Around that time, Longoria enrolled in night classes at California State University, Northridge, where she earned a master’s in Chicano studies. If she was going to chart a path for her own people, she first needed to learn where they had come from. Works of history, such as “Occupied America,” by Rodolfo Acuña, allowed Longoria to contextualize the Mexican American experience and fully appreciate its trajectory. In front of and behind the screen, the gap between the community’s role and its representation continued to widen. Although Latinos had become the largest minority group in the country, they made up less than five per cent of hires as characters in film. It was clear to Longoria that producers and executives had unconsciously ignored the community for years; if she were to change that, she needed to join their ranks.
The New Yorker