An Open Letter to Ugly Betty’s America Ferrera
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Posted by Guest Blogger January 19th, 2007 |
An open letter to America Ferrera, star of ABC’s Ugly Betty.
by Guest Blogger Olivia Ortiz
Dear Ms. Ferrera,
I found myself openly weeping with you as you took the stage to accept your Golden Globe award for “Best Actress” on Monday night. From your acceptance speech, I quote: “I hear from young girls on a daily basis how Betty makes them feel worthy and loveable and how they have more to offer the world than they thought.” As a young Latina feminist, I wanted to shout from the rooftop of my building my congratulations to you and to say thank you – thank you for exemplifying the class, ethnic and body ideals of this woman and of real women the world over.
As I watched you speak about your win, I thought back to a time when I first came to know beauty on my own terms. Perhaps like many young Latinas, before I knew you as Betty Suárez, I knew you as Ana, the young Mexican-American woman from East Los Angeles in Patricia Cardoso’s 2002 film, Real Women Have Curves. Perhaps unlike many young Latinas, however, by summer’s end of the same year the film was released, I had just endured a season in the Texas pageant circuit. Before meeting your headstrong and unapologetic feminist character in Cardoso’s film, I had met and internalized a vastly different knowledge of beauty – a knowledge mostly having to do with spray-on self-tanner and strappy heels. My transformation from aimless college co-ed in her early 20’s to dedicated and fierce feminist activist in her early 20’s I owe to fearless characters like Ana and Betty Suárez, and to fearless women like you, Ms. Ferrera.
I offer a warm congratulations and a thank you to you and to fellow feminist and Ugly Betty executive producer, Salma Hayek. Estoy muy agradecida, I am very grateful, for two incredible feminists like you who have taken the risk to remind countless numbers of young women that intelligence and ambition can defy more than just a Hollywood genre. After all, as race and media expert Yeidy Rivero points out in the latest Ms., “How many working-class, Mexican-American, clumsy, allegedly ‘ugly,’ intelligent women with an illegal-immigrant father have been portrayed on U.S. television? Until Betty’s arrival, none.” I take pride in this arrival, feeling confident that I stand with millions of other young Latin women as we all walk a little taller.
I look forward to following your career in film and television and anticipate an exciting new season from my new favorite show, a show where beauty looks less like a dream and a lot more like equality. ! Adelante Ugly Betty¡
In solidarity,
Olivia Ortiz
Bio: Guest Blogger Olivia Ortiz is a Mexican American feminist activist, a writer, and a staffer at the Feminist Majority Foundation, where she serves as a coordinator of West Coast campus programs.
January 19th, 2007 12:02
Thank you Olivia!
January 19th, 2007 12:46
Thank you for writing this Olivia! America is such a role model for young and older Latinas.
January 19th, 2007 13:00
yes, yes, and yes! i actually surprised myself by the true joy i felt in seeing america win that award. it felt like a tiny glimmer of sanity in such a completely insane world, and i’m thankful to everyone who made it happen. i’ll “be ugly” in 07, indeed…
January 20th, 2007 14:42
Gracias Olivia!!!! Es totalmente cierto!!
January 22nd, 2007 07:31
Olivia, Stand proud to be LATINA… as beautiful as it the word sounds so are you! and all other latinas. Great job for sharing the view of how “Ugly Betty” is a part of all us no matter what AGE.
January 22nd, 2007 12:19
Olivia, knowing your face, I love you. Knowing your mind, I love you. Knowing your heart, I love you. Hearing your words, I love you. You are a woman that makes other women proud. You make me proud. For that, I love you!
January 25th, 2007 12:30
No matter how well-meaning this show aims to be, I still think “ugly” is an ugly word, and it still qualifies women and girls based on their physical appearances. How important was it that America Ferrara attend the awards ceremony with waxed eyebrows? I choose to not watch this show.
January 25th, 2007 12:51
Sp. correction: Ferrera.
January 27th, 2007 11:22
[…] Her teary speech about being a role model for young women was inspiring, especially since it is so rare to see a working-class, Mexican-American character in such a prominent role on TV, particularly a normal-looking, smart young woman whose father is an illegal immigrant! This open letter to Ferrera from Olivia Ortiz expresses admiration for the actress much more eloquently, so I’ll point you to it. Posted by Nicole January 27, 2007 […]
July 3rd, 2007 12:03
[…] VH1 is planning to make a reality TV show based on “Ugly Betty“, according to TV Squad. […]
July 16th, 2007 12:54
I want Ugly Betty season 2 to start asap
June 14th, 2008 01:44
[…] The all-white NY is ubiquitous on television and the movies though white people make up only 44% of the population. In fact most television shows that support a multi-racial casts take place outside of NYC, including NBC’s Scrubs (L.A.), ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy (Seattle); and Sci-Fi’s Battlestar Galactica (space). ABC’s Ugly Betty is a great exception, though the show has less of a NYC feel, and NBC’s 30 Rock has done the most in provocative discussions on race (check out the episodes on Liz Lemon’s Middle-Eastern neighbor and Tracy Morgan’s appeal to Black people to vote republican). […]
April 15th, 2010 08:15
[…] I fell for America Ferrera in 2002’s Real Women Have Curves. As a working class woman who has confronted body image issues her entire life (sometimes, emerging successfully), I was excited for a more realistic depiction of young women in film. Like Ugly Betty, Real Women examined gender, race and class as well as the relentless pursuit of thinness and unrealistic notions of beauty in contemporary culture. In scores of interviews, Ferrera has been vocal that she has dealt with these pressures and that they undermine us from loving ourselves. Feminist, indeed. This personal commitment to bring feminist content (and America is indeed a self-identified feminist as made evident for the Feminist Majority Foundation’s This is What a Feminist Looks Like campaign) on body image and the power and importance of women’s relationships to pop culture has not wavered. To read the impact that Ferrera has had on young women, read this open letter to America Ferrera at W.I.M.N. […]