'I want people to see that immigrants are like everyone else.'
Originally I was there to play Mrs. Rosario, Nina’s mother. And I remember, going all the way back to the first workshops, they could not find an elderly woman to play Abuela. Long story short, Quiara Alegría Hudes said let’s try Olga Merediz. I auditioned, I got the part, and I had to grow into the part and grow into the song.
This song is her story and the story of so many different immigrants that have come to America for a better life. And so I had to embody that woman. And I used all the women in my family and all the women that I loved in my life to make her this quintessential matriarch that we all wanted in our lives as our mothers or just in our lives. And I had to kind of really tell that story in a profound, deep way.
That means a lot to me that it touched you, that’s really the whole point [of the scene]. I cry thinking about it. I cry for that woman, but I couldn’t cry when I was performing it. I have to be in it. But it touched me, and she touched me. It’s taught me so much, so yes, and I am definitely crying right now.
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