CHRISTINA VIDAL
sees “Taina” as a milestone for Latinas in Hollywood.
Lee actually wanted me to be in “Crooklyn” — he even called my house personally — but my mom said no to Spike Lee!
In the show, there are tensions between Taina’s grandfather, who is from Puerto Rico, and the rest of the family, who grew up in New York. What was your relationship to Puerto Rican culture growing up?
In my family, being Puerto Rican was one of those things we didn’t question. Of course, being Nuyorican is different than being from the island. We spoke English, my mom spoke back to us in Spanish. When she tried to get us to speak in Spanish, I allegedly said, “No, I sound like a jíbara!” It’s like saying you’re a hick. You don’t want to tell your mom how to be a mom, but I wish she didn’t let that slide.
Taina scored high ratings but only got two seasons. What was Nickelodeon’s explanation?
They didn’t really say anything … just that they’d replace it with a show about Master P and his son. But I think it had something to do with me getting a record deal, and just not doing everything they wanted me to do. I wasn’t new to the business then — I was 20. I had a lawyer, I had people around me who knew my rights. This was a time when they had kids do a whole bunch of stuff without having any rights.
What do you think needs to happen for Latinos to succeed in television?
Thanks to people like Eva Longoria and Gloria Calderón Kellett, [there] are conversations now happening in casting offices and networks: “We need diversity.” That’s encouraging, because that means I’m getting way more opportunities. I can play characters I may have never [been cast for] because it would have just been assumed that the character was white.
But I want to keep the conversation at “Oh, here’s this really talented writer/ director that we should look into …” instead of “Oh, here’s this Latin person we have to pacify for the Latin people so we don’t get them started now.”
We want to tell all the stories — it’s not about one over the other. I wish there was a way we could find that harmonious balance, but maybe the way to that is a little muddy and messy.