Remezcla

INTERVIEW: George Lopez & Selenis Leyva Find ‘Heart, Grit & Truth’ in ‘Lopez vs Lopez’

Kiko Martinez — Fri, 04 Nov 2022 15:21:33 +0000

When comedian George Lopez‘s original namesake sitcom premiered on TV on March 27, 2002, there was no way anyone could have imagined that life would come full circle for him 20 years later. For him, the memories of that groundbreaking series have a dreamlike quality. “To look back on that first show, sometimes it almost

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Selenis Leyva Explains How Disney+ Series Combats Stereotypes and How “We’re Not All Scarface”

Kiko Martinez — Wed, 18 Aug 2021 15:35:57 +0000

Growing up in the Bronx during the 1970s and 80s, actress Selenis Leyva (Orange is the New Black) doesn’t remember seeing many people that looked like her when she turned on the television. Back then, a TV series featuring a majority-Latino cast was only a pipe dream. “For me, seeing myself [on TV] at that

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Watch Dascha Polanco & the ‘Orange is the New Black’ Cast Host an Anti-Racist Criminal Justice Reform Event

Manuel Betancourt — Fri, 12 Jun 2020 16:19:20 +0000

There is perhaps no show better suited to host a roundtable around the issue of mass incarceration and criminal justice reform as it affects communities of color than Orange is the New Black. The Netflix show always wove a committed social justice message through its storylines — be they about prison reform, the war on drugs

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Why the ‘Gentefied’ Creators Re-Wrote an Afro-Latina Character for Actress Julissa Calderon

Manuel Betancourt — Fri, 28 Feb 2020 19:37:51 +0000

Gentefied creators were intent on casting a Los Angeles-born actress to play Yessika Flores—the 23-year-old Afro-Latina activist who is Ana Morales’ love interest on the show. Authentic representation was key. But, that all changed when Julissa Calderon stepped into the room to read for Yessika. As co-creator Marvin Lemus told Remezcla back at Sundance, every casting

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REVIEW: Disney’s ‘Diary of a Future President’ Is a Delightful & Endearing Series About a Latina POTUS

Kristen Lopez — Tue, 14 Jan 2020 19:03:26 +0000

The premiere of Diary of a Future President couldn’t be better timed, what with the arrival of a new decade and an upcoming presidential election. The Gina Rodriguez-produced series, which airs on Disney+, is a delightfully engaging story of perseverance, family and growing up that will appeal to everyone. The 10-episode series follows Cuban American

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TRAILER: ‘Orange Is the New Black’s Final Season Will Focus on Immigrant Detention & Broken Bonds

Kristen Lopez — Wed, 26 Jun 2019 18:01:49 +0000

Season six of Orange Is the New Black ended on a somber note. Many (spoiler alert: turn away now if you haven’t seen it yet) of our hearts broke when we realized that Blanca Flores – played by Laura Gómez – wouldn’t be getting out of jail as she was led to believe. Instead, she was

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Op-Ed: Planned Parenthood Taught Me Women’s Health Care Didn’t Have to Come With a Side of Shame

Selenis Leyva — Mon, 10 Dec 2018 20:22:42 +0000

Editor’s Note: Selenis Leyva is an actor on Orange Is the New Black. In this essay, she discusses how a visit to Planned Parenthood during her college years showed her that reproductive health care should not come with humiliation and embarrassment. Until I walked through the doors of the Planned Parenthood on Bleecker Street

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Stars of ‘OITNB’ & ‘On My Block’ Talk Finding a Place in Hollywood’s Narrow View of Latinidad

Manuel Betancourt — Tue, 09 Oct 2018 15:43:54 +0000

When discussions of Latinidad in Hollywood take place, the main gripes and examples tend to be about how Mexicans are portrayed on screen. And with films like Peppermint basically serving as Mexican punching bags, such pushback remains quite necessary. But as Orange is the New Black‘s Selenis Leyva, who’s Cuban and Dominican, puts it in a new video,

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15 Afro-Latina Actresses Who Are Killing It in Hollywood

Kayla Marie — Thu, 15 Feb 2018 19:27:22 +0000

With the political climate we live in, there is an ever-rising thirst for representation. This is especially true for the entertainment we seek out to cope with the never-ending depressing news cycle. Setting a precedent with an all-black cast in a tentpole film, Black Panther is a superhero story that some hope will open the

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After Her Role in ‘Spider-Man,’ Selenis Leyva Can’t Wait for a Latina Superhero Movie

Kiko Martinez — Fri, 30 Jun 2017 17:27:46 +0000

After a handful of seasons as a recurring character and then a series regular on Orange is the New Black, Selenis Leyva – the half-Cuban, half-Dominican actress who plays inmate Gloria Mendoza on the Netflix original series – is starting to turn more heads, and has found herself in one of the biggest blockbusters of the summer. While

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