and TV shows and two
point one percent of co lead ensemble actors. Only one
point five percent of TV showrunners and one point three
percent of directors were Latino. Hearing this data really contextualizes
(05:48):
why we're so proud to be talking to today's guest.
Speaker 4 (05:52):
We hope you're enjoying this conversation. Stay tuned, there's more
to come.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
And we're back. We hope you enjoyed the break and
are ready to listen to the rest. When we first
started our conversation with Anna, we asked her about her
first introduction to sex ed and what that was like.
Did she get the so called birds and the bees talk?
Speaker 3 (06:21):
I think for me, so I grew up in seventies
in the eighties, right in New York City, and it
was basically my mom and I. My dad was in
the picture, but he, you know, he wasn't in the house,
and also being sort of his Puerto Rican self, like,
there's no way he would have spoken to me about
(06:42):
anything like I think the furthest he ever got was
like saying if I was wearing like something that he
didn't approve of, he would say like, like you know,
mirake Freca, like you look too fresh, you can't. That
was about the extent of it, whereas my mom was
completely the opposit I think, even though she was super Catholic,
(07:04):
she had in her head this sort of like pure honesty,
like whatever you ask me, I'm gonna be honest with you,
and I'm gonna tell you what it is.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
When Anna was only seven years old, she asked her
very honest mother to explain a song from a rock
musical titled Hair.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
I was kind of prudish, to be honest, but I
remember I had this past album of this musical called Hair.
It was like a rock musical from the sixties, and
I loved it and I listened to it all the time.
I was like a big theater musical theater nerd even then.
And I was probably about six or seven. And there's
a song, so apologies for the graphicness, but there's a
(07:45):
song called sodomy on on the track and it's like
sodom falacio ConA lingis pet or asty. And I had
no idea what any of those things were, but I
loved this record, so I would go around singing all
the songs and specifically that one, and I asked her, Mommy,
(08:06):
what is sodomy? And I remember she was in the
kitchen and she took a huge deep breath that she
was like, okay, well, sodomy and she began to explain
it to me, and I said stop, stop, stop talking,
and then from then on I would just skip over
(08:27):
that song on the record because I was so mortified.
So all of that big, long story is just to
say that my mother was always sort of maybe almost
too honest with me about sex for my prudish ways,
but that actually, once I was in high school, I
(08:48):
did feel comfortable sort of being open with her about
what I was experiencing and what I was going through,
whereas with my dad it was literally like I think
he still thinks I'm you know, twelve years old, you know,
in his brain. So yeah, So I think I had
a pretty healthy relationship with sex growing up.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Anna describes an openness about her relationship with her mother.
Anna could ask her anything, but she didn't necessarily sit
down with her to have la pla pica.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
I don't remember her ever saying like we need to
talk about this. But I do remember her being sort
of if you ever have any questions or you know,
like I got my period really late, so I didn't,
you know, and like I was super embarrassed, Like all
my friends had their period and I didn't, so I
kind of told them that I did, but I didn't.
(09:40):
And I didn't really talk about it much. Again, like
I was, I was pretty like prudish about it all
and like I'm not ashamed, but I just sort of
didn't want to talk about it. It's like I don't ask,
don't tell. I remember being with a girlfriend and we
were out somewhere and I had a tampon and I
(10:00):
had to pee and I was like, I really have
to pee, but I have a tamp on it and
she was like, girl, you can't pete put the tamp
on it. And I was like you can't.
Speaker 5 (10:11):
And I had no idea even though I was using
tampa like it just so I was all over the place,
Like my mom was so open that maybe I felt.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
Like I didn't really want to talk to her about it.
I don't know, and I had like girlfriends who I did.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
It's not surprising that Anna didn't turn to her mother
for advice about her period. How often do teenagers truly
turn to their mothers first. Much of what we learn
about ourselves and each other is from our peers.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Anna describes her younger self as being somewhat prudish, And
what does that word mean. Well, a prude is someone
who is excessively attentive to propriety or decorum, simply put,
modest or una ninya moi moiguena.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
I wasn't allowed to wear spaghetti straps. I wasn't allowed
to wear makeup. I was a lowed to wear skirts
that went, you know, a certain like that were above
my knee.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
You know.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
So it was it was raised pretty conservatatively that way.
But I don't think it was because of where I lived,
you know, and like being it was the seventies and eighties,
and I was on my own a lot, and I
think coming home from school, having ride the subway the
bus by myself at a young age, my mother was
just worried that, you know, if you looked a certain way,
(11:28):
that you would just invite trouble. And so I think
I was always just inherently a little afraid of sexual
power or like the thought that that was that I
would be viewed as something sexual. So I guess it
was made clear to me at a very young age
that that was a thing, like you are going to
be looked at as a sexual object even though you're
(11:50):
only a kid. And so I think that just made
me fearful of sex, or not fearful, but just sort
of not extra size the power that it had.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
The type of fear Anna describes feeling as a young
girl is not uncommon. According to research conducted by Cornell's
Worker Institute and Halla Back, eighty five percent of women
in the United States experienced street harassment before the age
of seventeen.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
In her junior year of high school, something shifted for Anna.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
I felt in control of my own physical body and
my own self. I was on birth control. I had
sort of had my first sexual experience, and it was
with it was good, like I think I was healthy
experiences like it was with the boy that I love,
that I thought loved me, that you did love me.
(12:43):
I guess so I felt, I don't know, like kind
of strong about it. And I also was surrounded by
really great girlfriends. I think I was really lucky in
the sense that I was always raised with the idea
that your women friends are like your rock, your back,
(13:03):
and you have each other's back. Because my mom and
her women friends, well, she had a lot of female
friends and a lot of gay male friends. But that
sort of energy of like that feeling of like I
have these women and they have my back and I
have theirs. That gave me a sort of empowerment.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
Also for Anna, her sex education was coming from several
different places, her mother, her friends, and then eventually her partners.
Pop culture also played a role in her sexual education.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
Pop culture also maybe was a reason why I had
sort of a healthy fear of it all because I
think my first like the movie that really impacted me
so much was there was this well Fame with Irene
Kara like totally changed my entire I think, like literally
physically chemically changed me. That we had such an impact
(13:55):
on my life and I saw it so young.
Speaker 4 (13:58):
Fame is a nineteen eighty movie musical chronicling in the
lives of several teenagers who attend a New York high
school for students gifted in the performing arts. It was
a combination of seeing someone like Irene got A on
screen and hearing Puerto Rican freestyle that showed Anna that
there was a place for her in the industry.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
I realized I was never going to be a prima ballerina,
Like it just was not my calling. And then I
decided I love to sing, and so I went to
music and art for her voice. But I didn't write music.
I didn't like I didn't reading and music theory was
really difficult for me. I was never sort of like
a it just didn't again, like it wasn't my thing.
(14:38):
And then I did, you know, some musical theater, and
I realized that's it, Like that's that's this is this
is what I love. This is what I love theater
and being on stage and saying words and in terms
of again, like like I said, fame seeing Irene Kara,
seeing people of all different colors from New York, from
(14:59):
you know, the socioeconomic background that I was from. Also,
it was like you always saw like the rich and
famous or the wealthier, the suburban kids. You never ever
saw like city kids broke ass, you know, trying to
make a dollar out of fifteen cents and believing and
having a dream.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Right.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
I think I think she just sort of like turned
it around, and I think then I realized, like, oh I,
this is a possibility, you know, to see yourself. Also,
I think, you know, at that time in music, freestyle
was happening a lot, and freestyle music was ours. Freestyle
music was like Puerto Rican kids from New York singing
(15:39):
in Spanglish. So I heard it on the radio, you know,
I heard like people singing the way that we spoke,
and I just thought, like, there is a place for
us here, this can happen. I don't know that without that,
it just it bolstered me. I guess you can say,
because I don't really I don't. I never to plan
(16:00):
b I never thought there was anything else for me
but this. I don't know if I would have been
as determined if I hadn't had like the Irene Karas
and the and that freestyle music sort of you know,
being the soundtrack to my adolescence. But here we are.
Speaker 4 (16:18):
We'll be taking a quick break. Don't miss us.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Thanks for sticking around. We are back. We were curious
when Anna started booking roles. Did her parents advise her
against doing nudity or acting out sex scenes on camera?
Speaker 3 (16:40):
You know, know, they never so I think they just
they trusted that I would you know, I guess make
the right decisions or you know. It's funny though, because honestly,
I didn't even like when I started coming on, when
I started like booking work because of the nature of
our business and being Puerto Rican and being in this thing.
(17:03):
When I was coming up, it did start like the
waves started to rise where they were casting more of us.
But that being said, I was never the main character, right,
so I was never the one in those roles that
that might have happened to. Also, I was really much
I was really getting much more TV work, and I
was getting a lot more comedy work, which is funny
(17:24):
to me because I always thought of myself as so
dramatic and everybody told me I was so dramatic. But
then I come out to California and a casting directors said,
you get cast in a lot of comedies, and I said,
I know. I thought I was like a dramatic actress.
And she goes, you're from New York. New Yorkers are funny.
That was like, oh okay. So that all of that
(17:47):
being said, I was always sort of the sidekick. I
was always the sassy best friend, or the or the
drug dealer's girlfriend or whatever so, you know, or the
leaning person, the waitress, the you know what I mean
like that, those were the roles that when I first
started coming up, were available to me. Then I started
doing more, it was more like power suits, you know.
Like I was always like the tough, the tough you know,
(18:10):
bad the tough bad girl, like always the nemesis of
whatever the good girl was. I was always like the
antithesis of that. So it didn't really come up for
me a lot too, So I'm glad that I didn't
necessarily have to really face any of that. That question
didn't really come up to me in terms of like
having to do nudity or any kind of love scenes.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
We asked Anna if she could give a progress report
to Hollywood for Latino representation, what would the grade be?
Speaker 3 (18:40):
I think the grade would be A. And this is
for the industry. This is not for us for lack
of trying, because we're out here trying and we're out
here putting on, putting on really amazing, top notch entertainment.
But I would say if the industry gets a begrudging
B minus, I'm being generous with that. I'm being generous
(19:03):
because I'm trying to remain hopeful and optimistic, and I
happen to be friends with this incredible group of women
who are really changing the game, right, So I have
that in my I have America Ferrera as one of
my dearest friends, Eva Longoria as a dear friend and mentor.
Judy Reyes is one of my best friends in the world.
(19:25):
You know, Like, I'm surrounded by like these incredible, strong, talented, beautiful, funny,
multi faceted, complicated, brilliant brown girls. So I'm fed. I'm
fed a lot, I'm nourished. But when I look and
I see, you know, like Justina Machado, one of my
(19:46):
favorite women on the planet, one of the best actresses
out there, Titan. You know, she just does brilliant show
after brilliant show, and they just fucking cancel it. And
it's just maddening. It's just insane to me because we're
watching it. You know, we can't get a show to
stay on for more than two seasons. It's crazy. But
how was the exact though. I would just be like
(20:06):
another season, another season, another season. We keep putting one
foot in front of the other, and I feel like
we support each other. I don't, you know, but I
don't know until we're in those rooms green lighting movies
about us for us by us.
Speaker 4 (20:24):
Famously, Anna Ortiz was in the two thousand and six
ABC series Ugly Betty. The show starred America Ferrera as
Betty Suarez, alongside Tony Plano and Mark Indelicato. Anna played
the hilarious, sexy, stylish older sister Hilda Suatz. In many ways,
Ugly Betty was so ahead of its time, considering the
(20:46):
diverse cast and storylines.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
That was a game changer for all of us on
that show, and I think it was also a game
changer for television. I don't think we had a lot
of support at the network, which was like because four
seasons just wasn't enough and we should have had more.
We were at the top of our game, we were
getting huge ratings, but again it was like we just
had people up in the executive suites who just didn't
(21:11):
didn't have the vision. That show was so important for
us just as actors and friends and family, but being
also being able to be a part of something so iconic.
Mark and Delacado had the first sort of gay adolescent
you know kiss and I don't think you know, he
(21:32):
gets enough sort of credit for that.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
In the show Ugly Betty, Justin lives with his mother Hilda,
his aunt Betty, and his grandfather Ignacio. Justin exhibits a
love for fashion and is quite the diva. He's a
feminine boy, but his sexuality isn't really discussed outright until
season four when he comes out.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
It was really incredible to sort of walk down the
streets and have people being like, Hilda, we love you,
and having people reach out to me and being, you know,
saying like, I wish I had a mom like you,
and you know, I'm gay and my mom doesn't talk
to me, and I, you know, I really consider Hilda
like like I can. I can watch Ugly Betty and
I can feel comforted from that. So that there was
(22:13):
so much gratification in that, and it still happens.
Speaker 4 (22:16):
The character of Ilesoadees served as a positive representation of
a Latina mother loving her gay teenage son.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
You know that that machismo is real in our culture,
that it still is now, but I think it was
a little bit a little bit of a breakthrough, and
to be able to do that on such a huge
platform was really gratifying.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
In addition to playing the incredibly supportive mother, Hilde Suarez.
Anna also played a different type of mother. She played
Isabelle Salasad, a less open minded mother on the show
Love Victor. The show Love Victor is an adaptation of
the groundbreaking film Love Simon. Michael Cimino stars as Victor,
(23:02):
a teen from a half Puerto Rican, half Colombian family
living in Atlanta.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
There's so many different types of families, and there's so
many different types of kids and sort of machinations of
what family means and what acceptance means, and what queer means,
and you know all of that. So I think the
storytelling on that is the possibilities are endless, and they're interesting,
(23:26):
and they're varied and they're diverse. So for me, I jumped, jumped,
jumped because also the showrunner, the head writer was from
Ugly Betty, and so we knew each other quite well,
and I knew I was in amazing hands to be
(23:46):
able to sort of be the anti Hilda, right, to
sort of play it from the whole different thing where
she doesn't accept him, and to really explore what that means.
And again, it was so cool because there were so
many kids who would come up to me and talk
to me. But more so than that, there were so
(24:07):
many moms and Theias and thethis and Aluelas that would
come up to me and say, like, I watched my son,
sat me down and watched this with my daughter, sat
me down and watched it. I was you know, never
I was always they couldn't speak to me about it,
and this was how we communicated and you know I
(24:28):
and it was just mind blowing how much you know,
this medium can reach people and how much change it
can actually affect and I you know, you you don't
Sometimes I think a person can take it for granted
because we think it's just silly, but it just goes
to show you how how the arts aren't silly.
Speaker 4 (24:49):
Anna has done an amazing job taking on these complex
Latina characters, including her role in the twenty thirteen TV
show dvus Maids. Anna played the lead protagon Marisol Suarez.
The show garners some controversy upon its release.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
I'm so lucky like that was one of that was
such an amazing experience too. You know, if you get
a phone call from Eva, like girl, I'm doing this show,
It's gonna be amazing. It's gonna be all Latin women,
it's gonna And then you know she's like, hear me out,
hear me out. It's called Tvious Thames. And I was like, girl,
(25:28):
She's like hear me out. Here we go. And so
you know, you have to understand, I think from me
coming from my point of view, was a brilliant telenovela. Right. Also,
my grandmother cleaned houses, you know what I mean, Judy
Ray's mother clean houses.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
Like.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
The thing is that we didn't look at it as
like a shameful thing. We actually said, like, this is
our opportunity to show this side of life, because more
often than not, we're always you know, if we are
the maid, it's because we're coming in saying something super
funny and leaving as opposed to really exploring the lives
(26:06):
of these women and exploring the lives of them and
what their daily is, what their family life is, what
their sex life is, what their you know, kids are doing,
how their kids are affected by what they do. Right,
So we actually had an opportunity to just shine a
light on the life of these women, but do it
(26:27):
in a really I mean it was really soapy and fun.
Eva's not only is Eva producing and executive producing it.
She directed so many of the episodes. She was on
set all the time. If we had a problem, we
could call her. You know, we had Latin writers in
the room and we had so it was representation on
every level for us on that show, and we had
(26:51):
to say so. I think it was one of the
first times I actually felt like I could object to
something that I felt was wrong or you know what
I mean, you know, or make fun of it, or
say to the to the show runners like you guys,
like maybe you know, that's not something we would say,
that's not something we would do. So it really was
(27:12):
kind of like having our cake and eating it too,
because we got to be sexy and funny and wicked
and you know, bananas and soapy and dramatic and funny,
and I got to work with like the best in
the game. I'm sorry, but like Roslin Sanchez, Daniel Ramirez,
(27:33):
Judy Ray has come on.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
We think that these shows that Anna has worked on
and so many others have contributed to the current landscape
in which we live, where kids can more freely be
themselves and open themselves up to all sorts of topics
with an open mind. We asked Anna if she thinks
the shows that she acted in did in fact have
that type of impact.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
I hope so, I mean, I hope so I for
what ever small part we we whatever, you know, even
if it was just one or two steps forward, those
are one or two steps that we needed to take.
You know. Those sometimes those one or two steps are
the hardest. So, you know, being at the front of
the that that move that that whole movement, well it's
(28:19):
pretty it's pretty pretty awesome, and I really feel really lucky.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
In her real life off screen, Anna is a mother.
She's also played mothers on television. A career actress who
has continued working alongside the best of the industry. She's
keeping up with changes and entertainment and changes to her body.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
I'm like, I think I'm fully like in perimenopause, right, so,
like I'm really experiencing so much craziness going on with
my physical self that I'm just trying to understand. And
it's really you know, what I'm most disappointed and is
the lack of information there is for women my age
(29:02):
and going through this. And there are there are outlets
for it, but it's like there's so much resistance even
with my own gynecologists when I and it was a woman,
and I asked her like I think i'm I'm like,
I'm definitely in perimenopause and I think I need like
hormones or like what's the treatment or where do we
go from here? And she was like, are you still
getting your period? And I was like, well, yeah, yeah,
(29:24):
but not like it's not regular and you know when
I do get my period, it's fucking chaos. Sorry, is
this too much information?
Speaker 4 (29:32):
Actually, this is the type of information we want, anna,
because according to a study conducted by SWAN, which stands
for Study of Women's Health across the Nation, women of
color tend to start in pre menopause earlier and have
more severe hot flashes than white women. In their research,
they found Black and Latina women experience perimenopause symptoms about
(29:54):
two to four years longer than white women.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
So to answer these questions, we are going to pick
up a house call from resident obg y n doctor Rodan, MD.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
Oh La signoras.
Speaker 6 (30:09):
I'm La Lilia Rodan, MD, calling in to talk about perimenopause.
Oh La peri Mino Bausia. I'm a resident physician specializing
in obstetrics. And kynecology. But before we continue our call,
this informational segment should not be interpreted as official medical advice,
and if you have any concerns, always consult with your
medical provider. Now moving on to la peri mino bausia.
(30:32):
Perimenopause is that time in your life when menopause is
almost creeping up on you but not quite yet. We
have something in our bodies called a hormone axiss and
that goes from your brain all the way down to
your ovaries. It kind of starts messing up at two
important parts of our lives. At the beginning, when we're young,
(30:53):
we're teens, we're just getting our periods. It's what we
call immature and so that's the time in our lives
when there's a lot of regular, abnormal bleeding. Now, the
other time in our lives when we start to have
this irregular abnormal bleeding is when that kind of access
starts to fall apart, and that starts in the area
called perimenopause before our periods completely stop in menopause. Now,
(31:15):
there are a lot of other things that can cause
abnormal bleeding. So if you are experiencing that, it's not
automatically perimenopause, and this is a great opportunity to talk
to your medical provider. Some of the things can cause
abnormal bleeding, like polyps and fibroids, so it's always a
good chance to get that evaluated. Now, some other common
symptoms of perimenopause are vaginal dryness awkward to talk about,
(31:36):
but important to know, and those very dreaded hot flashes.
More common ones you actually read reach menopause, but they
may also creep in during the perimenopausal period. Now, one
of the really best indicators for when you might enter
perimenopause is the age at which your mother and grandmother
entered perimenopause. There's a very strong genetic link. So this
(31:59):
is a great opportunity to break those taboos and actually
talk to your mom, to your grandma. I'm lasting at
essence would be us, you know, find out when they
went through this change, because that strogenetically may mean that
it's time for you to go through the change.
Speaker 3 (32:12):
So if you have any.
Speaker 6 (32:13):
Questions about that, make sure that you talk to the
sing at us in your lives and talk to your
medical providers.
Speaker 3 (32:21):
I was so disappointed and kind of upset, So I'm
like looking into my own I'm asking all my girlfriends, right,
that's like thank God for them. Like, you know, I'm
like really able to sort of again your girlfriend's coming
to the rescue. Who are going through it? And sort
of you know, trying to figure out is hormone replacement
(32:41):
right for me? Is topical estrogen right for me? You know,
like what it is? What it is that all of
that I'm going through. But I will also say on
top of that, I am feeling really empowered and I
feel really good about myself that I'm taking charge of
my my health.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
Having the information about our own bodies can be empowering.
Talking about our health and our sex lives may have
been something teenage Anna would have been brutish about, but
now she embraces these conversations.
Speaker 3 (33:13):
I'm still madly crazy about my husband and we still
have a really good sex life. Sorry, I don't want
to mortify my poor husband, like Jesus, Rist, what are
you doing? Or my kids, God forbid all Lord, they
would be mortified. But it's true. Sorry, it's true. You know,
(33:33):
I'm fifty three and we're still like crazy about each other.
But being older and going through this sort of like
the menopause of it all. I really, there's so much
that goes into it. But like I said, I being
trying to be as proactive as I can because I
still feel super sexual. I'm working out a lot, I
feel hot, like and you know, so I just want
(33:57):
to make sure that I take care of all of
it so that I can keep the goal.
Speaker 4 (34:02):
Getting older doesn't mean we're no longer sexual beings. In fact,
a John Hopkins study shows half of women in their
fifties reported continued sexual activity.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
And Anna is committed to talking to both of her
children about periods, sex, and sexuality. It is her goal
to remove the stigma around these topics, especially for the
next generation.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
Totally mortify my kids all the time because I also
want to make sure my son doesn't get like squeamish
and stupid about periods and stuff like that. I want
to make sure he knows like girls have their period
like her sister has her periods, so like whatever, and
also to my daughter, like you know, I just like
I want to take all the stigma away from it
(34:48):
for them, and by the way, they kind of do
it on their own this generation, my kids are fourteen
and twelve. It gives me hope.
Speaker 4 (34:55):
Anna tells us she feels good, she feels hot, and
of course we agree. But how does Hollywood treat women
actresses as they get older.
Speaker 3 (35:05):
I think it's moving forward a little bit, but again
it's so sluggish that it's it's not great. Fortunately, I
think we are the audience now that that has more
money and like my age and right, like I mean,
I think the gen X women right now are like
spending more money on like entertainment, and we want to
see ourselves represented more. I think there is definitely much
(35:28):
more than there was. I think, you know, you look
at women. Yes, I think we're getting better. I don't
think we're quite there yet. And you know, like, for instance,
when you asked me earlier about like sex scenes and
stuff like that, like I didn't have to worry about
it much younger, and now it's like, well I always
people ask me that, and I'm like, that ship has sailed,
nobody wants to see me in a sex scene. But
it's like, uh, you know, who knows. I just watched Hacks,
(35:52):
right because Mark Elecado's on Hacks and Jean Smart just
had like a crazy sex scene with Tony Goldwyn. So
I don't know, girl, maybe is that we'll see.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
There seems to be a correlation between more open mindedness
for characters on screen when it comes to sex and sexuality,
and greater open mindedness in our own day to day
lives within families when it comes to talking about things
like periods and perimenopause and even your mom and dad's
sex life.
Speaker 4 (36:23):
Here on, Senora Sex said, we hope to continue breaking
this stigma, which is why we were so happy when
Anna Orthis agreed to be on this podcast.
Speaker 3 (36:32):
I think that's why you guys doing this is so
cool and so important because I think the more of
us just talk about it like fucking you know, normal
and it's just an okay conversation to have, the more
you know, uh, women of whatever age, are going to
be able to read to talk talk about it. Look,
I think women like my mom, there's no way right,
(36:56):
She's like shut up, I don't even hear about it.
But like I think my generation up like gen X,
you know, going forward, we're we're gonna be talking about
it all.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
One of the things we hope to achieve with, Senora
Sex said, is having conversations with iconic figures in the
Latino arts and entertainment community like Anna Ortiz. Hearing her
backstory how she came into these roles and how she
transformed the roles and how the roles transformed her talking
(37:30):
about sex, sexuality and sex education was a really interesting
way to dig into her experiences playing these iconic characters
on our favorite shows.
Speaker 4 (37:40):
Next time on Senora Sex Said, we'll hear from Ira Rodriguez.
Speaker 1 (37:45):
My daughter is my mother's favorite person because my daughter
is very truthful with her and I was too afraid
to ever be that with my mom, but she would
be like no grandmother, no Sabandma's chow. Senora Sex Said
is a production of Locata Productions in partnership with Iheart'smikuldura
podcast Network.
Speaker 4 (38:04):
Executive producers are Mala Munios and Theosa Fem.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
Senora Sex is also executive produced by Giselle Bances.
Speaker 4 (38:13):
Produced by Stephanie Franco.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
Creative director, Mala Munios.
Speaker 4 (38:18):
Story editor Medosa.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
Audio editor Stephanie Franco.
Speaker 4 (38:22):
Music director Grisol Lomeli
Speaker 1 (38:25):
Music producer Brian Gazzo
I can't believe that actress Goma Yama still half naked
on TV at her big age. Viehja, I know the
La Santa. She looks good, like my mother always told me.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Lace Senora, Senora, Senora, Senora, Senora, Senor, Hi Senora, Welcome
(00:31):
to Senora.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Sex Ed.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Senora sex Ed is not your mommy's sex talk. This
show is la platicad like you've never heard it before,
breaking the stigma and silence around sex and sexuality in
LATINX communities. Latinas have been hyper sexualized in popular culture,
but notoriously denied sex education. This podcast is an intergenerational
(00:53):
conversation between Latinas from gen X to Gen Z, covering
everything from puberty and body image to representation in film, television,
and music.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
By the way, before we go any further, we wanted
to find how we're using the word senora on this show.
We know that so many of you are in your
so called senora era, but in this show, a Senora
is a woman with a lot of life experiences and
stories to share. Maybe she's in her thirties, maybe she's
(01:25):
in her forties or fifties or older. Maybe she's trans,
Maybe she says.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Chapter one, mothering on screen with Anna Ortiz.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
It was good, like I think I was healthy experiences
like it was with a boy that I love, that
I thought loved me, That you did love me. I
guess so I felt, I don't know, like kind of
strong about it.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
That was Anna Ortiz, actress, mother and wife. We'll be
learning about her journey with sex education, which is even
continuing now into her fifties, and what it's been like
playing some iconic Latina roles on your favorite TV shows.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
We are your hosts and producers, Viosa and Mala.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
You might recognize us from our flagship podcast, look at
Ora Radio. Since twenty sixteen, we've covered all kinds of topics,
ranging from politics, to mental health, current events, and of
course sex. We still have so much to learn from
each other and from all of you out there. We
hope you listen to each episode with the Senoras and
(02:35):
Senoritas in your life.
Speaker 4 (02:37):
Before Anna Orthis joins us, we thought it'd be fitting
to discuss the Latina representation we grew up with.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
My first memory of seeing Latina representation on film or television,
anything having to deal with sex, sexuality, and body image
was the iconic Real Women Have Curves. I was ten
years old when the film came out, and I don't
I don't think I saw it until I was maybe
thirteen or fourteen, but the storyline around Anna losing her
(03:06):
virginity was eye opening. The scene which sticks out in
my mind so vividly is the one in which Anna's mother,
played by Lupa Antiveros, calls her a puta after she
has sex for the first time, and Anna rebuts and
says to her mother, there's so much more to her
(03:26):
than what's between her legs. And I remember as a
child thinking that this was such a transformative scene, such
transformative dialogue, and it really made me, I don't know,
think about Latina's Maybe at the time, I wasn't thinking
specifically about Latinas, but about women, young women, teens coming
(03:46):
into our own claiming our bodies. And I just will
always remember that scene and still to this day, it
remains one of my favorite films because of the way
that it handles Latina body image, relationships, sexuality.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
One of my first memories of Latina representation is Jennifer
Lopez playing Selena in the iconic biopic The Classic Boustae
scene where Edward James, almost playing Abraham Kinthania, becomes enraged
because his daughter is wearing a quote Busti Kaka. This
scene has become a meme, it's become gifts. It's almost
(04:24):
trite now, But to me at the time, I remember
it being so impactful because it gave me some insight
as to the way men in your family can be
really opinionated about what women and girls do with their bodies,
what they wear. Because how could his daughter, this performer
(04:44):
be wearing a bra in public on stage. It was
an outrage, And so it gave me, like I said,
that insight into what it means when you want to
dress how you want to dress. And you know, having
had my own experiences where brothers or my dad or
deals would comment about maybe what I was wearing, and
so it taught me from a very young age that
(05:06):
lots of people will have opinions about your body, even
if you're a young girl. And the Latina actors that
we mentioned today, like Anna Ortiz, America Ferira, Jennifer Lopez
and so many others have had the staying power to
be in the industry, but not without its challenges.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
According to a two thousand and two media report performed
by the Latino Donor Collective, Latino's represented only three point
one percent of lead actors and TV shows and two
point one percent of co lead ensemble actors. Only one
point five percent of TV showrunners and one point three
percent of directors were Latino. Hearing this data really contextualizes
(05:48):
why we're so proud to be talking to today's guest.
Speaker 4 (05:52):
We hope you're enjoying this conversation. Stay tuned, there's more
to come.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
And we're back. We hope you enjoyed the break and
are ready to listen to the rest. When we first
started our conversation with Anna, we asked her about her
first introduction to sex ed and what that was like.
Did she get the so called birds and the bees talk?
Speaker 3 (06:21):
I think for me, so I grew up in seventies
in the eighties, right in New York City, and it
was basically my mom and I. My dad was in
the picture, but he, you know, he wasn't in the house,
and also being sort of his Puerto Rican self, like,
there's no way he would have spoken to me about
(06:42):
anything like I think the furthest he ever got was
like saying if I was wearing like something that he
didn't approve of, he would say like, like you know,
mirake Freca, like you look too fresh, you can't. That
was about the extent of it, whereas my mom was
completely the opposit I think, even though she was super Catholic,
(07:04):
she had in her head this sort of like pure honesty,
like whatever you ask me, I'm gonna be honest with you,
and I'm gonna tell you what it is.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
When Anna was only seven years old, she asked her
very honest mother to explain a song from a rock
musical titled Hair.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
I was kind of prudish, to be honest, but I
remember I had this past album of this musical called Hair.
It was like a rock musical from the sixties, and
I loved it and I listened to it all the time.
I was like a big theater musical theater nerd even then.
And I was probably about six or seven. And there's
a song, so apologies for the graphicness, but there's a
(07:45):
song called sodomy on on the track and it's like
sodom falacio ConA lingis pet or asty. And I had
no idea what any of those things were, but I
loved this record, so I would go around singing all
the songs and specifically that one, and I asked her, Mommy,
(08:06):
what is sodomy? And I remember she was in the
kitchen and she took a huge deep breath that she
was like, okay, well, sodomy and she began to explain
it to me, and I said stop, stop, stop talking,
and then from then on I would just skip over
(08:27):
that song on the record because I was so mortified.
So all of that big, long story is just to
say that my mother was always sort of maybe almost
too honest with me about sex for my prudish ways,
but that actually, once I was in high school, I
(08:48):
did feel comfortable sort of being open with her about
what I was experiencing and what I was going through,
whereas with my dad it was literally like I think
he still thinks I'm you know, twelve years old, you know,
in his brain. So yeah, So I think I had
a pretty healthy relationship with sex growing up.
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Anna describes an openness about her relationship with her mother.
Anna could ask her anything, but she didn't necessarily sit
down with her to have la pla pica.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
I don't remember her ever saying like we need to
talk about this. But I do remember her being sort
of if you ever have any questions or you know,
like I got my period really late, so I didn't,
you know, and like I was super embarrassed, Like all
my friends had their period and I didn't, so I
kind of told them that I did, but I didn't.
(09:40):
And I didn't really talk about it much. Again, like
I was, I was pretty like prudish about it all
and like I'm not ashamed, but I just sort of
didn't want to talk about it. It's like I don't ask,
don't tell. I remember being with a girlfriend and we
were out somewhere and I had a tampon and I
(10:00):
had to pee and I was like, I really have
to pee, but I have a tamp on it and
she was like, girl, you can't pete put the tamp
on it. And I was like you can't.
Speaker 5 (10:11):
And I had no idea even though I was using
tampa like it just so I was all over the place,
Like my mom was so open that maybe I felt.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
Like I didn't really want to talk to her about it.
I don't know, and I had like girlfriends who I did.
Speaker 4 (10:27):
It's not surprising that Anna didn't turn to her mother
for advice about her period. How often do teenagers truly
turn to their mothers first. Much of what we learn
about ourselves and each other is from our peers.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Anna describes her younger self as being somewhat prudish, And
what does that word mean. Well, a prude is someone
who is excessively attentive to propriety or decorum, simply put,
modest or una ninya moi moiguena.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
I wasn't allowed to wear spaghetti straps. I wasn't allowed
to wear makeup. I was a lowed to wear skirts
that went, you know, a certain like that were above
my knee.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
You know.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
So it was it was raised pretty conservatatively that way.
But I don't think it was because of where I lived,
you know, and like being it was the seventies and eighties,
and I was on my own a lot, and I
think coming home from school, having ride the subway the
bus by myself at a young age, my mother was
just worried that, you know, if you looked a certain way,
(11:28):
that you would just invite trouble. And so I think
I was always just inherently a little afraid of sexual
power or like the thought that that was that I
would be viewed as something sexual. So I guess it
was made clear to me at a very young age
that that was a thing, like you are going to
be looked at as a sexual object even though you're
(11:50):
only a kid. And so I think that just made
me fearful of sex, or not fearful, but just sort
of not extra size the power that it had.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
The type of fear Anna describes feeling as a young
girl is not uncommon. According to research conducted by Cornell's
Worker Institute and Halla Back, eighty five percent of women
in the United States experienced street harassment before the age
of seventeen.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
In her junior year of high school, something shifted for Anna.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
I felt in control of my own physical body and
my own self. I was on birth control. I had
sort of had my first sexual experience, and it was
with it was good, like I think I was healthy
experiences like it was with the boy that I love,
that I thought loved me, that you did love me.
(12:43):
I guess so I felt, I don't know, like kind
of strong about it. And I also was surrounded by
really great girlfriends. I think I was really lucky in
the sense that I was always raised with the idea
that your women friends are like your rock, your back,
(13:03):
and you have each other's back. Because my mom and
her women friends, well, she had a lot of female
friends and a lot of gay male friends. But that
sort of energy of like that feeling of like I
have these women and they have my back and I
have theirs. That gave me a sort of empowerment.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
Also for Anna, her sex education was coming from several
different places, her mother, her friends, and then eventually her partners.
Pop culture also played a role in her sexual education.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
Pop culture also maybe was a reason why I had
sort of a healthy fear of it all because I
think my first like the movie that really impacted me
so much was there was this well Fame with Irene
Kara like totally changed my entire I think, like literally
physically chemically changed me. That we had such an impact
(13:55):
on my life and I saw it so young.
Speaker 4 (13:58):
Fame is a nineteen eighty movie musical chronicling in the
lives of several teenagers who attend a New York high
school for students gifted in the performing arts. It was
a combination of seeing someone like Irene got A on
screen and hearing Puerto Rican freestyle that showed Anna that
there was a place for her in the industry.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
I realized I was never going to be a prima ballerina,
Like it just was not my calling. And then I
decided I love to sing, and so I went to
music and art for her voice. But I didn't write music.
I didn't like I didn't reading and music theory was
really difficult for me. I was never sort of like
a it just didn't again, like it wasn't my thing.
(14:38):
And then I did, you know, some musical theater, and
I realized that's it, Like that's that's this is this
is what I love. This is what I love theater
and being on stage and saying words and in terms
of again, like like I said, fame seeing Irene Kara,
seeing people of all different colors from New York, from
(14:59):
you know, the socioeconomic background that I was from. Also,
it was like you always saw like the rich and
famous or the wealthier, the suburban kids. You never ever
saw like city kids broke ass, you know, trying to
make a dollar out of fifteen cents and believing and
having a dream.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Right.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
I think I think she just sort of like turned
it around, and I think then I realized, like, oh I,
this is a possibility, you know, to see yourself. Also,
I think, you know, at that time in music, freestyle
was happening a lot, and freestyle music was ours. Freestyle
music was like Puerto Rican kids from New York singing
(15:39):
in Spanglish. So I heard it on the radio, you know,
I heard like people singing the way that we spoke,
and I just thought, like, there is a place for
us here, this can happen. I don't know that without that,
it just it bolstered me. I guess you can say,
because I don't really I don't. I never to plan
(16:00):
b I never thought there was anything else for me
but this. I don't know if I would have been
as determined if I hadn't had like the Irene Karas
and the and that freestyle music sort of you know,
being the soundtrack to my adolescence. But here we are.
Speaker 4 (16:18):
We'll be taking a quick break. Don't miss us.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Thanks for sticking around. We are back. We were curious
when Anna started booking roles. Did her parents advise her
against doing nudity or acting out sex scenes on camera?
Speaker 3 (16:40):
You know, know, they never so I think they just
they trusted that I would you know, I guess make
the right decisions or you know. It's funny though, because honestly,
I didn't even like when I started coming on, when
I started like booking work because of the nature of
our business and being Puerto Rican and being in this thing.
(17:03):
When I was coming up, it did start like the
waves started to rise where they were casting more of us.
But that being said, I was never the main character, right,
so I was never the one in those roles that
that might have happened to. Also, I was really much
I was really getting much more TV work, and I
was getting a lot more comedy work, which is funny
(17:24):
to me because I always thought of myself as so
dramatic and everybody told me I was so dramatic. But
then I come out to California and a casting directors said,
you get cast in a lot of comedies, and I said,
I know. I thought I was like a dramatic actress.
And she goes, you're from New York. New Yorkers are funny.
That was like, oh okay. So that all of that
(17:47):
being said, I was always sort of the sidekick. I
was always the sassy best friend, or the or the
drug dealer's girlfriend or whatever so, you know, or the
leaning person, the waitress, the you know what I mean
like that, those were the roles that when I first
started coming up, were available to me. Then I started
doing more, it was more like power suits, you know.
Like I was always like the tough, the tough you know,
(18:10):
bad the tough bad girl, like always the nemesis of
whatever the good girl was. I was always like the
antithesis of that. So it didn't really come up for
me a lot too, So I'm glad that I didn't
necessarily have to really face any of that. That question
didn't really come up to me in terms of like
having to do nudity or any kind of love scenes.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
We asked Anna if she could give a progress report
to Hollywood for Latino representation, what would the grade be?
Speaker 3 (18:40):
I think the grade would be A. And this is
for the industry. This is not for us for lack
of trying, because we're out here trying and we're out
here putting on, putting on really amazing, top notch entertainment.
But I would say if the industry gets a begrudging
B minus, I'm being generous with that. I'm being generous
(19:03):
because I'm trying to remain hopeful and optimistic, and I
happen to be friends with this incredible group of women
who are really changing the game, right, So I have
that in my I have America Ferrera as one of
my dearest friends, Eva Longoria as a dear friend and mentor.
Judy Reyes is one of my best friends in the world.
(19:25):
You know, Like, I'm surrounded by like these incredible, strong, talented, beautiful, funny,
multi faceted, complicated, brilliant brown girls. So I'm fed. I'm
fed a lot, I'm nourished. But when I look and
I see, you know, like Justina Machado, one of my
(19:46):
favorite women on the planet, one of the best actresses
out there, Titan. You know, she just does brilliant show
after brilliant show, and they just fucking cancel it. And
it's just maddening. It's just insane to me because we're
watching it. You know, we can't get a show to
stay on for more than two seasons. It's crazy. But
how was the exact though. I would just be like
(20:06):
another season, another season, another season. We keep putting one
foot in front of the other, and I feel like
we support each other. I don't, you know, but I
don't know until we're in those rooms green lighting movies
about us for us by us.
Speaker 4 (20:24):
Famously, Anna Ortiz was in the two thousand and six
ABC series Ugly Betty. The show starred America Ferrera as
Betty Suarez, alongside Tony Plano and Mark Indelicato. Anna played
the hilarious, sexy, stylish older sister Hilda Suatz. In many ways,
Ugly Betty was so ahead of its time, considering the
(20:46):
diverse cast and storylines.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
That was a game changer for all of us on
that show, and I think it was also a game
changer for television. I don't think we had a lot
of support at the network, which was like because four
seasons just wasn't enough and we should have had more.
We were at the top of our game, we were
getting huge ratings, but again it was like we just
had people up in the executive suites who just didn't
(21:11):
didn't have the vision. That show was so important for
us just as actors and friends and family, but being
also being able to be a part of something so iconic.
Mark and Delacado had the first sort of gay adolescent
you know kiss and I don't think you know, he
(21:32):
gets enough sort of credit for that.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
In the show Ugly Betty, Justin lives with his mother Hilda,
his aunt Betty, and his grandfather Ignacio. Justin exhibits a
love for fashion and is quite the diva. He's a
feminine boy, but his sexuality isn't really discussed outright until
season four when he comes out.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
It was really incredible to sort of walk down the
streets and have people being like, Hilda, we love you,
and having people reach out to me and being, you know,
saying like, I wish I had a mom like you,
and you know, I'm gay and my mom doesn't talk
to me, and I, you know, I really consider Hilda
like like I can. I can watch Ugly Betty and
I can feel comforted from that. So that there was
(22:13):
so much gratification in that, and it still happens.
Speaker 4 (22:16):
The character of Ilesoadees served as a positive representation of
a Latina mother loving her gay teenage son.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
You know that that machismo is real in our culture,
that it still is now, but I think it was
a little bit a little bit of a breakthrough, and
to be able to do that on such a huge
platform was really gratifying.
Speaker 1 (22:41):
In addition to playing the incredibly supportive mother, Hilde Suarez.
Anna also played a different type of mother. She played
Isabelle Salasad, a less open minded mother on the show
Love Victor. The show Love Victor is an adaptation of
the groundbreaking film Love Simon. Michael Cimino stars as Victor,
(23:02):
a teen from a half Puerto Rican, half Colombian family
living in Atlanta.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
There's so many different types of families, and there's so
many different types of kids and sort of machinations of
what family means and what acceptance means, and what queer means,
and you know all of that. So I think the
storytelling on that is the possibilities are endless, and they're interesting,
(23:26):
and they're varied and they're diverse. So for me, I jumped, jumped,
jumped because also the showrunner, the head writer was from
Ugly Betty, and so we knew each other quite well,
and I knew I was in amazing hands to be
(23:46):
able to sort of be the anti Hilda, right, to
sort of play it from the whole different thing where
she doesn't accept him, and to really explore what that means.
And again, it was so cool because there were so
many kids who would come up to me and talk
to me. But more so than that, there were so
(24:07):
many moms and Theias and thethis and Aluelas that would
come up to me and say, like, I watched my son,
sat me down and watched this with my daughter, sat
me down and watched it. I was you know, never
I was always they couldn't speak to me about it,
and this was how we communicated and you know I
(24:28):
and it was just mind blowing how much you know,
this medium can reach people and how much change it
can actually affect and I you know, you you don't
Sometimes I think a person can take it for granted
because we think it's just silly, but it just goes
to show you how how the arts aren't silly.
Speaker 4 (24:49):
Anna has done an amazing job taking on these complex
Latina characters, including her role in the twenty thirteen TV
show dvus Maids. Anna played the lead protagon Marisol Suarez.
The show garners some controversy upon its release.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
I'm so lucky like that was one of that was
such an amazing experience too. You know, if you get
a phone call from Eva, like girl, I'm doing this show,
It's gonna be amazing. It's gonna be all Latin women,
it's gonna And then you know she's like, hear me out,
hear me out. It's called Tvious Thames. And I was like, girl,
(25:28):
She's like hear me out. Here we go. And so
you know, you have to understand, I think from me
coming from my point of view, was a brilliant telenovela. Right. Also,
my grandmother cleaned houses, you know what I mean, Judy
Ray's mother clean houses.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
Like.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
The thing is that we didn't look at it as
like a shameful thing. We actually said, like, this is
our opportunity to show this side of life, because more
often than not, we're always you know, if we are
the maid, it's because we're coming in saying something super
funny and leaving as opposed to really exploring the lives
(26:06):
of these women and exploring the lives of them and
what their daily is, what their family life is, what
their sex life is, what their you know, kids are doing,
how their kids are affected by what they do. Right,
So we actually had an opportunity to just shine a
light on the life of these women, but do it
(26:27):
in a really I mean it was really soapy and fun.
Eva's not only is Eva producing and executive producing it.
She directed so many of the episodes. She was on
set all the time. If we had a problem, we
could call her. You know, we had Latin writers in
the room and we had so it was representation on
every level for us on that show, and we had
(26:51):
to say so. I think it was one of the
first times I actually felt like I could object to
something that I felt was wrong or you know what
I mean, you know, or make fun of it, or
say to the to the show runners like you guys,
like maybe you know, that's not something we would say,
that's not something we would do. So it really was
(27:12):
kind of like having our cake and eating it too,
because we got to be sexy and funny and wicked
and you know, bananas and soapy and dramatic and funny,
and I got to work with like the best in
the game. I'm sorry, but like Roslin Sanchez, Daniel Ramirez,
(27:33):
Judy Ray has come on.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
We think that these shows that Anna has worked on
and so many others have contributed to the current landscape
in which we live, where kids can more freely be
themselves and open themselves up to all sorts of topics
with an open mind. We asked Anna if she thinks
the shows that she acted in did in fact have
that type of impact.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
I hope so, I mean, I hope so I for
what ever small part we we whatever, you know, even
if it was just one or two steps forward, those
are one or two steps that we needed to take.
You know. Those sometimes those one or two steps are
the hardest. So, you know, being at the front of
the that that move that that whole movement, well it's
(28:19):
pretty it's pretty pretty awesome, and I really feel really lucky.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
In her real life off screen, Anna is a mother.
She's also played mothers on television. A career actress who
has continued working alongside the best of the industry. She's
keeping up with changes and entertainment and changes to her body.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
I'm like, I think I'm fully like in perimenopause, right, so,
like I'm really experiencing so much craziness going on with
my physical self that I'm just trying to understand. And
it's really you know, what I'm most disappointed and is
the lack of information there is for women my age
(29:02):
and going through this. And there are there are outlets
for it, but it's like there's so much resistance even
with my own gynecologists when I and it was a woman,
and I asked her like I think i'm I'm like,
I'm definitely in perimenopause and I think I need like
hormones or like what's the treatment or where do we
go from here? And she was like, are you still
getting your period? And I was like, well, yeah, yeah,
(29:24):
but not like it's not regular and you know when
I do get my period, it's fucking chaos. Sorry, is
this too much information?
Speaker 4 (29:32):
Actually, this is the type of information we want, anna,
because according to a study conducted by SWAN, which stands
for Study of Women's Health across the Nation, women of
color tend to start in pre menopause earlier and have
more severe hot flashes than white women. In their research,
they found Black and Latina women experience perimenopause symptoms about
(29:54):
two to four years longer than white women.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
So to answer these questions, we are going to pick
up a house call from resident obg y n doctor Rodan, MD.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
Oh La signoras.
Speaker 6 (30:09):
I'm La Lilia Rodan, MD, calling in to talk about perimenopause.
Oh La peri Mino Bausia. I'm a resident physician specializing
in obstetrics. And kynecology. But before we continue our call,
this informational segment should not be interpreted as official medical advice,
and if you have any concerns, always consult with your
medical provider. Now moving on to la peri mino bausia.
(30:32):
Perimenopause is that time in your life when menopause is
almost creeping up on you but not quite yet. We
have something in our bodies called a hormone axiss and
that goes from your brain all the way down to
your ovaries. It kind of starts messing up at two
important parts of our lives. At the beginning, when we're young,
(30:53):
we're teens, we're just getting our periods. It's what we
call immature and so that's the time in our lives
when there's a lot of regular, abnormal bleeding. Now, the
other time in our lives when we start to have
this irregular abnormal bleeding is when that kind of access
starts to fall apart, and that starts in the area
called perimenopause before our periods completely stop in menopause. Now,
(31:15):
there are a lot of other things that can cause
abnormal bleeding. So if you are experiencing that, it's not
automatically perimenopause, and this is a great opportunity to talk
to your medical provider. Some of the things can cause
abnormal bleeding, like polyps and fibroids, so it's always a
good chance to get that evaluated. Now, some other common
symptoms of perimenopause are vaginal dryness awkward to talk about,
(31:36):
but important to know, and those very dreaded hot flashes.
More common ones you actually read reach menopause, but they
may also creep in during the perimenopausal period. Now, one
of the really best indicators for when you might enter
perimenopause is the age at which your mother and grandmother
entered perimenopause. There's a very strong genetic link. So this
(31:59):
is a great opportunity to break those taboos and actually
talk to your mom, to your grandma. I'm lasting at
essence would be us, you know, find out when they
went through this change, because that strogenetically may mean that
it's time for you to go through the change.
Speaker 3 (32:12):
So if you have any.
Speaker 6 (32:13):
Questions about that, make sure that you talk to the
sing at us in your lives and talk to your
medical providers.
Speaker 3 (32:21):
I was so disappointed and kind of upset, So I'm
like looking into my own I'm asking all my girlfriends, right,
that's like thank God for them. Like, you know, I'm
like really able to sort of again your girlfriend's coming
to the rescue. Who are going through it? And sort
of you know, trying to figure out is hormone replacement
(32:41):
right for me? Is topical estrogen right for me? You know,
like what it is? What it is that all of
that I'm going through. But I will also say on
top of that, I am feeling really empowered and I
feel really good about myself that I'm taking charge of
my my health.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
Having the information about our own bodies can be empowering.
Talking about our health and our sex lives may have
been something teenage Anna would have been brutish about, but
now she embraces these conversations.
Speaker 3 (33:13):
I'm still madly crazy about my husband and we still
have a really good sex life. Sorry, I don't want
to mortify my poor husband, like Jesus, Rist, what are
you doing? Or my kids, God forbid all Lord, they
would be mortified. But it's true. Sorry, it's true. You know,
(33:33):
I'm fifty three and we're still like crazy about each other.
But being older and going through this sort of like
the menopause of it all. I really, there's so much
that goes into it. But like I said, I being
trying to be as proactive as I can because I
still feel super sexual. I'm working out a lot, I
feel hot, like and you know, so I just want
(33:57):
to make sure that I take care of all of
it so that I can keep the goal.
Speaker 4 (34:02):
Getting older doesn't mean we're no longer sexual beings. In fact,
a John Hopkins study shows half of women in their
fifties reported continued sexual activity.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
And Anna is committed to talking to both of her
children about periods, sex, and sexuality. It is her goal
to remove the stigma around these topics, especially for the
next generation.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
Totally mortify my kids all the time because I also
want to make sure my son doesn't get like squeamish
and stupid about periods and stuff like that. I want
to make sure he knows like girls have their period
like her sister has her periods, so like whatever, and
also to my daughter, like you know, I just like
I want to take all the stigma away from it
(34:48):
for them, and by the way, they kind of do
it on their own this generation, my kids are fourteen
and twelve. It gives me hope.
Speaker 4 (34:55):
Anna tells us she feels good, she feels hot, and
of course we agree. But how does Hollywood treat women
actresses as they get older.
Speaker 3 (35:05):
I think it's moving forward a little bit, but again
it's so sluggish that it's it's not great. Fortunately, I
think we are the audience now that that has more
money and like my age and right, like I mean,
I think the gen X women right now are like
spending more money on like entertainment, and we want to
see ourselves represented more. I think there is definitely much
(35:28):
more than there was. I think, you know, you look
at women. Yes, I think we're getting better. I don't
think we're quite there yet. And you know, like, for instance,
when you asked me earlier about like sex scenes and
stuff like that, like I didn't have to worry about
it much younger, and now it's like, well I always
people ask me that, and I'm like, that ship has sailed,
nobody wants to see me in a sex scene. But
it's like, uh, you know, who knows. I just watched Hacks,
(35:52):
right because Mark Elecado's on Hacks and Jean Smart just
had like a crazy sex scene with Tony Goldwyn. So
I don't know, girl, maybe is that we'll see.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
There seems to be a correlation between more open mindedness
for characters on screen when it comes to sex and sexuality,
and greater open mindedness in our own day to day
lives within families when it comes to talking about things
like periods and perimenopause and even your mom and dad's
sex life.
Speaker 4 (36:23):
Here on, Senora Sex said, we hope to continue breaking
this stigma, which is why we were so happy when
Anna Orthis agreed to be on this podcast.
Speaker 3 (36:32):
I think that's why you guys doing this is so
cool and so important because I think the more of
us just talk about it like fucking you know, normal
and it's just an okay conversation to have, the more
you know, uh, women of whatever age, are going to
be able to read to talk talk about it. Look,
I think women like my mom, there's no way right,
(36:56):
She's like shut up, I don't even hear about it.
But like I think my generation up like gen X,
you know, going forward, we're we're gonna be talking about
it all.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
One of the things we hope to achieve with, Senora
Sex said, is having conversations with iconic figures in the
Latino arts and entertainment community like Anna Ortiz. Hearing her
backstory how she came into these roles and how she
transformed the roles and how the roles transformed her talking
(37:30):
about sex, sexuality and sex education was a really interesting
way to dig into her experiences playing these iconic characters
on our favorite shows.
Speaker 4 (37:40):
Next time on Senora Sex Said, we'll hear from Ira Rodriguez.
Speaker 1 (37:45):
My daughter is my mother's favorite person because my daughter
is very truthful with her and I was too afraid
to ever be that with my mom, but she would
be like no grandmother, no Sabandma's chow. Senora Sex Said
is a production of Locata Productions in partnership with Iheart'smikuldura
podcast Network.
Speaker 4 (38:04):
Executive producers are Mala Munios and Theosa Fem.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
Senora Sex is also executive produced by Giselle Bances.
Speaker 4 (38:13):
Produced by Stephanie Franco.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
Creative director, Mala Munios.
Speaker 4 (38:18):
Story editor Medosa.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
Audio editor Stephanie Franco.
Speaker 4 (38:22):
Music director Grisol Lomeli
Speaker 1 (38:25):
Music producer Brian Gazzo
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