Latest / Locatora Radio [A Radiophonic Novela] / Capítulo 085: For Rosa, with Melinna Bobadilla

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Capítulo 085: For Rosa, with Melinna Bobadilla · Locatora Radio [A Radiophonic Novela]

0:02
Speaker 1: Radio radio Radio Commies, a myth and bullshit radio phonic novella.
0:17
Speaker 1: Look Radio hosted by man Ala Locamore is welcome to
0:24
Speaker 1: season four of Local Radios Wanted for Crimes against the Patriarchy.
0:32
Speaker 1: We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming to bring you Quarantine Confidential,
0:37
Speaker 1: a special pandemic broadcast about our experiences with quarantine and
0:41
Speaker 1: COVID nineteen. I'm Fiosa and I'm Mala. Our intention behind
0:46
Speaker 1: this mini series is to archive our experiences during this
0:49
Speaker 1: global coronavirus pandemic. Thank you for joining us on this journey.
0:54
Speaker 1: Last time on Quarantine Confidential, we interviewed Gata from Got
1:00
Speaker 1: That you can tune into that episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, SoundCloud,
1:04
Speaker 1: and audio boom. Yes, and we are back today and
1:08
Speaker 1: we are interviewing a friend of ours, a friend of
1:11
Speaker 1: the pod, a actress the second half of this interview,
1:14
Speaker 1: but before that, we just want to check in talk
1:17
Speaker 1: about what's going on in Los Angeles specifically. There's a
1:21
Speaker 1: lot going on and we just want to touch base
1:23
Speaker 1: with all of y'all. With our listeners, we know a
1:25
Speaker 1: lot of y'all are in Los Angeles, l A. We
1:29
Speaker 1: continue to protest right nationally, internationally, protests in for black
1:35
Speaker 1: lives matter and against police brutality. Um, they continue, and
1:40
Speaker 1: that means that the police violence is also continuing, even
1:44
Speaker 1: against folks just working, living there everyday lives, you know,
1:48
Speaker 1: like not involved in anything. Just it's ridiculous. The most
1:51
Speaker 1: recent police killing has been the l A. Sheriff's deputies
1:55
Speaker 1: who shot and killed eighteen year old Andres Guarado, who
1:59
Speaker 1: was saw the door in and he was a guard,
2:02
Speaker 1: a security guard patrolling an auto body shop in guardina Um.
2:08
Speaker 1: The details about this situation are still unraveling, but you know,
2:11
Speaker 1: we follow a shout out to the l A. Taco
2:14
Speaker 1: Reporters and the l A. Taco crew because during all
2:19
Speaker 1: of everything going on with the coronavirus, the pandemic, the uprisings,
2:23
Speaker 1: the protests, police violence, like they are really informing the
2:26
Speaker 1: community and they're on the ground and they're out there
2:28
Speaker 1: in the streets like talking to the people, getting to
2:31
Speaker 1: the directly to the sources and getting that news out
2:34
Speaker 1: there for us. So one of the l A. Taco
2:36
Speaker 1: reporters was out there, Memo Torres, and he spoke with
2:40
Speaker 1: the owner and the manager of the auto body shop
2:43
Speaker 1: that Andres Guavado was where he was working as a
2:48
Speaker 1: security guard and where he was ultimately killed. And he
2:51
Speaker 1: was speaking to the manager and owner, and this man
2:54
Speaker 1: was saying that you know no one in the area
2:56
Speaker 1: that he knows of, and he certainly didn't call lawn
2:59
Speaker 1: for smith. There was not an issue. There wasn't a
3:02
Speaker 1: break in, nothing was going on that warranted their arrival.
3:06
Speaker 1: Like it's it's a mystery as to why they pulled
3:10
Speaker 1: up in the first place. And then it turns out
3:13
Speaker 1: that after they pulled up on ANDREADO, the young man
3:18
Speaker 1: was obviously scared and he ran away and they ended
3:21
Speaker 1: up shooting him in the back seven times, and according
3:24
Speaker 1: to the young man's father, they left his body there
3:26
Speaker 1: until five am. And the manager of the auto body
3:31
Speaker 1: shop said that the sheriffs ended up um breaking and
3:35
Speaker 1: destroying the security cameras around the auto body shop and
3:39
Speaker 1: going into the business and taking the tapes from the
3:43
Speaker 1: security cameras, only to return the next day with search warrants.
3:48
Speaker 1: So people have begun to protest um in the content
3:53
Speaker 1: area in Guardina, and law enforcement ended up tear gassing
3:59
Speaker 1: and acting protesters, not even protesters necessarily, but just folks
4:03
Speaker 1: there in honor of Andrea those memory right and in
4:07
Speaker 1: support of his family. There's so much going on right now,
4:11
Speaker 1: and it's because this is a survivor focused podcast, you know.
4:16
Speaker 1: I always look at these things through this, like trauma
4:19
Speaker 1: lens and the survivor lens. And I remember I had
4:23
Speaker 1: a client once who told me that after reporting abuse,
4:28
Speaker 1: after going through law enforcement in the courts and the
4:30
Speaker 1: criminal justice system, she ultimately came to this conclusion that
4:35
Speaker 1: she knew that she was an abusive relationship with the
4:38
Speaker 1: father of her child, but the most abusive relationships she
4:41
Speaker 1: was ever in was with the United States of America
4:44
Speaker 1: and with our criminal justice system. And that's how I
4:47
Speaker 1: feel about our our our forced relationship with law enforcement.
4:51
Speaker 1: Like we I was talking to my mom about this earlier,
4:54
Speaker 1: like when we went to school and we were put
4:56
Speaker 1: into these DARE programs and it put in con tech
5:00
Speaker 1: with police and top that they were heroes all the
5:03
Speaker 1: while they were killing people and they continue to kill us.
5:07
Speaker 1: And it's this gas lighting where no, we're the good guys, No,
5:12
Speaker 1: but you have blood on your hands, and it's just
5:14
Speaker 1: mind blowing. Yeah, I've seen people share on social media
5:18
Speaker 1: about this, about this using the specific term called copaganda.
5:23
Speaker 1: And it's like the way the media portrays cops, and
5:27
Speaker 1: in most of our media, we see cops as the heroes,
5:31
Speaker 1: as the good guys, the detectives that are like just
5:34
Speaker 1: like in Law and Order SVU, the detectives that are
5:36
Speaker 1: going to fight for survivors and run the test and
5:39
Speaker 1: get the perpetrator and all those things. But that actually
5:42
Speaker 1: isn't reflective of real life. And uh, it's also really
5:47
Speaker 1: interesting to see the mental gymnastics that people do to
5:52
Speaker 1: justify cops killing anyone like guilty or not. Uh, Like
5:57
Speaker 1: I've seen people on social media say like, well, if
6:00
Speaker 1: he wasn't if he didn't have a gun, he like
6:03
Speaker 1: wouldn't be killed. He wouldn't have been killed. Or if
6:05
Speaker 1: he didn't run, he wouldn't have been killed, right, and
6:08
Speaker 1: like completely ignoring that all humans have a stress response
6:13
Speaker 1: and it's completely natural to to flee literally to run
6:17
Speaker 1: because your body is in survival mode. And so it's
6:21
Speaker 1: really astounding and incredible not surprising to see the mental
6:25
Speaker 1: gymnastics that people do to justify a cop killing a
6:30
Speaker 1: teenager and also the media reporting a man a man
6:35
Speaker 1: was murdered, a man was murdered when this was clearly
6:37
Speaker 1: a teenager has a baby face is eighteen. Older white
6:42
Speaker 1: men have been called kids for doing worse things, and
6:46
Speaker 1: so just the cognitive dissonances, it's just too much at
6:50
Speaker 1: this point, it's too much. You know, hopeful that people
6:54
Speaker 1: are waking up, but it's it's a lot, it's a lot.
6:58
Speaker 1: And look, we're Jesse Romero was murdered by the l
7:03
Speaker 1: A p D. It was not that long ago. He
7:05
Speaker 1: was fourteen years old. He was also shot in the back,
7:09
Speaker 1: you know. And black children, Um, black folks continue to
7:14
Speaker 1: be killed. Brown children are are being killed. Like, abolish
7:20
Speaker 1: the police, Defund the police, abolish the police. That's really
7:23
Speaker 1: all there is to say at this point, you know.
7:27
Speaker 1: So I think what we'll do is we'll probably link
7:30
Speaker 1: um and those I think that there's a go fund
7:34
Speaker 1: me out there will link that, you know. In the
7:37
Speaker 1: show notes inside. Yeah, yeah, there's also different calls to
7:40
Speaker 1: action to hold the local officials and Guardina accountable. I
7:46
Speaker 1: believe maybe within the first twenty four hours, the mayor
7:49
Speaker 1: of Guardina didn't release his statement, so folks were pressuring
7:52
Speaker 1: him to release a statement. So, yeah, there's different actions
7:56
Speaker 1: that you can take and we will link those in
7:58
Speaker 1: the show notes. So we want to talk talk to
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Speaker 1: Radio fifty of it and ship. All right, welcome back.
10:27
Speaker 1: We have been um super excited to get this interview
10:32
Speaker 1: out to you all because it's attached to an amazing
10:35
Speaker 1: mo head and artista who is working on some incredible projects.
10:40
Speaker 1: So we are pleased to invite Melina Bobarbia onto look
10:44
Speaker 1: at what our radio. We're going to hear from her
10:46
Speaker 1: about her production work on a new film called four Rosa,
10:50
Speaker 1: which is a USC thesis film about the Madrigal ten So.
10:56
Speaker 1: Melina Bobabia is a Chicana actress. Born and raised in
10:59
Speaker 1: l ah She's focused on shifting the paradigm of Latino
11:03
Speaker 1: representation on screen. She's best known for her work in
11:07
Speaker 1: the final season on Netflix hit series Orange is the
11:10
Speaker 1: New Black, where she portrays the recurring character of San
11:13
Speaker 1: fels Chage, a Guatemalan and Maya Kiche speaking migrant woman
11:17
Speaker 1: who is detained at the polycon Ized Detention Center. She's
11:21
Speaker 1: also seen on the critically acclaimed Apple TV original series
11:24
Speaker 1: Little America. Her other notable credits include Grand Hotel, the
11:28
Speaker 1: fiftieth anniversary revival of zoot Suit at the Mark Taper Forum,
11:32
Speaker 1: and The Laundromat film, where she starred opposite Meryl Street.
11:37
Speaker 1: So we're gonna bring on Melina's um coming up soon
11:41
Speaker 1: to talk about her debut as a producer. She's co
11:43
Speaker 1: producing and starring as the lead in the short film
11:46
Speaker 1: for Rosa, based on the nine Madrigal Versus Quilligan class
11:51
Speaker 1: action lawsuit centering the stories of Latinas who survived forcible
11:55
Speaker 1: sterilization at l A County General Hospital. So without there
12:00
Speaker 1: do thank you so much. This is like, this is
12:06
Speaker 1: an honor. It is truly exciting, and I absolutely I'm
12:12
Speaker 1: just so grateful for you both for your voices, and
12:15
Speaker 1: I'm also grateful to be included in this really um glorious, wonderful,
12:22
Speaker 1: magical space that you've created to document the brilliance of
12:27
Speaker 1: women of color. So thank you for what you do.
12:30
Speaker 1: And UM, I'm going to pretend that we actually are
12:33
Speaker 1: like seeing each other. I get to see your your
12:36
Speaker 1: beautiful faces and and admire you're always on point looks,
12:41
Speaker 1: and we're just like, you know, we're we're having a
12:44
Speaker 1: happy hour or something. So I'm going to treat it
12:45
Speaker 1: as that. Yes, thank you so much for joining us.
12:50
Speaker 1: We definitely need to have a dream in caval cocktail
12:54
Speaker 1: when hopefully this is all over. And yes, we like
12:57
Speaker 1: you know, we definitely miss being in the studio and
12:59
Speaker 1: miss having our guests. Let's talk about because it's very exciting, um,
13:04
Speaker 1: the work that you're doing on this film. It's based
13:07
Speaker 1: on a really really important landmark case here in l
13:10
Speaker 1: a Madrigal versus Quilligan class action lawsuit. And I really
13:16
Speaker 1: am curious about your journey. From the first time I
13:21
Speaker 1: ever saw you performance act was in zoot Suit at
13:24
Speaker 1: the Mark taper a few years back, and you you
13:29
Speaker 1: you played Bertha at right and I saw you singing, dancing, acting,
13:35
Speaker 1: being fabulous. Um. As we said in your bio, You've
13:38
Speaker 1: been on Orange in The New Black, You've you've started
13:41
Speaker 1: opposite Meryl Streep in The Laundromat. You've done a lot
13:44
Speaker 1: of amazing things. And now you are helping to produce
13:48
Speaker 1: a film that you're also starring in. So can you
13:51
Speaker 1: tell us a little bit, take us on the journey
13:53
Speaker 1: from stage acting, screen acting to now producing. Yeah, definitely
14:00
Speaker 1: lye Um. So I've I started as a stage actor,
14:05
Speaker 1: and I started as a stage actor and a theespion
14:07
Speaker 1: really reluctantly. Um. It's been since high school. And I
14:11
Speaker 1: started as a as a visual artist and I still
14:14
Speaker 1: dabble um. But there was a year where I signed
14:19
Speaker 1: up too late for my my advanced drawing class, but
14:23
Speaker 1: I still needed a an art credit, and the counselor
14:27
Speaker 1: was like, well, you could take drama, and I was
14:29
Speaker 1: like no. I joined the drama class reluctantly, and because
14:33
Speaker 1: I didn't care about it, I didn't feel self conscious
14:36
Speaker 1: and I didn't feel like I had much to lose.
14:39
Speaker 1: But I just kind of threw myself in and and
14:41
Speaker 1: that was actually a very liberated and free place to
14:46
Speaker 1: be in and I think I don't think I saw
14:49
Speaker 1: it as that in the moment, but it ended up
14:52
Speaker 1: being something that I was really that I was good
14:54
Speaker 1: at that that came naturally to me. It started with
14:58
Speaker 1: being part of Comedy Sports, which is a untually improv
15:01
Speaker 1: and um. And then I started doing the plays and
15:03
Speaker 1: my teacher noticed like I kind of had a knack
15:05
Speaker 1: for already being on stage because I had been doing
15:08
Speaker 1: folklorical and multiple types of types of dance since since
15:14
Speaker 1: the age of five. That was my first, uh like
15:19
Speaker 1: time being on stage and being in front of an audience.
15:21
Speaker 1: And and I you know, I drank the cool and
15:24
Speaker 1: I felt the bug you know, of of of the audience, um,
15:29
Speaker 1: baby gaga, you know with the but yeah, totally so
15:37
Speaker 1: so so it was just it wasn't it was an
15:39
Speaker 1: extension of that, I think. Um. So I was doing
15:42
Speaker 1: the plays and I remember when I was so I
15:45
Speaker 1: did like Little Shop of Horrors. That was my first play,
15:49
Speaker 1: and that was my first musical theater theater experience. And
15:52
Speaker 1: then when I was here, yes, yes, and I was
15:55
Speaker 1: one of the thing. Um in the movie have you
15:59
Speaker 1: ever seen the film with with Rick moranis you know,
16:01
Speaker 1: there's there's this really cute, like Motown inspired trio of
16:08
Speaker 1: uh like fierce like black women who were singing who
16:12
Speaker 1: are kind of providing the background like vocals and and
16:16
Speaker 1: narrators are kind of the Greek choir, the Greek chorus rather,
16:19
Speaker 1: And so I was one of those um women in
16:23
Speaker 1: this way. And then like it was senior year, it
16:25
Speaker 1: was like the big play Syrano de Bergerac, and it
16:28
Speaker 1: was me versus not versus like your cage battle. But
16:32
Speaker 1: I was auditioning opposite the throng of other white girls
16:39
Speaker 1: in my school for to play Rocks and Bertac, and
16:44
Speaker 1: I was looked at sideways and it was like down
16:46
Speaker 1: to me and this other girl who was always the lead,
16:50
Speaker 1: and they ended up giving us um. They ended up
16:53
Speaker 1: double casting us, which is what they do when they
16:56
Speaker 1: like don't want to reject the girl. But they also
16:58
Speaker 1: know that I was too good and I was like undeniable.
17:02
Speaker 1: So anyway, I feel like that was one of my
17:04
Speaker 1: first that was really my first experience, my first moment
17:09
Speaker 1: of of really um truly, I mean, you know, honestly
17:14
Speaker 1: like white supremacy, racism, bias in in performance and media.
17:19
Speaker 1: But I don't think I definitely didn't have the analysis
17:21
Speaker 1: or the language for it at that time anyway, So like, uh,
17:25
Speaker 1: talking too much about high school. Fast forward uh to college.
17:28
Speaker 1: Did not major in that as an undergrad because I
17:31
Speaker 1: didn't think there was a place for me. After college.
17:33
Speaker 1: I went to work with and that was that was
17:37
Speaker 1: really really formidable formidable for me. It was really special
17:41
Speaker 1: because I always wanted to find a way to to
17:45
Speaker 1: merge my passions in the worlds of like being an educator,
17:49
Speaker 1: doing community work, being an activist, but also performing. That
17:53
Speaker 1: was the part of me, you know, as an artist
17:55
Speaker 1: that I was negating, that I was ignoring, and so
17:58
Speaker 1: working a few years after college within Campesino in arts
18:03
Speaker 1: education but also as an ensemble member, uh really kind
18:07
Speaker 1: of helped me to start solidifying that I wanted to
18:11
Speaker 1: do both, and then I could do both. And then
18:14
Speaker 1: you know, I lived in New York for a number
18:15
Speaker 1: of years, I went to n y U and and
18:17
Speaker 1: and finally ended up studying theater an education. And it
18:21
Speaker 1: wasn't until I was like back here in California at
18:24
Speaker 1: a nonprofit job and I booked this show that was
18:26
Speaker 1: going to tour in Spain, and it was kind of like, Okay,
18:28
Speaker 1: this is the moment where we're going to choose. And
18:31
Speaker 1: I went on tour in Spain and I didn't look
18:33
Speaker 1: back because when I was on that plane, I was like,
18:35
Speaker 1: this is kind of the life that I want. This
18:37
Speaker 1: is what fills me. This is when I feel most authentic.
18:40
Speaker 1: I want to act, I I want to tell stories. Um. So,
18:46
Speaker 1: you know, moving back to l A since what it
18:49
Speaker 1: was like, that's honestly, it's only been that I've finally
18:55
Speaker 1: started allowing myself to really jump into this world of
19:01
Speaker 1: film and television and really take a more kind of
19:04
Speaker 1: serious traditional path as an actor. Um. And you know,
19:10
Speaker 1: with with zoot Suit came more visibility that was amazing.
19:14
Speaker 1: I feel like, I bet if that was a character
19:16
Speaker 1: that really has been one of the only characters that
19:20
Speaker 1: that spoke to me and that I could truly relate to,
19:23
Speaker 1: because if I was living in the nineties, I would
19:26
Speaker 1: have been about that life. I would have been a
19:28
Speaker 1: little bit at them, like that kind of pachuca, that
19:32
Speaker 1: kind of little rattle rouser um and uh and yeah.
19:38
Speaker 1: And then you know it started opening up in terms
19:40
Speaker 1: of like TV and film, um. And you know, jumping
19:46
Speaker 1: to Orange as the New Black, that was kind of
19:49
Speaker 1: the first bigger role, the first recurring, kind of notable
19:54
Speaker 1: role in a huge series that I did, Um and you,
19:59
Speaker 1: And fast forward to this moment co producing for for Rosa,
20:04
Speaker 1: because I was approached to be a part of the film,
20:10
Speaker 1: to play the lead UM. I was shocked. I was
20:13
Speaker 1: familiar about with the story, but I was shocked at
20:16
Speaker 1: to learn that there wasn't really any sort of narrative
20:20
Speaker 1: film or or scripted work around this story. And this
20:24
Speaker 1: is the story is l A history, this is this
20:27
Speaker 1: is reproductive justice history, this is American history, this is
20:30
Speaker 1: women's history. This is like chicano Cheka next Latin XT history.
20:34
Speaker 1: And so I I knew that I also wanted to
20:37
Speaker 1: have more of a say, and that's when we decided
20:41
Speaker 1: to make the ask. And if you know, if you
20:43
Speaker 1: don't ask, if you don't bring it up, it's not
20:44
Speaker 1: going to happen. But at this point, I've dealt with
20:49
Speaker 1: enough moments of being shut out, of being negated, of
20:52
Speaker 1: being silenced, of being turned away, knowing full well that
20:56
Speaker 1: I have the goods, that I have the training and
20:58
Speaker 1: the intelligence and the talent to bring it, and so
21:01
Speaker 1: I I just I don't know, I'm kind of at
21:03
Speaker 1: a point of no folks given or very little folks given.
21:07
Speaker 1: So excellent. Yeah, I think that's a good place to
21:12
Speaker 1: be at, to not have to not give any funks
21:15
Speaker 1: about about it. This film in particular for Rossa um
21:21
Speaker 1: and the subject matter, the content, what drew you to
21:25
Speaker 1: this particular project, why accept um the lead role and
21:31
Speaker 1: the producer role, and why this film mm hmm. I think, Um,
21:39
Speaker 1: this story is really at the intersection of so many,
21:43
Speaker 1: so many topics that that I am interested in and
21:47
Speaker 1: I've you know, in terms of like, um, I guess
21:52
Speaker 1: issues that I've that I've worked around and and and
21:57
Speaker 1: I'm passionate about, and also just in terms of like
22:00
Speaker 1: my own identity and my lived experience and the body
22:04
Speaker 1: that I walk in. It was easy for me to
22:07
Speaker 1: kind of transpose myself and to go back in time
22:09
Speaker 1: and to see myself as someone who could have easily
22:14
Speaker 1: uh suffered this particular oppression at that moment. And and
22:18
Speaker 1: I think that, uh, you know, going back to this
22:20
Speaker 1: idea of it being at the intersection of so many,
22:22
Speaker 1: so many issues, this absolutely is a story that affected
22:28
Speaker 1: l a latinas Um. This is a story that needs
22:33
Speaker 1: to be positioned in the larger context, the larger conversations
22:37
Speaker 1: around reproductive justice and feminism and womanism and what that
22:42
Speaker 1: looks like, how that looks different for UH, communities of color,
22:48
Speaker 1: for black women, for Indigenous women, for immigrant women, for latinas. UM.
22:53
Speaker 1: It's also it also brings in this idea um, this
22:57
Speaker 1: very sad history of of racism institutional is as a
23:00
Speaker 1: manifesting in healthcare UM. And so I had seen the
23:06
Speaker 1: documentary No Masibis. It was a PBS documentary that premiered
23:13
Speaker 1: around I want to say, and that is when I
23:20
Speaker 1: learned more in depth about this story. So I had
23:24
Speaker 1: heard the history. I had heard mentions read mentions of
23:27
Speaker 1: this history of for sterilization as an extension of eugenics
23:31
Speaker 1: targeting black women, targeting Latina's targeting specifically like bodh Equas
23:36
Speaker 1: on and off the Island, um women in the South.
23:40
Speaker 1: And when I saw pieces of that documentary, you know,
23:46
Speaker 1: it's just like it was this this immediate rage that
23:50
Speaker 1: kind of like burned inside my body, but also this
23:54
Speaker 1: um this extension of sort of like this like spiritual
23:58
Speaker 1: collective trauma. Also because again going back to the idea
24:02
Speaker 1: of like what what does it mean when you when
24:06
Speaker 1: you walk in the body, when you walk in the world, um,
24:11
Speaker 1: as someone very similar or really like as just like
24:15
Speaker 1: another version of some of the women some of the
24:17
Speaker 1: humans that were affected by this, you know. And I
24:20
Speaker 1: think that extends into so many areas, um, politically and socially.
24:26
Speaker 1: But I I it was just like I couldn't turn
24:29
Speaker 1: it away. I'm kind of shocked that no one's already
24:32
Speaker 1: made a film or a TV show about this and
24:34
Speaker 1: dramatize this. But I think stories that center uh bipoc
24:41
Speaker 1: and and and and Latinas and brown Latinas or immigrant Latinas,
24:45
Speaker 1: I think those are few and far between because we're
24:48
Speaker 1: so often uthered or relegated to the side. Um. So
24:52
Speaker 1: I had to be a part of it, you know.
24:53
Speaker 1: And just um if I may just kind of like
24:57
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about, um, what this what this
25:01
Speaker 1: case is, and what the film is about how we
25:04
Speaker 1: approach it. Uh, I think it's really important. I mean,
25:07
Speaker 1: I know, yeah, the history is not like you think
25:12
Speaker 1: about it, right, Yeah, absolutely, And the history is not
25:15
Speaker 1: one that's that's known. And when we think about reproductive rights,
25:20
Speaker 1: it's really not a case that is brought up in
25:24
Speaker 1: the broader conversation when we talk about UM, patient rights,
25:30
Speaker 1: when we talk about reproductive justice. The Magical versus Quilligan
25:35
Speaker 1: case was really landmark in so many ways. And after
25:39
Speaker 1: the ruling, although the judge technically in an unpublished opinion,
25:43
Speaker 1: the judge on the case did side with the county
25:46
Speaker 1: hospital and in his own twisted way felt that the
25:49
Speaker 1: doctors in his in his opinion right in his opinion,
25:52
Speaker 1: that the doctors have the best interests of the patients
25:54
Speaker 1: in mind when they pursued to tube allegations. Now, what
26:00
Speaker 1: ended up happening was of a lot of changes had
26:03
Speaker 1: to be implemented after this case UM was heard. Because
26:09
Speaker 1: now what we have as a direct result of Magical
26:12
Speaker 1: Versus Quilligan our hospital forms and multiple languages that patients
26:17
Speaker 1: can actually understand, the requirement that there be interpreters medical
26:22
Speaker 1: interpreters so that patients understand what they're consenting to are
26:26
Speaker 1: not consenting to, that patients who are young, who are
26:30
Speaker 1: under like twenty one, have time to think about whether
26:33
Speaker 1: or not they want to be legation or sterilization, and UM.
26:38
Speaker 1: A whole host of other medical, legal and civil rights
26:43
Speaker 1: were put into place that we're not there before. And
26:46
Speaker 1: it's important I think too, because we today think about
26:51
Speaker 1: reproductive justice as the right to an abortion and the
26:55
Speaker 1: right to terminate pregnancies. What we don't often anna lies
27:00
Speaker 1: and with this case really forces us to consider is
27:04
Speaker 1: the other side of the conversation, where we should a woman,
27:08
Speaker 1: a family should be able to have as many children
27:10
Speaker 1: as they want, right And it's not up to doctors
27:14
Speaker 1: or the state, um or the federal government to dictate
27:18
Speaker 1: when it is appropriate for a woman to have a child,
27:22
Speaker 1: how many children it is appropriate for that woman to
27:25
Speaker 1: have um or the circumstances right under which she uh,
27:30
Speaker 1: you know, undergoes a hysterectomy or does consent to tubal ligation.
27:36
Speaker 1: And it's a case that, as you said, has been
27:41
Speaker 1: kind of ignored in many ways. So I think one
27:44
Speaker 1: of the reasons why we definitely wanted to have you
27:46
Speaker 1: on the podcast was to make sure that this film
27:49
Speaker 1: is promoted and it gets out there and people hear
27:52
Speaker 1: about it, and folks go and look up Magical versus Quilligan,
27:57
Speaker 1: look up the history of of the our hospitals here,
27:59
Speaker 1: not only in l A County, but across the nation,
28:02
Speaker 1: because what was going on in l A was but
28:06
Speaker 1: one example of a very very like centuries long eugenics
28:12
Speaker 1: project that the federal government was funding across the nation.
28:16
Speaker 1: The federal government set aside like millions of dollars and
28:21
Speaker 1: handed so much money over to hospitals, especially in areas
28:26
Speaker 1: that were predominantly black and brown or had large black,
28:29
Speaker 1: brown and immigrant populations, and really funneled tons of money
28:33
Speaker 1: into these hospitals with the express intention of sterilizing brown, black,
28:39
Speaker 1: Native and immigrant women, preventing these women from having babies
28:43
Speaker 1: or having more babies. Um and continuing a project of
28:47
Speaker 1: white supremacy and and of eugenics that has been implemented
28:51
Speaker 1: in this country since you know the colonies, and um,
28:55
Speaker 1: it's it's one example, it's but one example, but it's
28:59
Speaker 1: a huge to one that still has like it still
29:02
Speaker 1: reverberates to this day. Will feel it right absolutely, Yeah,
29:09
Speaker 1: I think I wanted to touch upon what you said,
29:11
Speaker 1: but we'll both what you, Mama and Molina said. Um.
29:14
Speaker 1: So often we think about reproductive justice or even for
29:18
Speaker 1: sterilizations and even of course femicides, we think about it
29:22
Speaker 1: in context of our home countries in Latin America, and
29:25
Speaker 1: we think about the way that our own our own
29:28
Speaker 1: home countries governments have sterilized many Indigenous women, Like I
29:33
Speaker 1: think about uh during the Fukimoni dictatorship, that all the
29:37
Speaker 1: Indigenous and Antina women that were sterilized without their knowledge rights,
29:42
Speaker 1: very similar to the Madrigal uh ten. And so we
29:46
Speaker 1: think about those cases and we think about it as
29:48
Speaker 1: something that happens in Latin America. And that's what I
29:51
Speaker 1: think is so powerful about this story that it literally
29:54
Speaker 1: happened in our neighborhood. It literally happened at a county
29:56
Speaker 1: hospital in l a County, not in the South, right,
30:01
Speaker 1: but literally in Los Angeles. So I agree with you.
30:05
Speaker 1: I'm shocked that there hasn't been more uh, there hasn't
30:09
Speaker 1: been a dramatization of this story. And I'm really happy
30:12
Speaker 1: that you get to be a part. You get to
30:14
Speaker 1: be a part of telling right it's um you know,
30:17
Speaker 1: it's frustrating that to me, like when I started learning
30:20
Speaker 1: more about it that I was mad at myself for
30:24
Speaker 1: not knowing more of the details around it. And I
30:26
Speaker 1: think that what this film has um allowed me to
30:31
Speaker 1: do and allowed me to advocate for, and what I
30:33
Speaker 1: hope it will how I hope it will land on people,
30:36
Speaker 1: is that it will really bring this case into and
30:42
Speaker 1: it will really force us to expand our conversations around
30:45
Speaker 1: reproductive justice because ultimately, like this is being this is
30:49
Speaker 1: about being in control of our own bodies right as
30:51
Speaker 1: as as women, as people who identify as women, uh,
30:56
Speaker 1: control of our own bodies without any sort of input
30:59
Speaker 1: from the white supremacist, patriarchal state and establishment or systems. UM.
31:04
Speaker 1: And you know, I have to admit that as someone
31:08
Speaker 1: who is a cheek gunna who um you know, enjoys
31:12
Speaker 1: certain privileges, whether it's like citizenship or access to education
31:16
Speaker 1: or facility with the English language, Like I feel like
31:20
Speaker 1: I have developed into a woman that um has focused
31:27
Speaker 1: mostly on being able to protect our access to abortion
31:32
Speaker 1: and being pro choice and being pro abortion. UM. No
31:37
Speaker 1: questions asked, no justification, no shame around it. But it
31:41
Speaker 1: challenged me to really step back and think about the
31:46
Speaker 1: agency of of all women and what different needs and
31:52
Speaker 1: and um different access to certain resources looks like for
31:57
Speaker 1: you know, in this case, women who are part of
32:00
Speaker 1: a similar demographic, but also like there's a lot of
32:03
Speaker 1: differences between us, right, So like these women, UM, they
32:08
Speaker 1: were showing up to the l A County General Hospital
32:11
Speaker 1: to give birth all of them who signed on to
32:15
Speaker 1: the class action lawsuit had it in their family planning. Uh,
32:21
Speaker 1: you know, their ideas of family planning to have more children.
32:25
Speaker 1: They planned on giving more births. I don't have any
32:29
Speaker 1: just as Melina, as an individual, I do not have
32:31
Speaker 1: any interest to have like multiple children for like many reasons.
32:34
Speaker 1: And you know they're that's personal. That's my own choice.
32:37
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, that's my choice.
32:39
Speaker 1: But I that doesn't mean that I don't think another
32:42
Speaker 1: person who is able to give birth should not be
32:47
Speaker 1: allowed to have ultimate say over their own body and
32:50
Speaker 1: how many births they do give um And I think
32:53
Speaker 1: that you know, it's it's it's a question of medical ethics.
32:57
Speaker 1: It was a huge violation. There were is a very
33:00
Speaker 1: specific group of women targeted, and absolutely, you know, Mala,
33:04
Speaker 1: I'm glad you mentioned eugenics. This idea of like eugenics
33:07
Speaker 1: and population control that ultimately is like rooted in racism
33:11
Speaker 1: because it's like what kind of people are allowed to
33:14
Speaker 1: live and procreate and allowed to populate our country and
33:18
Speaker 1: and there's undesirables and and you know in this in
33:21
Speaker 1: these cases, the undesirables are black and brown. Uh, And
33:24
Speaker 1: so That's why I knew that I really, I really
33:28
Speaker 1: wanted to tell this story. One of the interesting things
33:30
Speaker 1: is so I played the lead. Her name is Eva,
33:33
Speaker 1: and she's actually she's a composite of some of the
33:37
Speaker 1: experiences of different women that were part of the class
33:40
Speaker 1: action lawsuits. So she's not exactly in a historical figure.
33:45
Speaker 1: She's fictional, but she's kind of, you know, like I said,
33:47
Speaker 1: she's a composite. And um, the woman, the main plaintiff,
33:52
Speaker 1: who her name was Dolores Madriga. She actually was coerced
33:57
Speaker 1: into signing these sterilization forms because they told her that
34:01
Speaker 1: her husband had already approved and signed them. So they
34:05
Speaker 1: were lying, they were forcing women they would this was
34:08
Speaker 1: you know, that's illegal to force official documents, legal documents
34:11
Speaker 1: under duress. I mean they were extremes, they were experiencing
34:15
Speaker 1: extreme physical pain, they were in labor, some of them
34:18
Speaker 1: were medicated, so they were they were told they were
34:22
Speaker 1: they were sold on this idea really through lies. Some
34:25
Speaker 1: of them were told that if they didn't sign this
34:28
Speaker 1: this paperwork, their babies would die, or they would die,
34:31
Speaker 1: or or they were told that, you know, this procedure
34:33
Speaker 1: was reversible. And some of the majority of them were uh,
34:39
Speaker 1: Spanish speaking, Uh some of them were bilingual, but by
34:43
Speaker 1: no means were they uh you know, like they learned
34:49
Speaker 1: Spanish first, like English was their second language. And but
34:53
Speaker 1: I don't think that matters even because like who among
34:57
Speaker 1: us if we have not studied men us and knows
35:01
Speaker 1: the ins and outs of medical jargon and knows the
35:03
Speaker 1: official names for so I might know sterilization, but truly
35:08
Speaker 1: it wasn't until I studied this case more that I
35:10
Speaker 1: was familiarized with that term of tubal ligation, right, and
35:14
Speaker 1: and so, um, there's there's these layers of of access
35:18
Speaker 1: and of privilege that many communities of color do not
35:23
Speaker 1: have when it comes to being in control of their
35:26
Speaker 1: bodies and having access to quality, uh you know, dignified
35:31
Speaker 1: medical care. Um and and and and so. One of
35:34
Speaker 1: the things that I think also is really interesting about
35:37
Speaker 1: this case is that, um, you know, Hollywood always likes
35:41
Speaker 1: to be very reductive about Latina's brown women, black women
35:47
Speaker 1: who are are really anyone like that has any sort
35:51
Speaker 1: of like lineage from the America's from here on, you know,
35:56
Speaker 1: down to the bottom of South America. They love to
35:59
Speaker 1: other us and they love to um include us in
36:02
Speaker 1: like this modelith. But one of the cool things about
36:04
Speaker 1: this particular cases, like the women that were the plaintiffs
36:09
Speaker 1: had a very different reality than the woman who was
36:13
Speaker 1: also Chicana latina Um who ended up being their counsel.
36:19
Speaker 1: Their legal counsel. So Anthonio Ernandez was a U c l.
36:23
Speaker 1: A educated lawyer from the East Side who was working
36:27
Speaker 1: for the Los Angeles Center of Law in Justice, and her,
36:30
Speaker 1: along with Charles Navarrete, took on this case. There was
36:34
Speaker 1: a whistleblower who was a medical resident from the Women
36:37
Speaker 1: and Children's Hospital at l A County General that contacted
36:41
Speaker 1: them and Antonio Nan this is the one that went
36:44
Speaker 1: and contacted the women. And what's so horrific is that
36:48
Speaker 1: many of these women did not even know this had
36:50
Speaker 1: been done to their bodies until the legal representative approached them.
36:56
Speaker 1: So imagine that that that notice, you know that that
37:00
Speaker 1: news of this huge violation coming from a total stranger
37:06
Speaker 1: and completely unexpected. And and we show that in the film.
37:10
Speaker 1: You know, I ever goes in to give birth, it's
37:13
Speaker 1: a very traumatic, difficult birth. I'm coerced into signing these forms,
37:18
Speaker 1: and you know, we we show these moments of joy
37:21
Speaker 1: and levity and family with my husband who's played right
37:24
Speaker 1: Rick Mancia, and my son and and there's this moment
37:29
Speaker 1: of us planning our future and me expressing that I
37:31
Speaker 1: want another child, and and Ever wants a little girl.
37:35
Speaker 1: She wants to name her Rosa. And that's where the
37:37
Speaker 1: title of the movie comes from, for Rosa. So it's
37:41
Speaker 1: kind of haunting. It's it's this, uh, it's the dream
37:44
Speaker 1: that never was, that never will be um, that was
37:47
Speaker 1: stolen from me for from ever until the lawyer and
37:53
Speaker 1: we name her Jessica and non this into in our film,
37:56
Speaker 1: you know, in terms of like for right, life rights
37:59
Speaker 1: and it's cetera. But it wasn't until that moment that
38:02
Speaker 1: she approaches. We just like pulls up into my driveway
38:05
Speaker 1: and I'm like, who's this? And it's like, is your
38:09
Speaker 1: name ever? Did you give birth here on this day?
38:12
Speaker 1: Is this your son? Is this your signature? It's like
38:14
Speaker 1: whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa um and and and it's
38:18
Speaker 1: not this automatic, magical moment of becoming woken, politicized and activated.
38:26
Speaker 1: It's I think something I liked about this is that
38:30
Speaker 1: we really showed kind of like these like five stages
38:32
Speaker 1: of grief in a way, there's denial, there's negotiation, there's anger,
38:38
Speaker 1: and ultimately we do see her connect with the attorney
38:42
Speaker 1: as well as the other women who experienced this trauma.
38:48
Speaker 1: So I'm proud of the film. I think that, you know,
38:51
Speaker 1: this is just a snapshot of what it could be.
38:54
Speaker 1: It is a short film, and we do have high
38:56
Speaker 1: hopes for it. Uh, you know, it would be great
39:00
Speaker 1: to turn it into a feature film or a short
39:03
Speaker 1: you know, limited series. And throughout the process we've been
39:07
Speaker 1: really inspired by what ever do Renee was able to
39:10
Speaker 1: do with the story of the Central Park five and
39:12
Speaker 1: when they see us, you know, like excavating this this
39:17
Speaker 1: horrific like moment in US history and all the moments
39:21
Speaker 1: of racist US history, um and bringing it back to light,
39:26
Speaker 1: bringing it to the forefront of our current conversations around
39:30
Speaker 1: police misconduct and brutality and and you know, incarceration and
39:34
Speaker 1: policing of black communities, etcetera. So what she's been able
39:37
Speaker 1: to do is like now, so many years later, uh,
39:42
Speaker 1: have some semblance of justice. And I think that so
39:47
Speaker 1: many of the of the I mean, the women that
39:48
Speaker 1: were involved in this case, um, and of course not
39:51
Speaker 1: every woman that experienced this signed onto the case. There
39:54
Speaker 1: was a lot of shame and pain around this, so
39:57
Speaker 1: some didn't want to have anything to do with it,
40:00
Speaker 1: but regardless, none of them saw justice. Um. The funny
40:03
Speaker 1: thing is that there's this there's this chasm between what
40:09
Speaker 1: what what what the hospital and what the doctors involved
40:12
Speaker 1: acknowledged and what they knew at their very core um
40:17
Speaker 1: to be true and to be unjust because sure they
40:21
Speaker 1: you know, they said they were not guilty. Uh they
40:25
Speaker 1: in in a sense they won the case. They were
40:27
Speaker 1: not prosecuted. But then why did why did they turn
40:32
Speaker 1: around and and and change certain policies and implement these
40:35
Speaker 1: new forms. They knew something was wrong, they knew their
40:39
Speaker 1: actions were unjustified, but in the eyes of the law,
40:43
Speaker 1: they were they had done no wrong, you know. And
40:46
Speaker 1: so my hope is that if we do bring this
40:50
Speaker 1: back into into the conversation around reproductive justice UM and
40:55
Speaker 1: and and racism in medicine and healthcare, that that, in
41:00
Speaker 1: a sense, hopefully can bring some sort of I don't know,
41:05
Speaker 1: healing justice. I don't know what it's going to look like,
41:10
Speaker 1: but I know that it shouldn't be tucked away. Yeah,
41:13
Speaker 1: and and forgotten. Absolutely, it's so layered and it's such
41:17
Speaker 1: a complex history. The implications of it all are so multifaceted,
41:23
Speaker 1: and we can just everything that you just talked about,
41:25
Speaker 1: We could just go like piece by piece, brick by
41:27
Speaker 1: brick and analyze all of it. And something that for me,
41:32
Speaker 1: you know, the short films, the documentary, reading about the case,
41:37
Speaker 1: knowing of the case, something that struck me as how
41:41
Speaker 1: these more Heads were in such a predicament and they
41:45
Speaker 1: had a really difficult sort of um dynamic in their
41:50
Speaker 1: families and with the hospitals that they had to balance.
41:54
Speaker 1: And as you mentioned, Molina, like, a lot of the
41:56
Speaker 1: women did not want to participate in the case, and
41:59
Speaker 1: I know from any of them the issue of dealing
42:03
Speaker 1: with their husbands and the anger or the reactions from
42:08
Speaker 1: their husbands should they learn that these more Heads had
42:12
Speaker 1: been sterilized and can no longer have kids. There was
42:15
Speaker 1: so much fear from the affected women, fear of their
42:20
Speaker 1: husbands specifically, which prevented many of them from moving forward
42:25
Speaker 1: or seeking justice or telling their stories. And to me,
42:28
Speaker 1: that's one of the most tragic pieces of this that
42:32
Speaker 1: within the family structure, her her assumed or or or
42:38
Speaker 1: her assumed role as mother and and as someone who
42:41
Speaker 1: gives life is somehow more important than her autonomy as
42:47
Speaker 1: a human and as an individual, that the motherhood title
42:51
Speaker 1: was something way more important than her body and what
42:55
Speaker 1: she wanted, and she couldn't even own up own up
42:58
Speaker 1: to it in certain ways, you know what I mean.
43:01
Speaker 1: I'm wondering about that dynamic as far as your character
43:04
Speaker 1: and her husband and playing that tension, right, And that's
43:10
Speaker 1: that's that just goes into the you know, my own
43:14
Speaker 1: my own challenge and homework as an actor. And one
43:17
Speaker 1: of the ways I really try to approach all the
43:19
Speaker 1: roles that I play is to not judge them based
43:21
Speaker 1: on my own lived experiences, my own politics, my own
43:26
Speaker 1: you know, education, access to information, my own reality, but
43:29
Speaker 1: really try to kind of boil it down to the humanity,
43:35
Speaker 1: their humanity, and and water and and trying to identify
43:38
Speaker 1: like the salient kind of raw emotions that are coming
43:42
Speaker 1: from there. Because if it was Melina that went through
43:45
Speaker 1: that and my husband was not supportive, I would have
43:48
Speaker 1: been like, you're not fucking stepping up for me, You're
43:52
Speaker 1: not supporting me. That's you know, that's a whole other story.
43:55
Speaker 1: And and and going into this as ever, um I
44:00
Speaker 1: had to approach that differently. But I was also when
44:03
Speaker 1: I read the script, I really made sure to have
44:06
Speaker 1: a lot of conversations and check ins with our director
44:09
Speaker 1: and writer cat Boyd Backstone and with Rick Mancia, because
44:13
Speaker 1: I was like, I cannot, um, you know, in good faith,
44:18
Speaker 1: step into a project that continues this very simplistic, very
44:24
Speaker 1: reductive representation of Mucheessmore, it's kind of like this, I
44:29
Speaker 1: don't know. It's this thing where like I absolutely, uh,
44:34
Speaker 1: I'm critical of it, and I think we should be,
44:36
Speaker 1: and I think that we need to be and and
44:39
Speaker 1: that's not one of the elements of our cool Duda
44:41
Speaker 1: that I want to protect her uplift um the sacred
44:44
Speaker 1: cow for me, like fucking you know, burn it down.
44:48
Speaker 1: But it's also something where I'm like, it's not a
44:50
Speaker 1: space where I'm going, I'm not down to create this
44:54
Speaker 1: moment to you know, submit a work and then allow like, uh,
45:00
Speaker 1: the white privileged industry to then just be like oh yeah, sure,
45:04
Speaker 1: like yeah and local latinos being machista. When patriarchy, uh,
45:10
Speaker 1: that is that is one of the things that color
45:12
Speaker 1: blind and I hate that word. Patriarchy is color blind.
45:14
Speaker 1: It comes in everyone does it. Everyone knows how to
45:18
Speaker 1: perpetuate it in their own brand. But it comes down,
45:20
Speaker 1: you know, like you already know this, and I'm sure
45:23
Speaker 1: most of your listeners talk about this, but it's about
45:26
Speaker 1: access and what are the compounding oppressions. So I was like, yeah,
45:31
Speaker 1: we need to make sure that not just some like
45:35
Speaker 1: classic reductive like Machista. I want to show the nuance
45:40
Speaker 1: and this is this is why I was really happy
45:42
Speaker 1: that Rick signed onto the project. And I actually, you know,
45:45
Speaker 1: I want to say maybe this was like part of
45:48
Speaker 1: of one of my unspecified kind of vague responsibilities or
45:52
Speaker 1: or contributions as co producer, was because I there was
45:55
Speaker 1: a short list of folks that I knew could really
45:58
Speaker 1: plays it, play this with nuance, where I knew that
46:02
Speaker 1: they had to kind of show this first moment that
46:07
Speaker 1: could be perceived as Machista, but also I needed him
46:11
Speaker 1: to show what was behind that. I needed him to
46:13
Speaker 1: show like his pain, his heartbreak and his his sadly
46:20
Speaker 1: his inability to negotiate his own feelings, but not to
46:25
Speaker 1: not to take it out violently against Eva, but for
46:28
Speaker 1: it to really be shown as you know, it's it's complex.
46:33
Speaker 1: This is this is something that this man does not
46:36
Speaker 1: know how to deal with it, doesn't have the language
46:40
Speaker 1: to deal with it. Um. Ultimately, it was misdirected. You know,
46:43
Speaker 1: I think the rate because there's a line you know,
46:46
Speaker 1: it's even in the trailer he says, um, he says,
46:48
Speaker 1: what did you do? And then we have an extended
46:50
Speaker 1: trailer where he's like, what did they do to us?
46:54
Speaker 1: So it's like it's there, right, it's like lands on
46:57
Speaker 1: him on this in this very guttural sense, like he
46:59
Speaker 1: does at like this was done to us. But like
47:04
Speaker 1: this man at that moment in his reality maybe didn't
47:08
Speaker 1: know how to take action and rage against like the
47:13
Speaker 1: systemic racism, uh, that that they suffered through. So I
47:17
Speaker 1: wanted to make sure that that was that was layered. Um.
47:22
Speaker 1: And you know, if you ever, you know, if anyone
47:24
Speaker 1: ever has seen or gets a chance to see this documentary,
47:26
Speaker 1: no maz vebez there you'll see. Uh, there's there's kind
47:30
Speaker 1: of like a myriad of different experiences. So some of
47:33
Speaker 1: the women's husbands were totally supportive, some of them left.
47:38
Speaker 1: Some of the women are you know, are interviewed and
47:40
Speaker 1: they say, you know, no, no, he got really sad
47:43
Speaker 1: and the wholes like it's just like swallowed there there there,
47:48
Speaker 1: they were swallowed that pain, They were consumed by that
47:50
Speaker 1: trauma without knowing how to deal with that, without having
47:54
Speaker 1: the resources or perhaps self awareness and introspection to to
47:57
Speaker 1: negotiate it. So, um, yeah, that was something real that
48:01
Speaker 1: I also had to kind of check myself on, you know,
48:05
Speaker 1: um and and and coming from a very different place,
48:09
Speaker 1: definitely of more privileged than the women who dealt with this. Um,
48:14
Speaker 1: it was a learning experience and and a challenge for me. Um,
48:17
Speaker 1: but I welcomed it. I'm glad I did it. So yeah,
48:21
Speaker 1: thank you for sharing that. I think it's an important
48:24
Speaker 1: nuance to explore because at the core of masculinity is
48:29
Speaker 1: a protective energy, right, and these in the greater broader
48:34
Speaker 1: spectrum of this system, right, the systemic racism that their
48:38
Speaker 1: husbands could not protect their wives from. And so I
48:42
Speaker 1: think that that's a really important nuance to think about,
48:46
Speaker 1: is that at the core, you know, not toxic masculinity,
48:50
Speaker 1: but just at the core, masculinity protects and these men
48:54
Speaker 1: could not do that, and their their futures were stolen
48:57
Speaker 1: from them. The what if and the what could have
48:59
Speaker 1: been is the reality that hits them absolutely just just
49:05
Speaker 1: you know, not being in control of your own destiny,
49:10
Speaker 1: your own body, your own plans, like something was stolen
49:14
Speaker 1: from them. Um And and that's a very it's a
49:17
Speaker 1: very violent way in which this was done. Um And
49:21
Speaker 1: I think it absolutely has a lasting legacy of generational trauma.
49:28
Speaker 1: And if you see the documentary, there's there's one woman
49:31
Speaker 1: who who has her son with her and she she
49:36
Speaker 1: admits to him that this happened, and even when she
49:39
Speaker 1: speaks to him, she breaks down in shame. And and
49:42
Speaker 1: it's interesting that now in this next generation, it's her
49:45
Speaker 1: own son who shows up for her, who shows up
49:49
Speaker 1: as you know yet like as this um. You know,
49:53
Speaker 1: he's this masculine presence, but but he shows up for
49:56
Speaker 1: her in a very different way, in a way that
49:59
Speaker 1: his own father was not able to do. You know
50:01
Speaker 1: that scene, that scene in the documentary, I I agree
50:06
Speaker 1: completely that particular scene is incredible too, because here his
50:11
Speaker 1: mother has been involved in such a landmark case, such
50:16
Speaker 1: an important piece of history, not not because she wanted
50:19
Speaker 1: to be, but because she was forced into it. And
50:22
Speaker 1: he's an adult man and he had no idea like
50:25
Speaker 1: her trauma, her story was unknown to him, you know,
50:30
Speaker 1: for whatever reason, like you said, right, for the for
50:34
Speaker 1: all the different reasons, the very complex and nuanced reasons
50:37
Speaker 1: she didn't share that that piece of her trauma with
50:39
Speaker 1: her child. And then I think about how many women
50:43
Speaker 1: right raise kids race families, and you know, how how
50:48
Speaker 1: many of our mother's stories do we just never hear?
50:50
Speaker 1: How many of our grandmother's stories do we just never hear?
50:53
Speaker 1: And I think that there's so many of those hidden
50:55
Speaker 1: histories because this is one that you know, there's been
50:58
Speaker 1: a documentary made, there's been research, there has been writing,
51:01
Speaker 1: there's a short film now, but there's so many other
51:03
Speaker 1: sorts of atrocities that you know, our elders carry with
51:06
Speaker 1: them that, as we know, they don't always share. You know,
51:10
Speaker 1: they give us hints here and there. And that was
51:13
Speaker 1: really striking to me. You know that this is the
51:15
Speaker 1: woman who raised you, but how well do do we
51:17
Speaker 1: really know her? And in our families, how how much
51:20
Speaker 1: space do we make for our our mothers and our
51:22
Speaker 1: grandmothers to really tell us who they are and where
51:25
Speaker 1: they've been. Right? Absolutely, um, And I think it takes
51:32
Speaker 1: a certain level of maturity and self awareness, you know,
51:36
Speaker 1: as the as people in the younger generations to be
51:39
Speaker 1: able to contend with that. Um, I if now, you know,
51:45
Speaker 1: when my mom tells me of some of her experiences
51:49
Speaker 1: and and and challenges. You know, when she first came
51:53
Speaker 1: to this country and she grew up in both of
51:55
Speaker 1: my parents grew up in the Lincoln Heights area. They
51:57
Speaker 1: went to Lincoln High School and they they came really young,
52:01
Speaker 1: and they came, uh you know when the kind of
52:05
Speaker 1: civil rights movement was kind of you know, the romanticized version.
52:10
Speaker 1: It was peaking, you know, it was popping off. It
52:11
Speaker 1: was really at its at its peak. But they as immigrants, UM.
52:16
Speaker 1: And my mom, as a very very very brown uh Mahicana,
52:22
Speaker 1: experienced a lot of rejection and a lot of trauma
52:28
Speaker 1: when she first came and was not necessarily included in
52:31
Speaker 1: that moment of liberation. UM. And so like years, you know,
52:36
Speaker 1: years have gone by, and I think it wasn't until
52:38
Speaker 1: I opened this door talking with excitement as like a
52:41
Speaker 1: young activist or like you know, in my first chi
52:43
Speaker 1: kind of cities classes, and then those stories came pouring out.
52:47
Speaker 1: But there's this very instinctual part of me. There's this
52:50
Speaker 1: very real, just like automatic kind of like pain and
52:56
Speaker 1: anger and and and uh, this impetus to want to
52:59
Speaker 1: like fight back and protect her. That I start feeling
53:02
Speaker 1: that stirs up inside me once I hear anything that's
53:05
Speaker 1: ever hurt her or or affected her negatively, you know.
53:08
Speaker 1: And so seeing that son speak about, UM, what his
53:13
Speaker 1: mother went through, UM, that was one of the many
53:16
Speaker 1: times that just really gutted me watching that documentary. UM.
53:22
Speaker 1: You know, because as we get older, we get to
53:23
Speaker 1: this point where we start instinctually wanting to protect and
53:29
Speaker 1: care for um our parents, you know. And UM, it's
53:36
Speaker 1: just so layered, you know, and at the very least
53:39
Speaker 1: their story deserves to be told, UM, very least, you know, So, Molina.
53:45
Speaker 1: So for our listeners at home who maybe are hearing
53:49
Speaker 1: about this case for the first time, UM, who want
53:52
Speaker 1: to learn more, who are interested in not only watching
53:55
Speaker 1: the film, but supporting the film and and maybe even
53:58
Speaker 1: helping it to grow the project into something like a
54:02
Speaker 1: series or a feature length film. What what can our
54:05
Speaker 1: listeners do? Where can they go? How can they support
54:08
Speaker 1: the project and get the story out there? Yes, thank
54:13
Speaker 1: you so automn immediately, I would love it if everyone
54:18
Speaker 1: could get on Instagram and follow for Rosa film. And
54:24
Speaker 1: we just started our Twitter last week so we're small
54:26
Speaker 1: on there, but we're starting to have a growing presence
54:28
Speaker 1: on Instagram. So now we are in talks with um
54:33
Speaker 1: some streaming and distribution outlets. That's ultimately the goal here, right,
54:38
Speaker 1: Like we want people to see our work. We want
54:40
Speaker 1: the conversations to start. We want them to see the
54:42
Speaker 1: talent attached to this film, like not just me, um,
54:47
Speaker 1: but like my husband Rick Moncia is an amazing actor.
54:50
Speaker 1: Um Ela ya Vayas, who people might recognize from Queen
54:54
Speaker 1: of the South, plays my attorney and she's a wonderful,
54:57
Speaker 1: amazing actor and a suite rate like progressively active person. Um.
55:04
Speaker 1: We're really proud of our team. Um, it was very
55:06
Speaker 1: like women powered. Um. So, Katherine Boyd Batstone is our
55:11
Speaker 1: read director. Um Ashley Flotis and Sabrina Eller are our producers.
55:15
Speaker 1: And Chwi Martinez who people might know from his radio shows.
55:20
Speaker 1: Uh you know he was on KISSOPHM. He has his
55:22
Speaker 1: own radio show XM and then he also does a
55:26
Speaker 1: talk show on the l Ray Network. He's our exact producer.
55:29
Speaker 1: So we're working right now. We are kind of like
55:32
Speaker 1: in festival mode, but of a lot of film festivals
55:34
Speaker 1: are trying to now move to online. We want this
55:37
Speaker 1: film to get out there. This film. I mean, I
55:40
Speaker 1: don't see any reason why this can't be a feature
55:42
Speaker 1: length or a limited series. So if you know someone
55:45
Speaker 1: or if you work in the industry, please reach out
55:48
Speaker 1: to us. Please please show the film or the trailer
55:51
Speaker 1: to to your connects. Um, this is this is what
55:56
Speaker 1: I need, This is what we need. And and you
55:58
Speaker 1: know we love to talk about or see an inclusion
56:00
Speaker 1: in latinox representation and and cite the U C, l
56:03
Speaker 1: A and USC studies and we're four percent of the
56:06
Speaker 1: roles on screen. Yes, yes, yes, we know that. But
56:09
Speaker 1: like we need to build the bridge, we need the
56:11
Speaker 1: doors opened, we need the access, and that's where we're at, UM.
56:16
Speaker 1: So that's what we really would like to ask for
56:19
Speaker 1: for folks support. And and you know, we're in the
56:22
Speaker 1: moment where things start up to have a buzz in
56:25
Speaker 1: the digital sphere. So like hashtag us share us UM.
56:29
Speaker 1: If you want to learn more about the the case
56:32
Speaker 1: itself and the documentary there if you just go on
56:35
Speaker 1: YouTube and just type in like Nomas Bibis or Magical
56:38
Speaker 1: of Equilagen. Uh, there's some great interviews with the documentary
56:42
Speaker 1: filmmakers with Anthon Nandez, the the attorney who initially was
56:48
Speaker 1: involved with the case. UM. And then you can follow
56:51
Speaker 1: me uh for my uh my Instagram and my Twitter content,
56:57
Speaker 1: UM and my over sharing in my opinionated politically on Instagram,
57:07
Speaker 1: Instagram and Twitter at Melina Babadua um and hit me up.
57:12
Speaker 1: I'm very accessible. So yeah, thank you, thank you so
57:17
Speaker 1: much for joining us today and sharing so much of
57:23
Speaker 1: the film and yourself with us. Thank you. I really
57:27
Speaker 1: appreciate both of you, and um, I just you're the
57:32
Speaker 1: work that you do is so valuable. And uh, I
57:36
Speaker 1: also appreciate you being vocal and advocating for the excellence
57:42
Speaker 1: of your work and for how necessary your voice and
57:45
Speaker 1: your lens is. Um so it should absolutely be amplified.
57:51
Speaker 1: So you inspire me to make those hard asks. I
57:55
Speaker 1: want you to know, thank you, thank you. I mean,
57:59
Speaker 1: if we don't promote ourselves, who's going to do it?
58:02
Speaker 1: No one? Right? So we have exactly all of us, right,
58:09
Speaker 1: you know, all of us in our in the creative space,
58:11
Speaker 1: in the Latin X creative space. UM. I don't know
58:14
Speaker 1: about you, but we rent and rave all the time
58:16
Speaker 1: about how um, only other women of color have really
58:19
Speaker 1: put us on you know where where possible. So we
58:23
Speaker 1: gotta do what we gotta do. And I thank you
58:26
Speaker 1: for taking the time. You're making major moves, You're doing
58:29
Speaker 1: humongous things. I'm super proud of you, so happy to
58:32
Speaker 1: know you and to call you a friend. And I
58:34
Speaker 1: cannot wait to see UM this film launch, for the
58:39
Speaker 1: world to receive it. And I would love, love, love,
58:41
Speaker 1: like you said, to see this UM taking even farther
58:45
Speaker 1: feature length film series. So at Netflix, at HBO Max,
58:49
Speaker 1: at HBO Latino, UM, all the platforms that claim to
58:52
Speaker 1: want Latin X representation and to reach into the Latin
58:55
Speaker 1: X community and audience like this, These are the types
58:59
Speaker 1: of stories that really are very important to us, and
59:01
Speaker 1: we want to see more of them, not just this one,
59:04
Speaker 1: but like every community coming out of UM. You know,
59:08
Speaker 1: the place we know is Latin America has their own
59:10
Speaker 1: histories and their own stories and their own traumas, and
59:13
Speaker 1: we want to bring all of them to life. So
59:15
Speaker 1: this is one starting point, a major one, but there's
59:18
Speaker 1: a lot more out there, all right, Local Mortris, thank
59:21
Speaker 1: you so much for tuning into another radio Quarantine Confidential.
59:28
Speaker 1: You can follow us on Instagram, Twitter, like us on Facebook,
59:32
Speaker 1: tune into our weekly I G Lives. We've turned our
59:36
Speaker 1: I G or We've turned our oy local segment into
59:38
Speaker 1: an ig Live segment, so check that out on Thursdays
59:41
Speaker 1: at seven pm Pacific Standard time. Thank you once again
59:44
Speaker 1: for tuning in, and we'll catch you next time. Best
59:47
Speaker 1: see those