Eva Longoria (Corpus Christi, Texas, 1975) has gone from a desperate woman to a very militant. Desperate Housewives’ Gabrielle Solis graduated ten years ago with a degree in Chicano Studies from California State University. She and now she is launching to direct films with a striking title: Flamin ’Hot: the story of spicy Cheetos, which premieres on the Disney platform. A story that blends the American dream and the discrimination of Latinos in the US: the adventures of Richard Montañez, who went from being a janitor to an executive of the giant Frito-Lay by inventing, he assures, although there are conflicting versions, spicy Cheetos for a Latino community that wanted flavor.
A story full of jokes, discrimination and insults for being Latino that Longoria turns into a call for pride and mobilization: “I didn’t know that politics affected people,” says one of the film’s characters during cuts from the era of Ronald Reagan. And if Longoria supported Barack Obama, now her directorial debut has been presented in the White House gardens by Joe Biden himself.
“I’ve been a political activist for 20 years,” she smiles in an interview in a central Madrid hotel, “and when they called me for a screening at the White House with the president presenting the film, I was amazed. Upon arrival, there was a mariachi singing and a thousand Latinos in the garden crying, feeling that it was the best day of his life. It’s not just the movie, it’s a movement that we have to make and the most powerful thing in Hollywood and the media is to put an image in which our community can see themselves reflected. The President’s gesture denotes that it is an important film, but more than for the film because of the hard work of Latinos and because there are many of us in this country and our stories do matter.”
In fact, he assures that when he read the script “I was surprised not to know the story, Richard is a Mexican American like me and he didn’t know that the factory cleaner was behind that famous brand. And I told myself that I had to tell that story to everyone, I was obsessed that I was the only person who could direct it. It is a funny film, full of faith, love, and with many political messages about Mexican culture and about our position in society since the sixties”.
And he points out that he knows the discrimination that the protagonist lives: “It takes place in the time when I grew up and the sadness is that not much has changed. It is the reason that in the film he has introduced the Chicano movement of the sixties to explain the experience of Mexican Americans. When I read the script I felt that I am Richard Montañez. People always tell you ‘no, this opportunity is not for you, no, this job is not for you or people like you’. There were many lessons to be learned from Richard. And Hollywood doesn’t have heroes who look like us, like my father. He had the opportunity to create a hero for us. We are always fighting, working to improve our lives, to have better jobs, healthcare, education. There are many things that our community needs that we are still fighting for. We have a lot of work ahead of us.”