If you haven’t heard about Xochitl Gomez, I’m just going to assume that you’ve been living under a rock. With her breakout role as the first queer Latina superhero in “Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness,” Gomez has been taking the world by storm. With the future of her Marvel character, America Chavez, as well as other roles, becoming a fashion icon with her unique red carpet looks, and currently being on “Dancing with the Stars,” it’s no surprise that she has risen to fame so quickly.
Born in Los Angeles in 2006, Gomez started her acting career at the age of 5, performing in youth musical theater productions. By the age of 10, she was performing in local commercials as well as small television roles and doing local LA short films, winning Best Young Actress awards in her youth. In 2018, she was a featured actress at the Sundance Institute’s Director’s Lab. Then in 2020, Gomez was honored in Variety magazine’s Power of Young Hollywood issue for her performance on “The Baby-Sitter’s Club.”
In February of 2020, at just 13-years-old, Gomez auditioned for the role of America Chavez, a queer, teenage superhero in “Doctor Strange: The Multiverse of Madness.” Gomez was so loved by the casting crew that the character was actually re-written to be a younger teenager to fit Gomez since the character was originally meant to be 18. By the time that the movie was released in May of 2022, Gomez had already racked up a fanbase due to her amazing energy in interviews and her gorgeous red carpet looks.
Not only was Gomez thriving in the media, but her character is beloved by many due to the walls that America Chavez was breaking down. Chavez is a queer, Puerto Rican dimension traveling teenager, raised by queer parents who is still learning how to use her superpowers. Chavez’s role in the movie is very vital, defeating the villain and solidifying her role in future Marvel projects.
Currently, it is unknown exactly when audiences will see Gomez’s America Chavez again but that hasn’t stopped her from continuing to shine in the spotlight. Gomez has continued to use her fame to uplift Latinas in Hollywood, never shying away from her culture and actually putting it into the spotlight in most things that she does.
In an interview with Teen Vogue, Gomez stated, “I grew up rarely seeing girls on-screen that looked like me or shared my culture. In the past, Latinas were often portrayed with negative stereotypes… It’s great to see more diversity on-screen than what I had growing up.” As a fellow Latina who also grew up with never seeing representation of my culture on the big screen, watching Gomez be that positive representation gives me so much hope for future generations of little Latinas.
Currently, Gomez is on “Dancing with the Stars” and she has not shied away from including her culture in the dances she performs with her partner, Val Chmerkovskiy. To celebrate Disney’s 100th anniversary, week four of this season was dedicated to Disney.Gomez performed a beautiful Paso Doble, a dramatic fast-paced Latin ballroom dance, set to the song “Un Poco Loco” from the Disney movie “Coco.” I can’t lie, the performance brought me to tears. “Coco” was the first time I saw my culture represented in a Disney movie and I know that Gomez probably felt the same way. The dance was beautiful and the judges gave it a score of 27 out of 30.
Then for week five, Gomez explained that 2021 was her most memorable year — the year she traded a childhood dream for the opportunity of a lifetime, in which she traded having a Quinceañera to instead film “Doctor Strange: The Multiverse of Madness.” Her and Chmerkovskiy performed an incredible Viennese waltz. Gomez later shared with her 2.5 million Instagram’s followers a post about the night, thanking Chmerkovskiy for giving her the Quinceañera waltz she never got to have. Her waltz was loved by the judges, scoring a 28 out of 30. In 2019, I also traded having a Quinceañera for a trip to Europe, and while I wouldn’t say that having a Quinceañera was a childhood dream of mine, I do sometimes wonder what it would’ve been like to have one. Quinceañera’s are such an important part of Latino culture that it saddens me at times to remember that I never had one. But just like Gomez, I don’t regret it one bit and watched Gomez have her waltz with so much love and joy for her.
Xochitl Gomez’s future is extremely bright and I’m almost positive that she is going to become an icon that is remembered for centuries. But more importantly, she is creating a space for more Latinas to join her in the spotlight. Watching her be unapologetically herself as well as unapologetically sharing her Mexican culture has been so amazing and I tear up watching her success. I hope that one day there are more and more Latinas like her in the media, so many that there wouldn’t be anymore little Latinas wondering why none of the princess/superheroes they see on screen look like them.