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Encanto actress and published author Diane Guerrero visited Cal State Fullerton on Thursday to speak on diverse media representation and her immigration experience in the semesters second Beyond the Conversation event hosted by Associated Students and the Division of Student Affairs.

The 37-year-old actress spoke to students about her desire to see new and diverse stories told in film and television. Guerrero has been pursuing acting for more than 10 years and has spent time advocating for immigrant reform.

I'm ready to stop having to apologize for where we come from, Guerrero said. I think that we all have interesting lives, and different stories deserve to be heard and told.

During the conversation, she discussed working on her breakout role as Maritza Ramos on the TV show, Orange is the New Black. According to Guerrero, being able to portray a character that she had a personal connection to as a Colombian woman and the child of immigrant parents was a huge honor for her.

I was so honored that they had taken the work that I was doing and collectively what was going on in the country seriously and decided to honor me with telling that story, Guerrero said. I didnt take it lightly; it was a huge responsibility, and I did it with a lot of heart, and I did it with personal experience.

As the only person in her family with legal citizenship, Guerrero reflected on her experience with immigration in the United States after watching her parents and older brother get deported back to Colombia at the age of 14.

To give a deep retelling of her story, she also discussed her own two publications: The Country We Love, and My Family Divided: One Girl's Journey of Home, Loss, and Hope. These books are her autobiographies that tell the story of her and her family and their loyalty to the U.S. before being separated.

In 2015 Guerrero was appointed to be a presidential ambassador for citizenship and naturalization by President Obama but quickly learned that she and her familys loyalty to the immigration system was misplaced.

I do not believe in this system, and I should have never believed in it because any system that would take away your parents in the middle of the day while youre at school is no system I should believe in, ever, Guerrero said.

She now advocates for immigration reform with the Immigrant Legal Resource Center.

Guerrero also spoke about entertainment industry politics regarding diversity and representation in projects, noting a discrepancy between Hollywoods intentions and its casting practices.

According to her, despite Hollywood wanting to be a more uplifting source for media representation, she still believes that they only cast people of color in roles that they deem comfortable for the screen.

Ive just always been afraid of being pigeonholed or put in a box, Guerrero said. They say they want you to be multifaceted, but really what they want is to put you somewhere where they feel comfortable.

Guerreros latest project saw her play the character of Crazy Jane in HBO Maxs Doom Patrol. She played the most powerful superhero in the show as a woman with dissociative identity disorder with 64 alternative personalities who each had their own power.

Guerrero said she appreciated playing the character because of how much the role allowed her to show what she could do as an actress of color who could portray complex emotions.

She believes these complex roles should be the standard for actors and actresses of color in the entertainment industry. According to her, stories that feature people of color should not be marketed solely based on their representation but rather because theyre stories that deserve to be told.

It shouldnt be like that, Guerrero said. Our stories should be consumed for everyone because everyone has the right to learn and go into different dimensions and experience everyone elses lives or at least hear about them.

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Hollywood actress Diane Guerrero advocates for immigration reform - The Daily Titan

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