mardi 7 novembre 2017
Cristela Alonzo on Racing Toward Your Dream
Cristela Alonzo is a stand-up comedian, actress, and the voice of Cruz Ramirez in Cars 3.
My mother came from a poor village in Mexico and had a second-grade education. She used to tell me dreams were for the rich. I understood where she was coming from. My family was practically homeless and lived as squatters for part of my childhood. She spent her life struggling to get by. When you spend every minute of your life trying to survive - to get food on the table - the question we must ask ourselves is: when do we allow ourselves to dream?
There's a saying (I believe originated by writer Ayesha Siddiqi) that goes "Be the person you needed when you were younger," and that is what I'm trying to do now. I want to empower children growing up like I did. I want them to learn from a young age that they're capable of anything they dream of doing. Those are the words I needed to hear as a kid. I needed to hear that I was enough. I needed to hear that my dreams were not a joke but rather an extension of who I am. This is why I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to be Cruz Ramirez in Disney Pixar's Cars 3.
One of the lines my character says in the movie - "Dream small or not at all" - was taken directly from my childhood. My mom repeated this phrase as a way to protect me from getting my heart broken; she didn't want me to be disappointed. The irony is my mom thought wanting to act and perform was too big of a risk to pay off for me, yet she had followed a bigger dream by coming to this country in search of a fighting chance to just live. She minimized what she had done and was unaware that my dream was actually small compared to hers.
I worked on the film for almost two years and slowly found my life story incorporated into Cruz's journey. I've never thought my story was special, but Pixar saw something in it that I didn't. They saw the hope I carried and wouldn't let me quit - the hopeful inner voice that would always say: "Remember, there is nothing more you'd rather do at this moment than to keep at it. Your tears are a reminder of how much you want this." That's why I think Cars 3 is an inspiring film for both kids and adults. It's about having a dream, having doubts, and eventually realizing that you were powerful from the beginning.
I am very passionate about sharing my story if it can encourage others to follow their dreams. So, with the help of Disney, I have been able to personally work with a number of Boys & Girls Clubs of America around the country to screen the movie and visit with the kids. I wanted them to see a story starring someone just like them because I think it's the best way to show them everything is possible. If I can do it, they can do it.
"We need to teach them that a dream doesn't know whether you're rich or not."
Kids need to see examples of people who not only grew up like they did but also choose to spend their time giving back to the communities that raised them. They need to see that it's not only OK to have a dream and chase it, it's necessary. They need to hear that from hunger and extreme poverty, something great can happen - I'm proof of that. We need to teach them that a dream doesn't know whether you're rich or not. A dream is a language our heart and our brain speak to each other in an attempt to guide us toward what we're meant to do.
In the movie, there's a scene where Cruz asks Lightning McQueen, "How did you know you could do it?" Lightning replies, "I just never thought I couldn't." When I read that line, it hit my soul. I realized I had never felt that kind of confidence, and it made me sad. I want to empower kids so when someone asks them, "How did you think you could do it?" they respond, "I just never thought I couldn't." That is the biggest gift we can give them.
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