Yalitza Aparicio, one of the stars of the award-winning film Roma, said to the Times, “One of the reasons I’m not a big fan of cinema is that one, I never found a representation that seemed similar to me or that touched on the ways I was raised, I want to believe that in the future, they will continue to include more and more people like me.”
Growing up I had similar feelings torwards visual media. Even in the Novelas that I grew up watching, it was rare that I saw a brown skinned Latina(o) person. The subject of colorsim comes into play and how Western Culture has massive influence in even Mexican Cinema. Seeing Yalitz on such a beautiful film like Roma that has received accolades and nominations form the Oscars, and was the first indeginous woman to recieve a Best Actress award, creates a beautiful feeling of inclusion.
In an interview she had with Cudiad TV 12.2, Yalitz mentions that her favorite quote that arose from the movie Roma and her role in it is: Roma nos une. Which translated means Roma unites us, bring us together. I find this to be a beautiful statement. I think the fact that a woman from Mexico, who is brown skinned a beautiful was celebrated at something as big as the Oscars is huge for the American aduience. Especially right now.
We have someone in the white house that lives with hate at his bedside and carries him with him like his tie. The film Roma is a journey of an odrinary woman, who is Mexican, who is in Mexcio and her life is more than the ugly images the media depicts of Mexcians. I walked down the street and was called a Mexican with the word slurred and pointed as if I should ashamed of where my parents were born. I heard the word and thought of shame and wanted to clean my skin of its browness so that I could look how they wanted me too.
Roma unites us. This film shows the general public that just like America, Mexico has it’s own beauty, it’s art and culture and it is not just bad like some people deeply believe. One of the cores of Mexican culture is family, something that America values, that multiple other cultures value. Roma dives into the dynamics of a family, it speaks on a matter we can all in one way or another relate too.
I’m always telling my friends that I have no one on the big screen that I truly relate to. Someone that looks like me, comes from my same roots. Now I have Yalitza, who didn’t even want to be an actress before this film. She was gonna be a teacher. How beautiful is that? A teacher, and now she’s in a role of a film that could maybe change a few ignorant minds. What a beautiful thing.