Todo Latino Show
Dive into the heart of Latino culture with the top 2% global Todo Latino Show. Each week we bring you engaging interviews, news, culture, chisme, and más. ¡Descubre y disfruta con nosotros!
Todo Latino Show
Ep.140 Breaking Barriers: Eliana Reyes on Resilience, Representation, and the Power of Storytelling
In our latest episode, we sit down with the remarkable Eliana Reyes, an actress, producer, and storyteller. Eliana shares her journey from Washington Heights to Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, navigating societal biases and cultural beauty standards. Despite the challenges, she pursued her passion for acting, leaving a successful finance career and finding success in the modeling world.
Eliana discusses her project "Anamnesis" and her role at LATV Network, emphasizing her commitment to amplifying Afro-Latino voices. She also shares her moving documentary "Vida Nueva," which explores her father's long-term incarceration and its impact on their family.
Eliana's story is a testament to resilience, creativity, and the importance of representation. This episode is a must-listen for anyone inspired by the relentless pursuit of dreams.
Hi mi gente. My name is Eliana Reyes and you are watching the Todo Latino Show on Todo Wafi.
Speaker 2:Hey everybody and welcome back to the Todo Latino Show from 1500 Live at Pro Audio LA, sponsored by Global Processing Systems, the official merchant for Revolución 2024. I am your host, rafael. I am joined here with Daisy, I am joined with Yobi, and today we have a special guest. She's an actress, she's a producer, she's a director, she's a host, she's a model. There's not a thing that she's not?
Speaker 3:What is she not? Welcome to the show. Gracias gracias, gracias, thank you Thank you, and the list goes on.
Speaker 1:She's got more stuff, she's got more stuff.
Speaker 4:She's an MUK too Amazing. Look at her makeup.
Speaker 2:She's going to be tough for like an Oscar speech. I know she's like I want to thank all of the different areas that helped me get here All the different careers that helped me become who I am.
Speaker 4:Welcome, Eliana.
Speaker 1:Gracias.
Speaker 2:All right, so we always start the show with an origin story. What? All right, so we always start the show with an origin story.
Speaker 1:What is yours, what is your origin story? Oh, my God, like how deep do you want? How?
Speaker 4:deep is this origin?
Speaker 2:story. Listen, man Nicolas Cage remembers when he was in the womb. So if you can go that far, let's go.
Speaker 1:Well, I was born in Washington Heights, new York. When I was very young I was probably like three we moved to Puerto Rico Rico my mother's Puerto Rican, my father's Dominican and I lived in Puerto Rico, and so we lived there until I was like 15, and then every summer I would be in Dominican Republic, and then I did third and, I believe, fifth grade in Dominican Republic wow, so I was always back and forth between Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic until I was, like, well into high school, um, and yeah, and I, I loved, I, you know I obviously I knew New York, but to me the United States was like Miami, chicago, new York.
Speaker 1:that was it, did you?
Speaker 3:learn English out there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, yeah. So we in Puerto Rico is required to learn English, and so, and then, cable, is it? I did not know that, yeah it's a school requirement, so you required to learn English.
Speaker 3:I mean it's, it's the English is very well spoken, so I was like 15 years old. No, I'm like.
Speaker 1:I'm like a hundred percent bilingual, I speak well in both languages, but it's because in Puerto Rico we had to learn English, plus we had cable, and in at home mommy spoke Spanish and English, but then I also needed to learn I need. We had cable and then at home mommy spoke Spanish and English, but then I also needed to learn. I need to speak Spanish and then to study Spanish. And then when I we moved to the Midwest, we moved to Minneapolis, um, and that's where I finished high school and I did college. And then I fought really hard to stay connected to my culture and keep my Spanish, just because it wasn't like I moved to New York or Miami or Chicago, it was Minneapolis.
Speaker 1:So like it was like, especially because out there there was no Latinos that look like me, so everybody just thought I was a mixed black girl, black American girl, yeah, um, and so I, I, really, I really, uh, held on to it and so and now I went from the Caribbean to the East, the Caribbean back to the East, to the Midwest, to the West. Explain to me Minneapolis.
Speaker 2:Sounds like a song. How did you go to Minneapolis? Like not many people will go there. It's cold as shit.
Speaker 1:Right. Well, it's not cold all year long. Summers in Minneapolis are absolutely beautiful.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but it's like two months. I know it are absolutely beautiful.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but it's like two months.
Speaker 4:I know it's like three months of the year, if it's a good year, if la niña's not acting up.
Speaker 1:But so basically it was when it all goes back to my father going to prison and there's just like a lot of things happen at the same time. And my stepfather at the time he had a daughter. She's now passed my stepsister. She had a really rare condition, so he's to travel from Puerto Rico to Mayo Clinic in Minnesota to get her treatment.
Speaker 1:So that's how we even found out about Minnesota and my mother used to work for the airline, so she would go with him. And then it just got to a point where things got really just everything hit the fan and I was just told like, and I was like what's.
Speaker 3:Minnesota. I just looked up the weather there. I looked it up and I was like this shit's right next to. Canada, it's 41 degrees right now. What is this? That's crazy.
Speaker 2:When I was talking about the weather, I wasn't joking.
Speaker 3:You weren't joking.
Speaker 2:I was like let me look it up right now, but that's warm, I guarantee you.
Speaker 1:if, if you go to Minneapolis right now, there's people jogging around the lakes in shorts because 40 degrees is amazing.
Speaker 4:It's nice to them.
Speaker 1:Because you spend the whole winter in 20 below 30 below weather. I mean I used to go out with my friends in college and it would be like 30, 40 below with open-toed shoes.
Speaker 3:Are you one of the ones that makes fun of us for exaggerating when it's raining?
Speaker 1:Not anymore it's raining, not anymore. Not anymore because I've been in LA now almost three years, and my last year in Minneapolis I was recovering from back surgery, so I wasn't outside at all in the winter. So I lost completely lost my tolerance for the cold. So now, when it's 40, here I'm wearing a bubble coat and my mother makes fun of me.
Speaker 2:She's like I was like ma, you don't understand like this desert cold is different you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3:It's different and I live by the Hollywood Hills, so, like that little breeze, no people are calling off of work when it's raining out here.
Speaker 1:They're like, oh, I can't go in today, no, the other day it was like it dropped to like what 30, 40 degrees at night and I could smell the snow cap.
Speaker 2:Like.
Speaker 1:I could smell it in the air.
Speaker 4:I was like this.
Speaker 2:just smells like Minnesota it doesn't get cold in LA it does. I think you made a post out of it too. Everybody keeps blaming me. They're like oh, you came from New Jersey and since then, all of a sudden, it got really cold.
Speaker 1:And I'm like, they're like you brought New Jersey with you. They're like go back.
Speaker 2:I'm like no, the earth, mother earth, is just mad at us. My mom is like, she's dealing with like and they're not built for that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, they're not built for that.
Speaker 2:They don't have like the, you know, the super heating. I mean. Now they're probably building the houses with that, but older houses.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, the pipes the anything like that. I know right, it's insane. Yeah, all right.
Speaker 2:So at what point in your childhood did you get sparked for like a love of storytelling?
Speaker 1:Ooh, I think I was born with it. To be honest, I have memories from being very young, like I'm talking toddler young where I would just like make up scenes in my mind.
Speaker 2:Really.
Speaker 1:As soon as I learned how to write, I was always writing stuff. I actually used to get in trouble because I would write everywhere, like one time I rode in my mom's car like I would just write, like I literally it's like if I have a thought, if I have a whatever, I have to write it and I would like, with my muñecas, everything in my room. I would just, when I wasn't acting like I was Cristina or Oprah or whatever, I was literally acting out a scene.
Speaker 1:I wasn't playing with my Barbies or like whatever muñecas I had the way traditional kids do. They were like audiences or they were like crew in my set Right Like that's.
Speaker 2:That's how I used to play with them, so it's been since I was young it just hit me that my kids were doing that as a like a young age. They would like have the room and then they would compartmentalize, like every scene with the dolls, and create little rooms with different furniture yeah, bringing back our, our childhood and then I was destroying it. And I'm just kidding, it's like no dreams, um, all right, so at what point did you go into the modeling side?
Speaker 1:yeah, oh, that's um, that's interesting, so I should go back just kind of. Another little bit of origin story is that, you know, growing up in Puerto Rico, I've been 5'9 since I was like 12 years old. I've been 5'9, over 200 pounds. Since I was 12 years old, like, I used to play center volleyball, I danced, I was a very like athletic big girl, and so I always was kind of like, you know, made to feel like, oh, you're very big, you're very fat, like, because since I was a kid, I was always like choreographing a dance, or I always wanted to be on TV or I always wanted to act. But there was this like back in the 90s, there was this idea of like, well, you don't look like the people that are on TV, so you can't do that. So this kind of dream of mine, you know, would only live in my bedroom, you know, and it took years for me. I didn't start, actually, I would say, professionally pursuing my dreams until I was 30, you know, because I Really yeah, not long.
Speaker 1:I felt. I felt I mean I always I did dance, I choreo, I would choreograph these shows, I did spoken word, I did everything around it, but it you know. And then I wanted to do theater in Minneapolis, but culturally, racially, like it was just, it was so white that I had to be very conscious and um and I was like york would have been a better place for yeah, but you know I always.
Speaker 1:I always wanted to just go back to puerto rico. I loved, I loved, loved, loved living in the island. I loved living in dr. Like. It was very hard for me to adjust at first in minneapolis, but the thing that saved me was choreographing dances. So I started a dance line in my high school. So I was, I was the. I was a big girl. I was always the big girl doing something, but getting in front of the camera and actually pursuing it. I remember going to a dance school in Puerto Rico and they told me ah, tú eres muy alta, tú eres muy gorda, tienes que rebajar. Like in my hair too, they would be like no, que tú tienes el pelo muy kinky, tú tienes que estirarte ese pelo. Like you have to straighten your hair if you want to be on TV.
Speaker 1:You know, I had like some family, just ignorancia, right, like, oh, you know, salta de sol, like, because I was like 10 shades darker than what I am now. You know because I have the, you know the African and the indigenous so I could get like penny copper brown. You know what I'm saying. Penny copper brown when I was a kid and I walked to Puerto Rico. I walked to school every day in PR, so it was like I was dark.
Speaker 1:I was dark and I had big froey, kinky hair and that was not a beauty standard back then. So modeling and acting and all that stuff was not an option. So it took for me to. I graduated college, I stepped into a career in finance. I started as a teller at a bank and then I moved my way up. I eventually landed at the Federal Reserve, which is the most I guess the highest level of finance.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right, you're working for like the Central Bank of the United States and I was the. I just followed the Midwestern formula. Right, it's like you graduate college, you get a nine-to-five. You then eventually you go into a master's, and so I was in a master's program for organizational leadership to become a you know a VP at the Fed, and and then I had, I had, I had like a crisis like literally my whole soul was like what are you do?
Speaker 1:Whose life are you living? And even though I was always like helping other people with their projects on the side, it was never my thing and I never was the subject of it. So it took. I had a really close friend that passed away, um, suddenly, and it was the first time that I had had someone of my age just like die. You know and and unfortunately I've had people murdered or whatever, but like he just died, I don't know if it was just health.
Speaker 1:He literally his heart just stopped after a basketball game and he was a lifelong basketball player and that really shook me because I was like yo, he's 31, I'm 30. You know what I'm saying and I'm like I'm wasting time and I would cry in my cubicle at the Fed, like you know, I really just want to do this thing. And and then I decided after that I was gonna get leave the master's program. I was in and I was going to focus all of my time. I stopped helping other people with their projects. I was managing a few musical artists. I was helping them with like, their branding, their imaging, and I told I remember I told everyone I was like listen, I'm going to stop doing this and I'm going to go in. And I downgraded my apartment. So I moved into a way smaller apartment, I downgraded my car and I used all of my extra money to pay for acting classes and that's how I started.
Speaker 1:But it wasn't until I was 30. So acting eventually led me to modeling. I never was like I want to be a model Cause I feel like I'm too down to earth and my depiction of models was very like. But then the instructor was like I think you need to model and I was like the hell, I'm like I'm not going to model. And she was like, yeah, you need to model you, you would do well. And then, when she told me I was ready to start submitting to agencies, five agencies picked me up right away in the Midwest.
Speaker 1:Wow, wow and I had no experience, but I had really great self-tapes and that comes from playing in my room my whole childhood.
Speaker 2:She was walking in her room, and so I was crazy how are you bringing it around?
Speaker 1:That exploded for me. So for six years I had a very successful career as a commercial print model and commercial actress and then I did some short film stuff. But there just wasn't enough theatrical film stuff in the midwest where I could cast as lead. So moving out to LA was always the goal was to be able to get to the next layer, the next level, um, and then I got signed out here. I came out here, did a whole year also, I did really big commercials and stuff out here. And then I got signed out here. I came out here, did a whole year also. I did really big commercials and stuff out here. And then I got tired of commercials.
Speaker 1:And then I got tired of like the thirst for like storytelling, you know was real because commercial pays the bills, but it can get really weird and really dry, and so, while I was grateful for it, I was starting to transition into okay, let me get a theatrical agent. And then the writer strike happened, and then the actor strike, and then everything went to shit oh yeah so then I was like.
Speaker 1:You know what that's god telling me to take a pause from auditioning because I did have audition exhaustion like coming out here I mean you can't. Yeah, it was wild like the amount of auditions I was submitting was was excessive.
Speaker 3:So you have so much going on, like the list goes on. How do you manage all of this and what's the process? Like Girl, we still trying to figure that out.
Speaker 1:You know what I'm saying. I don't know what I make sure I do is sleep now. I started working with.
Speaker 3:That's something this one needs. Over here. You got to respect your sleep.
Speaker 1:It makes a big. You know, a lot of people are like oh, you don't look like you're 40, this and this and that, and I was like you know what? I drink water and I sleep, like I sleep.
Speaker 3:I don't know what you mean.
Speaker 1:Water.
Speaker 3:Excuse me I don't you heard that? Can I curse Like?
Speaker 1:you, you can't mess around with your sleep, like I just feel, like you especially, like I think just living in LA is way more demanding, energetically, traffic wise, everything about it. So it's like you have to rest, you have to give your body that time to regenerate. So that's, that's priority. Um, but I've been the last year and a half I've just been like addressing what's right in front of me, you know, and it's not the, it's not the ideal way to do things, but ever since I took on the show running producer job at LA TV, that actually kind of implemented a little more structure for me, kind of implemented a little more structure for me. And so now I know que you know, por la mañana I wake up, I do my journaling or my yoga or my workout, whatever I choose to do that day.
Speaker 1:I don't do well with structure. So I don't say every day at 8 I'm going to do it, I can't, because I won't do it I'll rebel against my own self. So I'll just say, as long as I'm up by like this amount of time, whatever happens, whether it's journaling or walking or yoga or whatever, that's what I allow myself to do. And then I try to get to the studio by a certain time. I do that job.
Speaker 3:And then I try to allow some time afterwards. Wait, did you say you were 40, by the way, Did I what you said 40?
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah.
Speaker 2:I just turned 40.
Speaker 3:Oh my God, I literally just processed it and I was like you don't even look a day over 30. I am shocked right now. She and I had a Zoom.
Speaker 2:When we first met, we had a Zoom where I looked at her and I was like no.
Speaker 3:She said at 30, I decided to do this. I'm like, oh, she's probably like 32 then.
Speaker 2:She caught me off guard when she said she was 40. I'm shocked right now.
Speaker 3:She's glowing.
Speaker 2:She said drink water.
Speaker 3:She looked like she's sleeping.
Speaker 2:She looks like she's in her late 20s, early 30s.
Speaker 1:Thank you. I attribute that to my mama and my abuelas, and my dad too. My dad, listen, my dad served 26 years in prison and he doesn't look a day over 60.
Speaker 4:It's, it's, I think yeah, but I'm gonna write it. I'm gonna write it till I can't write it no more. Okay, eliana, I want to ask you, which I had the opportunity, obviously, to check out some of your work and films, so the personal experience, or you know that you had deeply in creating anamnesis- anamnesis.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that was um. As I mentioned, you know, being a working actor in the midwest, there was a real thirst for um, creating projects or having projects available that featured leads of color. Right, there's this joke where, whenever you'd be on set whether it was a commercial or whatever you, if you saw a person of color, you. There's this joke where, whenever you'd be on set whether it was a commercial or whatever, you, if you saw a person of color, you knew they were talent, because there was never a director, a producer, there was no one of color as part of the team. Yet these companies we would be the face of this diversity and inclusion that these companies had and we're so diverse. Look it, we have this person. But then you look behind the scenes and it's like no one, not even craft service, no one. You know what I'm saying was of color, and so there was kind of like this thirst for, like, creating.
Speaker 1:And for me, I was like to your point, I wear a lot of different hats and one of the struggles of my life, or I guess one of the rebellions of my life, has been I'm not going to allow someone to put me in a box, right, like with as long as I'm within the umbrella of what I love to do, like I, I want to be able to be all these things, so I'm like what can I do to show that I have a skill in taking stories, putting them down visually, making it come together? Um, I sing, I write, I act, I do all these things. And so that's what anamnesis was. It was kind of like this project that I could say hey, you know, this isn't like filmed on a red, it isn't filmed like cinematically, but this is.
Speaker 1:This is what I can do. I can an idea, which was a spoken word piece, and I can give it a visual life and I can take you on this journey and make you feel something you know. And and that's where I started, that was my very first project. It was a no budget project and a very good friend of mine, teddy just had a camera and I was like, let's do it. And Teddy just had a camera and I was like, let's do it. And then I hit up all my actors of color that just wanted to be in something that wasn't a Best Buy commercial or a Target commercial or a General Mills commercial, and everybody was like, oh my God, yes.
Speaker 2:Anything, anything, yeah for sure.
Speaker 1:So yeah, so that's how Anamnesis came about and that really opened my mind to be. Like. You know, while I was creating Anamnesis, I was also observing Issa Rae, and then I was also observing Quinta Bronson's story and I'm like, oh, so this can happen, this can be, but really my original inspiration for being all of it was Sylvester Stallone he doesn't know. He's my uncle and I love him one day when I meet you.
Speaker 2:Sylvester Sly hi, he's got an interesting story. I have to meet you because, since I was young, I was obsessed with the story movie with the rocky movies.
Speaker 1:Yes, and what I love the most about them was not just like the storyline or whatever, but really was the fact that I knew that he had written it. I knew that they didn't want him to be the lead and he was like, nah, I'm gonna be the lead. I knew that he had to train himself, he had to produce it, he had to come up with the funds.
Speaker 2:He almost sold his dog, you know and like he had to wear his own clothes and everything, like they told him they wouldn't fund it if he was the lead. Well, I mean.
Speaker 1:Rocky 1 was kind of an experience and kind of an experiment, and then it blew up and it was like oh, then you can tell by Rocky 2, 3, and 4 there was significant budget, of course, because then they believed in him, and so I was always like I'm like the Afro-Latina Rocky, that's what I'm going to do.
Speaker 4:I'm going to be the Sylvester Stallone and just say F it, I'm going to do it my own but then you know we have a really great segue because then I have, like you know, the part that you are creative producer, Neuro Afro Latino pillar of LATV network. You know I've been part of that storytelling showcase. You know series that you have created and I'm so amazing that you have done so many great things. But you have been bringing also the community within the LA area, bringing Afro Latino voices. Tell us, you know, what are your goals, what do you want to see?
Speaker 1:because you know yeah, you know, landing there I didn't know was going to be such a full circle moment in life, because moving to Minnesota from the Caribbean, in the Caribbean and in New York, it was like Afro-Latino, it doesn't matter, because todos somos Dominicanos, puerto, because todos somos dominicanos, puertorriqueños, venezolanos, whatever, right, we're just like ah, tú eres más negrita que yo o tú tienes el pelo más kinky que yo, whatever, still not the greatest terms, but we're still a community. You step out of the coastal cities and you go to the middle of the United States. Identity and culture is a big deal. It's a big deal. And you know, I remember in high school walking into the lunchroom and being like okay, los blanquitos están allá, los asiáticos están allá, estos latinos son como la, but they're kind of acting more like white people.
Speaker 1:And then there's the black community and I remember to this day he's my friend, zarek. He was like yo I don't know why you talk the way you talk, because I had a thicker accent. He was like you're one of us, you got to come sit with us and and, and I really was kind of like oh, you know, like embracing my blackness outside of what I already knew it was in the Caribbean, but what that meant in the United States. Then you face the, the treatment of, because of the way you look in, a place as like the Midwest, um, it doesn't matter how black, what variation of black, if you're Latino black, if you're Asian black, whatever, whatever, if you are any variation of black, you are going to feel the discrimination You're going to feel the systematic, the personal and the or the paperback test.
Speaker 1:Yeah, or you're gonna experience also in corporate right, the microaggressions. And so I lived, lived that right, like I, um, I'm part of the community that knows george floyd. I'm part of the community that knows fernando castillo. Like we were all people of color in the places of minnesota, we all moved together. So it doesn't matter that my roots are caribbean black roots, right. What matters is that we're all uniting as melanated people of color that are being treated and othered, treated differently and othered. In the Midwest I also was othered by Latinos. They were the ones that mostly made me feel like tú no eres latina. Like I would literally go salsa dancing and nobody would dance with me. They'd be like ¿Cómo tú te sabes las canciones? Oh, ¿Qué te hiciste en el pelo? Oh my.
Speaker 4:Lord.
Speaker 1:I think it's just because I'm morena.
Speaker 2:I'm morena with thicker hair and kinkier hair and I speak Spanish, but you don't feel like people in the Midwest, like saw that? I don't think so.
Speaker 1:I think we know it because we are part of it, but once you leave, like I said, once you leave the coastal cities, because of what media puts out there, what is depicted is a very certain type of person that looks and represents latinos. It's not me, it's not jovi, you know what I'm saying. So when people see us and they see spanish come out of our mouth so well, and then they also hear our names, they're like oh, what do you mix with? Like or why? Why, you know?
Speaker 2:so they assume that you're like African American is what it is like. Okay, yeah.
Speaker 4:I was trying to figure it out there.
Speaker 2:Like that's just weird for like the Latinos, though, to be like that ignorant about that. It happens in LA, it happens everywhere there. Like that's just weird for like the latinos, though, to be like that.
Speaker 1:No, but that happened, about that it happens in la, it happens everywhere. It happens everywhere where afro-latinos are not the predominant latino community, the anti-blackness within the latino community yeah, no, we is serious, right, and sometimes you don't have to be a dark-skinned latino to experience that you just have to have a whiter nose.
Speaker 1:you just have to have a whiter nose. You just have to have a little more textured hair. You just have to have bigger lips, or even have el tumbao caribeño, que es un poquito más urbano. That alone separates you from a lot of the media and the Hollywood depiction of what we want Latinos to be. I've been told by agencies and casting directors that we have to submit you as black or ethnically ambiguous, because you're not what they're looking for when they say we want a Latina for a role, and so it's. You know, having went through that in the Midwest and then coming here as a model and as someone who was, you know, auditioning constantly and and seeing also when I would get these castings, it would be like we want to not feel latina but speak spanish, would have, but speak like mexican spanish, but we want a caribbean afro latina, and so we're like it's so weird, because you're like what is that breakdown mexican?
Speaker 1:af obviously yes, but when you're calling out a Caribbean Latino culture, but then you want me to speak with an accent that's not native to my culture and I get it because that's the predominant, you know, culture of Latinidad here in Los Angeles.
Speaker 1:But at the end of the day, what really motivated me, with LATV Roots and with Afro-Latinos, is that when we look at Latinidad globally, when we look at what moves globally when it comes to Latinidad is music and food, and on a global level, what moves popular culture, and what has moved American popular culture has derived from the Caribbean, has been Panama, venezuela, puerto Rico, cuba, dominican Republic.
Speaker 1:Yet we are the least represented when it comes to media, movies, hollywood, but we're the ones who have created this Latin boom. You know what I'm saying. And so there's this huge discrepancy with not only representing us but also representing this very nuanced experience of like, what it's like to feel othered within your own people. But also what's the nuance of presenting black, embracing your blackness but also understanding that there's there's a lived different. There's a difference in your lived experience in America. When it comes to the African American experience, right, because at the end of the day, the diasporically we're all black, right, but the African-American experience right, because at the end of the day, diasporically we're all black, right, but the African-American community has a very distinct history with United States.
Speaker 1:Exactly, that's very specific to them and what happened to them and how this country was built, you know, and so culturally.
Speaker 2:They got 400 years of history that.
Speaker 1:Right and so, culturally, there's things that belong specifically to that community, and then there's spaces where we completely intersect, and then there are a lot of African Americans that have Latino roots, especially here in LA.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You have a lot of big community. You know we had Sharon Cruz from Afro-California come in and talk about this in the show, where a lot of them are African American but like their abuela's from Guatemala or from Panama, there was a huge Panamanian influx here like back in the 70s and or you know el tío es tabaloreño o el papá es mexicano o la mamá es mexicana.
Speaker 1:You know, like hella black Mexican Y Krama's show is about that, right, right, it's like it's about her not understanding like her identity as a kid, you know.
Speaker 1:So there's all of these nuances that are never included when we talk about latinidad as a whole, and so it was a great opportunity for me to come in with my lived experience, having been in the midwest, and open the door to other voices and other experiences, because the the unfortunately, you know, the darker your skin gets, the harder the the more complex the experience gets. And so how can we celebrate latinos unidos, understanding that there are still very nuanced experiences, that, um, that need a safe space in order to talk about that, to celebrate it and to highlight it so that we can be more aware and that we can actively make changes within our own community, because the colorism is very real and still alive. I mean Amara La Negra, just Elijah, the editor that I have with LAT Rules. He just wrote an article about Amara La Negra. Just Elijah, the editor that I have with LAT Rules. He just wrote an article about Amara La Negra's baby dad coming at her for her skin color and the colorism and he's Dominican and the colorism that's happening.
Speaker 2:That's one of the reasons it's one of the topics at Revolución, the colorism versus racism panel. It's one of the reasons why I thought it was a really important panel to discuss, just because I think that within our community we haven't really addressed it in the best way possible and we need to start destroying that stigma big time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because a lot of people everybody's like well, nosotros no podemos progresar porque no estamos unidos. Okay, pero como nos vamos a unir si entre nosotros mismos?
Speaker 4:nos estamos discriminando.
Speaker 1:You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:So it's like we can't just do the blanket and be like, ah, don't worry about that, let's just all be Latino.
Speaker 1:And it's like, yeah, ideally that's the goal, but we could all be Latinos, understanding that the culture in Panama is different to the culture in Guatemala, which is different to the culture in Mexico. And the more I feel like we celebrate those differences, our cultural differences, the richer we are as a community, the stronger we'll be, because then we can celebrate each other and not do the whole. I don't know. I kind of compare it to like when white people say they're colorblind you know, it's like I don't see color and it's like, well then you don't see me. You know what I'm saying and that's just your excuse to not take accountability for the role that you play in the institution of racism and white privilege, right? So if we want to, as Latinos, come together, I feel like we have to acknowledge who we are as people you know culturally, and then we can come together are as people you know culturally, and then we can come together yeah but oh yeah, so anyway, that's where latv roots is um.
Speaker 2:You can cut that up however you need to um.
Speaker 1:That's. That's what latv roots is. We focus, you know it's. It is about the afro experience, but we also do acknowledge, like the indigenous roots, because you can't talk about one without the other and I think that there's a common misconception. It's like oh, if you're celebrating Afro Latinidad, then you're not acknowledging your indigenousness, or you're not acknowledging your you're. Spaniard and this happened a lot in Gabriel and Andy's post.
Speaker 4:That went viral that he shows up pretty much after four years.
Speaker 1:Nothing really much has changed and so to me, it's like it's not. It's like the Black Lives Matter movement, right? It's not saying that nothing else matters. It's like the Black Lives Matter movement, right? It's not saying that nothing else matters. It's just saying like, right now, in this space, we choose to focus on this because this is what's least recognized when you think about, you know, latinos. We're more likely to recognize our Hispanidad and our, you know, indigenous roots than we are to acknowledge our African ancestry ancestry, you know. And so that's that's what lat roots is about is really about us healing as a community coming together in la, and now it's growing it's. It's gotten way bigger than I ever anticipated, um, but it's it's. It's about amplifying the voices of Latinos of color.
Speaker 3:So what advice would you give to aspiring storytellers, especially those that are in underrepresented communities, I think?
Speaker 1:what advice would I give? I think, find your village. I think it's really important to not that's a good line.
Speaker 1:I think it's important to find your people right and then build with your people right, like one of the things I had to do when I took over.
Speaker 1:I was hosting at Black Dinidad on LATV Roots, and when I took over it, the very first thing that I told LATV was like I need this to be a communal space.
Speaker 1:This has to be a space where, like, it feels like we are, we're we're tapping into community and we're building community because the, the experiences that people are having, the otherness, the, the, the confusion and identity, the I don't feel like I can have a say in this, or I don't know if I should speak up about that because of how it, you know, all of that it really affects confidence and self-belief, you know. And so it's like when you have a community and you can talk about these things in a safe space, then you start to heal individually and then I think that healing spreads through osmosis, you know, and then, once you address it in your community level, then it can propagate from there. So I think the very first thing is to find your people, find your village, you know, and then, uh, and then let that kind of flourish and grow organically and that goes along pretty much also with social justice or women's rights and having these conversations.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this, as you know women's rights there and having these conversations. Yeah, you know, women's rights there's so many topics that it's like when you get into these intersections there's an added layer of complexity. You know, like for Women's History Month we talked about when we say Latinas, or when we give these film funds to Latinas, or when we give grants to Latinas, and then you see all the Latinas and then there's no black Latina on there. You know, it's like how can we how? Can we as a community?
Speaker 1:say hey it's a way wider spectrum right than what a lot of times is depicted, than who is selected for a lot of these um funds and grants. And then also, you know, as a Latina, when I'm submitting for something right, let's say we're giving money for this. Okay, so I fall into both black and Latina. And so if you have a Latina that is like stereotypically looking Latina, and then you have a black person right who's African American or whatever variation of black, then I don't fit in neither one of those, because you only got one spot for each variation that you're looking for, you know. So that's why these conversations need to be had, because it's the. Then you start to, through conversation, you start to realize like, oh, I'm not the only one going through this. Oh, snap, like you and I had a long conversation about just like, and we're like wow, like there's like a whole, a whole, everything can be done off of just one topic, you know and that's what overwhelms me the most about program for LATV Roots, wow.
Speaker 2:I agree with that, because we were actually talking about it on one of the shows where I think it was Jeff Bezos and his fiancée, where it's giving out money and the money went to Eva Longoria, which does great work. I'm not knocking that, but it goes to your point of what you're saying like only specific ones what type of latina ones like that. Money didn't go to a specific latina that was, you know, afro-latina, or that descent you know what I'm saying, so it's just interesting and that was like a lot.
Speaker 4:It wasn't like a little bit of money.
Speaker 1:This is what I'm saying right, it's like is is the problem that eva got it? No, is that? Is this huge chunk of money that went to this one person. So that they can clean their hands and say we're serving Latinos, when really they could have done five, ten million grants and given it to ten different, and it's the same thing as the Oscar speech.
Speaker 1:Why are we doing things at? Because that's what sustains this gatekeeping of you can only get access to these things when you reach a certain level. If you really want to create access, break that $400 million up and do $40, $10 million films.
Speaker 2:That's what I'm talking about. That's what they said in the Oscars. Yeah, the American, oh God, he made the movie for the Last Repair Shop. Yeah, and he had mentioned in there.
Speaker 1:He's like not the last repair shop it was um American. Ugh, wasn't it American Um? Oh my God.
Speaker 2:Yeah, now we're going to. We'll go back to it. What's his name? But it was in the Oscars. He gave the speech and he was. He was dead on and I it right away on my story because I was like it's the last repair shop.
Speaker 4:No, it's the last repair shop?
Speaker 1:yeah, it was the american.
Speaker 2:Yeah, his whole thing was like what I always thought was like you're willing to risk a 200 million dollar movie. You've flopped on marvel. Like how many times you're betting so high he has flopped on movies how many times? And it's like he's saying like you can take those 400 or those 256 million dollars and separate them into like 10, 20 million.
Speaker 3:That would have been a great idea yeah.
Speaker 2:For for different people, and they just won't.
Speaker 1:And here's the thing Right when you come from guerrilla, independent filmmaking, where you have to be the editor, the producer, the filmmaker, you know what I could do.
Speaker 4:Which.
Speaker 2:You give me. You give me $100,000. I spend it all on crafties.
Speaker 1:If you give me $100,000,. I'm going to sell you. Look, I'm going to even marvel, because we are resourceful people.
Speaker 4:Exactly.
Speaker 1:We're resourceful people and we don't have to pay to go get these ideas thought out. Most of us already have the ideas. They're already written, they're already, they're already in treatment, they're ready to go. We just need money to pay people so that we can get the economy of filmmaking going. It's crazy.
Speaker 2:I saw the movies that made us on netflix one time and they were showing how they got the concepts for a lot of the movies. And it's apparently writers send in a whole bunch of scripts and they put them in boxes and they, they just they don't even oh yeah, and then when it's time to find a concept for a movie.
Speaker 2:They'll go digging through these boxes, yeah that was sitting there for years but they're like because they got to contact the person they bought it. Those scripts are just sitting there Right Like the thought, and it's just.
Speaker 1:Or you have writer's room right Like. You know how much a lot of money goes into writer's room so that these scripts can be further developed and whatever. And when you have, when you have, and it just it happens to be that people of color, we, just because we haven't had access to resources, we, we do it all. You know what I'm saying. So 10 million, 5 million, 1 million can go a very long way.
Speaker 3:I'm like give me half a million. I'm creating that color right, so I mean I take 200,000 a quarter quarter
Speaker 1:I'm like I'm about to do a project in mexico I know it's going to cost $55,000 and I'm like, no, no, no, give me those $100,000, I'll turn around and I'll double that well, you know, I also one of the things with the Oscars too, like one film that didn't get nominated, that I loved, that was independent, that was a $16 million considered low budget film, was Iron Claw, you know, and there was no mention of it nor anything, and and I'm like this is a perfect example of like this is a really well thought out oh, that's with Zac Efron.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and he had to completely transform himself. It was uncomfortable to look at him Like look, his veins were going to pop out at one point and all the tanning and stuff. But this is a very rich story. It's sad, but it's a very well put together film.
Speaker 2:I know I grew up watching them and I'm like there was no mention of this at all. I think it might be next year's, though I think what happened was they weren't in theaters yet, or something like that.
Speaker 1:I don't know what the it seems like they're a little bit behind. It might be, but I think it's just not.
Speaker 2:If it doesn't get mentioned next year that's a problem.
Speaker 1:I'm hoping it does.
Speaker 2:He should definitely get a supporting actor, nomination and so forth, if he doesn't go for me, you know for yeah, because that's a. That was a strong. I agree with you he's very surprised. You know we're not talking about latino actors here, but he's amazing. I mean.
Speaker 3:Well, they were making fun of him, they were saying his face changed, but was it for the character?
Speaker 1:I don't know. I don't know, I think there was.
Speaker 3:He does look very different.
Speaker 1:In that case, he had an accident or something happened where he had to end up getting his nose or his jaw fixed or something like that. So eso no se.
Speaker 2:Don't quote me on that. We don't have the inside school.
Speaker 1:But you know, my point is that it's like access. You know, there's ways to make these things more accessible, even just internships, opportunities, shadowing, you know. You know, conversations like there's, it doesn't always have to be, yes, funding is important, but it doesn't always have to be about money, you know I agree with that sometimes it could be like if someone that's at a higher level than you just shares your trailer, like that can just help reach. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:Like that alone is current I think that's the biggest thing for us. Like we've done a lot to try to help support short films. Like even last year with Revolution we turned around and we had like a whole short film presentation that we did for the in-person event. We just feel like it's extremely important. We'll be doing it again this year where we have the film industry panel. It's a lot of short film people on there, so for us it's pretty cool. Now, talking about films, you're creating your feature length documentary, Vida.
Speaker 1:Nueva.
Speaker 2:Yes, what is that about? Let us know when can we get the sweater?
Speaker 1:Yeah, we are working on them. We have t-shirts, we have sweaters. This is one of the concepts. My brother made this for me. This is a film by Eliana oh, and then we have the Monumento de Santiago and then the entire statement.
Speaker 2:I didn't see that. That's actually really cool.
Speaker 1:Because you know, that's what the story represents. It's a very, you know, new York Dominican story. It's like it's the story of, like first gen immigrant kids and our and our father and, and you know, um, and as I mentioned earlier, when he went to prison, like I was, I was a teenager, a lot of us were young and it really shook our lives because he was a provider and and not just like financially, all the things that happened a lot, all of most, the only ones that from my siblings, me and Max have the same mom, but a lot of my siblings we have different mothers. So all of our lives were impacted very differently. And when I got the call that you know the release day was actually happening, because you never know, with the BOP system, we were like, oh snap, like this is happening. And I was like I can't call myself a storyteller if I don't tell the most impactful story of my life.
Speaker 2:You know what?
Speaker 1:I'm saying because everything of who I am me landing in Minnesota, having a career in finance, finance you know, all the skills that I learned from being a project manager in corporate is what's translates to me being a great producer and being able to direct a film and execute ideas right. It all ties in together. Same thing with my brother, max, and so you know I had already done the short films and amnesias. I haven't done anything at this scale yet, but I'm already working in TV and stuff. It just made sense. It just made sense and I talked to Max and Max was like, yeah, let's do it. And so we just bootstrapped it. You know I called him favors and, um, we were able to document the, the days here in LA when we were getting the calls of like, okay, is he actually being released?
Speaker 1:yeah yes, okay. And then there was step one, and then step two is like, okay, he's released from when we were getting the calls of like, okay, is he actually being released? Yes, okay. And then that was step one. And then step two is like, okay, he's released from the BOP system, okay, but then he goes into like custody with the marshals, and then that whole process.
Speaker 1:We didn't know how that works and it's really hard to get in contact with these people and you don't know what's going on. And then it was like then he wasn't holding with the marshals for like another month and a half. And then they're like, oh yeah, this date he's on a plane and it's like, oh, no, it's this date, you know. And then it's like he's talking to all the tias and and so then you have all these different stories. We don't know what the hell was going on. So there's a scene in the film where I'm pissed and I'm like snapping on the phone, and that that made it to the trailer because it's very real. It's very like you're just trying to figure out what the emotion brings you in.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and not only that, it's all happening in, in, you know we're trying to plan this thing we're filming, and then your feelings are, your feelings of 26 years are coming up, and I just remember being like so anxious, I was so sick, like physically sick, just like anticipating like, oh my God, what is this going to be like when I, when I see him Cause I hadn't seen him in like eight, nine years Um, and so it was, it was, it was a lot, and um, you know, and we then we ended up going to DR and we filmed the moment that we all, we saw each other for the first time, that first embrace the very raw display of emotions of, like, this culmination of 26 years because, at the end of the day, like, we love our father dearly, you know, and we understand, we understand the things that he did do and we understand the things that he didn't do, that he paid for, you know, and and so it's.
Speaker 1:It's just been 26 years of like longing for this piece of you that has been put away, and all of us experienced it and it impacted us in different ways.
Speaker 1:And so I really wanted to create a space where, like, my brothers could open up, because they never have, that my father could open up, because he never has, and so I had two choices of, oh, I can focus on, like the case and what happened, and this and this and that, and I was like you know, what do I have?
Speaker 1:What do we have? That's ours and it's our feelings and it's how it shaped our lives and how it impacted us and how we're looking forward to reintegrate and, you know, with the spirit of, like, forgiveness and hope of a new life. And that's really where the name of the film came from yeah, so, um, so, yeah, we did it. And sometimes I'm like, wait, all of this happened already, like you know. And then working on the film in post, while still reintegrating, still getting to know, you know each other again, even siblings coming back together, because we all kind of just like we're just living our own lives, because it's this big elephant in the room that nobody wants to talk about anymore, because you get tired of talking about it, because it's 26 years.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's not three, four, five years, it's 26 years. So it llega a punto que you're just kind of like. I have to compartmentalize this, otherwise I'm not going to achieve shit in life, because there's a certain amount of guilt. That's what I don't talk about. When you have a, a person that's close to you that's in prison, especially a parent, you have this weird guilt of like, oh I, I, I shouldn't go and pursue my dreams, I really shouldn't be out here taking these trips and seeing the world, I shouldn't get married yet until he gets out. You know all these things, because you feel guilty that you're living your life, and then you can only update him maybe with like a picture or two when you mail him something.
Speaker 3:If he gets the mail.
Speaker 2:I'm absolutely glad that you made this a movie, because thank you I don't know if I could read another book I had to put out. I had to put out her legitimate kid and I read that full book and I never read. Yeah, I listened to it, I'm like I'm glad she put out a movie for vida nueva, because if you put out a book, i'm'm just going to go back to the movie. Yeah, no.
Speaker 1:You know, the thing is when you create and you are, you know I'm audacious, right in the sense that, like I didn't go to film school, I didn't you know I don't have this like film training, that they say you have to have to break into the industry. But I do know I have these talents and this skill and I've had it since I was very young and it's within me. So when you, when you create from that place, you have to create with, like, what you know and what you understand and what you have access to, and so what I know about me is that my favorite way of learning or hearing stories is documentaries yeah you know and um, I watch a documentary about anything.
Speaker 2:Like waves animals. I was watching one on T-Rex yesterday, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:No, I absolutely do. I'm like, okay, esto va a ser el estilo documental. Now, me being who I am, I'm like I don't want to put this in a box, so I left it at an experimental documentary.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because there to put this in a box, so I left it at an experimental documentary. Yeah, because there are non-traditional parts about it. Right, it's not journalistic, it's not observational, because a story is being curated. Right, I didn't want to deal with the legal and archival piece of like a journalistic, like I knew I didn't have money or resources for that. Hopefully, if somebody wants to pick this up and tell the story of the case. That's a whole other thing.
Speaker 3:How about that?
Speaker 1:Put some money behind it, but again, what do we have that's ours, and also what do we need as a family to heal, because all my siblings are creative, so that's one of the cool things about the film is that we made an album, we made a soundtrack and every single one of us has a track.
Speaker 2:That's cool, yeah, so?
Speaker 1:I have a balada on there that I wrote, um christian has a mambo, a merengue. That he wrote. Sebastian has a dembow. That he wrote. Max has his um it's like an r&b track that he wrote. And then we brought in my one of my best friends, lady midnight, and she did a track, which is the track on the trailer. We have jay valera from new york doing the chorus on max's song. So we were just like we're gonna heal through putting this together and and like using the thing that sustained us. Right, because music really sustained christian and sustained sebastian. Max has been in, you know, in music and entertainment, the business side for years and I've been storytelling since I was a kid, so this is really an opportunity for my family to heal and come together and just have something on paper, right, that we did. And then we realized that, oh, it's not just about us, right, like mucha familia latina.
Speaker 2:Or dealing with that African American.
Speaker 1:Because you know, especially in the 90s, like long-term incarceration was a thing, there's a lot of black and Latino. There's bills that were signed right. We don't even need to get into all of that, into how, like you know, maximum sentences for minimal crimes, or hey, we're going to build this case and manipulate someone to say something so we can hit you with a Rico.
Speaker 1:I remember all of that Like there's a lot of things that happened in the 90s, and so there's a lot of families that have been broken, and so my idea for Vida Nueva wasn't so much about hey, look at this, our vat is out, watch it. It's about what does long-term incarceration do to those that are left on the outside?
Speaker 1:yeah and to the person that's incarcerated, right um, and that's really what it's about. It's like it doesn't matter what the crime is, and obviously, as long as it's not like rape or murder or whatever, but it's like you back then.
Speaker 2:It was marijuana, it was a lot of weed and and you know.
Speaker 1:And if they can, and they can build a case around you.
Speaker 1:They can pay you for stuff that you didn't even do you know.
Speaker 1:So it's about.
Speaker 1:This is the emotional impact of long-term incarceration, and the beautiful part about the film is that I didn't plan on doing the interviewing on my siblings because I wanted them to feel safe to open up, and I had brought my friend, lorena Jorge, who's also an actress, and she AD'd the film the Dominican Republic part and she was supposed to do it.
Speaker 1:But then she got this huge callback and we're like, and I'm like, girl, go do your callback out to the interviews, and it was emotional to see my brothers open up and speak up for the first time the same day that I also interviewed my father, which is also the same day that I got interviewed, and so I just said this at my event on last Friday I'm like I look a a hot ass mess in this documentary because I my interview was the last. It was like golden hour, the sun was setting and we're in mama's land, like we're at her, her you know property, my grandmother who had passed, and I really believe that her spirit was there with us and it's like it was just this very, very emotional. So by the time I sat down to do the interview, it's like the stress in my face and the emo it was.
Speaker 2:It was a lot so um what's the plan for, like the distribution side of it, like, are you guys going into the festivals first and then?
Speaker 1:yeah, you know, we talked about it and you're just kind of like we want the, the, we want people to see it. You know, and I think it's a challenge for us too to go into the film festival and say, hey, we made this, and we did it really with the lochelito que teníamos en el bolsillo, because we really just started a go fund me campaign, um, and I just submitted to some work in progress funds, because in my mind I was like I'm gonna make this regardless, like if I had to go and film on my iPhone Pro Max 15.
Speaker 1:that's what I would have done, you know, because the story was gonna get told regardless. But what ends up happening is that as we're putting together the, I'm like, oh shit, I'm sitting on something way bigger than even what I could have imagined. So we were like let's do the film festival run. I was going to try to do it last year and then I had to humble myself and be like girl, you ain't ready, this ain't ready. And so I waited, and so we're doing final touches. Now we have some color grading to do some other stuff, and then music placement. But next we'll release the soundtrack album so people can enjoy the songs and get familiar with them.
Speaker 1:So when they see the film they're like oh, that's that one song or whatever. And then we'll start submitting to film festivals and hopefully, you know, we get acquisition, like some, you know.
Speaker 2:Netflix, netflix, peacock, somebody.
Speaker 1:Somebody right Netflix, amazon, peacock, somebody to get it, because I do think now that I, when I watch the trailer and I'm seeing the version of the film that I have now, I was telling Max, I was like you know, we are really sitting on something very unique and different, because we're addressing immigration also from the perspective of the Dominican community, which we don't hear at all really.
Speaker 1:We're dealing with long-term incarceration, we're dealing with healing in real time on camera, and then we have this very like cool, raw edge to it, which is like all of these original songs that we've made that represent our culture and our influences as we've grown up, as you know, first gen immigrant kids here in america. So it's, um, I keep looking at the film like, damn, this is different, this is different and I'm excited about it. Um, but I'm just hoping that it can be, that it's valued, and we, we posted the trailer and I'm still overwhelmed oh, you gotta send me, okay.
Speaker 2:So I mean you gotta send me, send me the trailer. So yeah, yeah, it's valued and we posted the trailer and I'm still overwhelmed. Oh, you gotta send me, okay. So I mean you gotta send me, send me the trailer so we can definitely share it. It's on the Instagram. We'll definitely do our part on sharing. If people wanted to like, follow you and you know all of your work and especially the LATV, like, how do they do that?
Speaker 1:easiest is Instagram. I am dot Eliana Reyes and there you'll see, I have my LATV roots page page linked. That's for my LATV network work. And then Vida Nueva Film. At Vida Nueva Film we have our own Instagram page as well and there, on the link in bio, you'll get the website. You'll see the crowdfunding link. The trailer is also there.
Speaker 2:And yeah, it's just, I'm still kind of like what's happening we may need to showcase at a special event that's taking place in September.
Speaker 1:I don't think, I don't know. I don't know if it'll be ready. I mean, I'm hoping it'll be ready, but no, my leave is in May I was like which one are you talking about?
Speaker 3:How are you not catching up? My days are all mixed up. Right now it's an hour, I know. Yeah, toma revolucion.
Speaker 1:At least it's an hour. It was pushing an hour and a half and I cut it down.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, the September, one An hour and ten minutes, I feel like people's attention span is.
Speaker 2:It's getting to the point where yeah, it's like a good hour hour and seven minutes. Two-minute films are the best way to go, Nana.
Speaker 1:You're trying to tell a story in 60 seconds. Yeah, yeah, yeah I know it's you know.
Speaker 2:Thank you for coming on the show.
Speaker 1:No thank, you guys for having me.
Speaker 4:I feel like it's about time we haven't met in person. This is like the first time I know. It's crazy. It's like it's, it's.
Speaker 1:I'm really grateful that you guys have me here and thank you for amplifying us. And Can we talk about this? We talked about it. Bp has a magazine Like servo. I love it.
Speaker 2:We put in work, it was good. It was good, it was a good time, and then the event that we had for it last Sunday actually did really well. Yeah, you know a lot of women there who empowered each other and network and it's just really cool. And we're hoping that a lot of people support the magazine going forward because obviously we're not one of these major corporations, so everything is community funded when it comes to a lot of the stuff that we do. I know all about that. So for those of you who are watching, alright well, again, thank you for coming and joining with us. This was really awesome and I can't wait to see the film. Hopefully we get to showcase it as well and share it and promote it and do what we can to elevate Um, but that's our show.
Speaker 2:Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for watching the show. We hope you enjoyed this interview with Ileana. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And that is Daisy, that is Joby and well. And is Daisy, that is Joby and well? And just me now Follow us at Todo Wafi and at Todo Latino Show. I am Rafael and we are out.
