"Family to me is foundation. It’s the people that you can call on whether you love them or hate them. When push comes to shove, they’re there for you..."

“I am a vegetarian and so is my baby! … I became a vegetarian in small stages starting at the ripe old age of 16 years old! … When I turned 16 I started to get a little freaked out if while I was eating my KFC, I looked at my chicken drum sticks too long. If I noticed the veins or cartilage etc. … I started to see that it was once an actual living breathing animal. … I have this beautiful baby girl and I have a choice to make. Do I feed her meat? Or no? I went with my gut, I had learned over the years how to feed myself healthy, and made sure I got enough iron, so I would do the same for Luna Marie… I knew nothing else.”

“…Back then, it was very difficult for Latinos to even play their own roles, even if it was written for a Latin character. This was an event where they were actually changing the role to make it Latin, and I was just very proud to be able to change it. To not only have this be my first acting role, but have it be a little bit groundbreaking…”

“…On many levels there is the class system, which exists anywhere. There were all the clichéd roles, which I very much tried to stay away from. Not that I looked down upon them, but that’s not what resonated with me. I can trace my family’s roots in the United States back to 1850. So technically, half my family never crossed any border. We were just always here...”

“…I’m used to living here in America and being the only Latino person in the room. So I am often literally representing us Latinos…But it was more important to just do quality work, not so much just as a Latin actress, but as an actress. There’s pressure just in that. It’s so funny, my mom always said to me, “Life is pressure. You’ve just got to deal with it.”

“I have not eaten beef for 26 years. Chicken, poultry for 16 years. Fish for six, if forced to I will eat shrimp.”