Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 I gotta say, thank you Jess,
00:01 thank you for choosing us and me.
00:05 This is really an honor, especially in the inaugural issue,
00:08 like why wasn't there one before?
00:10 We forgive you.
00:12 But watch out 'cause the doors are open now
00:17 and you're gonna get so many calls from Latinos
00:19 going, "Why wasn't I on the list?"
00:20 (audience laughing)
00:23 And I was on my first car, my first like cool car
00:28 that didn't cost $300, 'cause when I moved to Hollywood
00:31 I bought like a roller skate, was a Nissan Ultima.
00:34 (audience cheering)
00:36 It was.
00:37 I know, maybe they'll give me one for free now.
00:41 (audience laughing)
00:43 - Absolutely!
00:44 - You see, ask and you shall receive.
00:49 But I will say, first of all, it's really fucked up
00:53 I'm last 'cause I've been drinking.
00:55 (audience laughing)
00:56 Jess, that is not cool.
00:59 Tequila.
01:00 Although y'all don't have my tequila here,
01:02 so I'm really pissed off at you guys.
01:04 But we're gonna fix that.
01:06 All right, okay, I wrote stuff down.
01:09 I'm gonna hurry up and talk 'cause I know a lot of us ladies
01:12 are wearing Spanx.
01:13 (audience laughing)
01:16 But I come from a really large family from Texas.
01:22 I'm a Texican, and I had a lot of amazing role models
01:27 and I've really dedicated my life to Latino causes
01:32 with my foundation and parental engagement programs
01:37 and entrepreneurial programs and educational programs
01:40 and scholarship programs and all of that work
01:42 is so important to me.
01:44 So anytime I'm recognized for that,
01:47 my heart fills with joy and pride
01:51 because it really is gonna be not only my legacy,
01:54 but our legacy.
01:57 And I really thought too long and hard
02:01 about how to scale what I'm doing
02:04 and how to make it more efficient and sustainable.
02:08 And I quickly realized nothing shifts culture
02:13 more than media, more than what we're doing here.
02:17 And I've been behind the camera for over 12 years now.
02:22 And I remember, I'm so happy Dolores is here
02:27 because I thought you left.
02:29 Because this is Dolores' eighth event today,
02:35 and she's 93.
02:37 I've had one and I'm exhausted.
02:38 (audience laughing)
02:41 But I remember I wasn't even famous when I met Dolores.
02:44 I was on Young and the Restless, a struggling actress.
02:47 And I met Dolores through a friend
02:51 and I was hanging out with her.
02:53 And she told me, she said,
02:55 you know, what are you doing?
02:58 She was talking to me and she said, you know what?
03:00 One day you're gonna have a voice
03:02 and you better have something to say.
03:04 (audience laughing)
03:05 And I was like, me?
03:06 I'm gonna have a voice, oh my God.
03:09 And I never forgot that.
03:11 And she's been a mentor ever since.
03:13 She's the reason I got my master's in Chicano Studies.
03:16 (audience applauding)
03:20 She knows it.
03:21 But I wanted to get behind the camera
03:24 because I knew I would have a bigger impact
03:26 in the changes I wanted to see in the world
03:29 and specifically in our country
03:30 and specifically in our community
03:32 because that's how we're gonna shift culture.
03:35 And that's where we see how policy affects people.
03:39 And I knew I wanted to have the opportunity
03:42 to tell our stories from our perspective
03:46 and not for us, for everybody.
03:48 So it's not by us, for us, it's by us, for everybody.
03:52 And I wanted to create heroes for us
03:57 that look like us on the small screen, on the big screen.
04:00 And I made a movie.
04:03 It's a damn good movie.
04:06 And it's called "Flaming Hot."
04:07 Yes.
04:08 (audience applauding)
04:12 And I really knew early on the responsibility I had
04:17 when I got to tell this story.
04:20 It's the story of Richard Montanez.
04:22 He was a Mexican janitor who worked at Frito-Lay
04:25 and invented the number one snack in the world,
04:29 the Flaming Hot Cheeto.
04:30 It's a multi-billion dollar brand today
04:35 and it came from the brain of one of our own.
04:38 And I remember early on in the process,
04:41 I told Frito-Lay through Cesar Conde
04:45 that you may make Flaming Hot Cheetos,
04:51 but Latinos own the brand of Flaming Hot Cheetos.
04:55 This is our brand, we made this brand.
04:57 And so they understood that and they let us make this movie.
05:01 And I wanted to tell Richard's story
05:04 because I don't know if you guys have seen it,
05:06 but it's an amazing story.
05:09 Rags to Riches, American Dream, Success 101.
05:12 And it's a really lesson about,
05:17 I remember reading his story and I was like,
05:18 I am Richard Montanez.
05:21 We are all Richard Montanez.
05:22 We've all been told no.
05:24 No, that job is not for somebody who looks like you.
05:26 No, that job is not for you because you're a woman.
05:29 No, maybe you shouldn't dream that big.
05:32 And Richard dared to ask, but why not me?
05:35 Why can't ideas come from somebody like me?
05:38 Why can't great things come from somebody who sounds like me,
05:40 who has an accent, whose name ends in Z?
05:43 Mine doesn't and I get really annoyed at that
05:48 'cause I'm like, I'm Latino.
05:49 Like, your name doesn't end in Z.
05:51 But I will say, we all had so much to learn from Richard
05:59 and we were shooting the movie and he was just amazing.
06:01 But I really quickly realized when I was on set
06:05 how Hollywood defines what heroes look like
06:08 and they never look like us.
06:10 And when we screened at the White House,
06:14 on the lawn was a thousand Latinos,
06:17 President Biden introduced the film.
06:19 It was so beautiful because everybody
06:22 was seeing themselves reflected back.
06:24 And they were laughing and they were crying
06:26 and they were saying, "Cabrones" and "Pendejo"
06:29 and they were saying all the things you know in the movie.
06:32 And I thought, you know what?
06:34 The moment was so big for me because it was just surreal
06:39 for people to go, oh, I identify with that
06:43 because if he went through all of that
06:46 and accomplished what he did, maybe I can do the same.
06:49 And that was the point of the film.
06:51 And so I know tonight they told us to talk about
06:54 what we recommend to the next generation of leaders.
07:01 And I always say like not only to dream,
07:04 dream but dream big and not just to dream big
07:08 but to put the work in and ask, why not me?
07:13 Why not me?
07:14 Why can't good things come from me?
07:16 And I know a lot of younger generations get a slack
07:21 for like, you guys don't work hard like we did.
07:24 I went to school in the mud and walking.
07:29 My parents said that.
07:30 Now I hear myself saying that to my son.
07:31 I'm like, you know how easy you have it.
07:34 So don't be afraid to put the work in,
07:36 especially because we're Latinos,
07:38 especially because we're women.
07:39 And I showed up to do this film with no problem
07:45 out hustling everybody in the room,
07:49 with no problem outworking everybody in the room.
07:52 I know I was gonna have to work faster.
07:54 I was gonna have to work harder.
07:55 I was gonna have to work cheaper
07:56 just to prove I was worthy of the job,
07:59 a job that I knew I was worthy of.
08:01 So don't carry a chip on your shoulder because of that.
08:05 Be fueled by that.
08:07 Put the work in and show them,
08:09 okay, yeah, we did make the right choice.
08:11 And I think there's no easy path to achieving success.
08:16 I think anybody on this list will tell you that.
08:18 You know, it's not like we just make these lists up
08:21 because we were lucky.
08:25 We worked really hard.
08:27 And I remember during the press conference,
08:30 so many journalists would see the billboards around town
08:35 and they would see all the success we had
08:37 and they'd go, "Can you believe this?"
08:39 And I'd go, "Yeah."
08:40 (audience laughing)
08:42 I was there.
08:43 I did the thing, I did the work for that.
08:45 I dreamt that.
08:47 So can I believe it?
08:48 Yes, I deserve it.
08:50 We deserve it.
08:52 And so recognize your worth in that.
08:54 Recognize that we are worth the opportunity.
08:58 The last thing I will say is, you know,
08:59 Latinos are the fastest growing demographic
09:01 in the United States,
09:03 but our demography is not our destiny.
09:07 So don't sit back on that.
09:09 Just because we're a large group
09:11 doesn't mean we're a powerful group.
09:13 So let's use that power at the voting booth
09:15 in corporate America, in Hollywood, at the box office.
09:20 Throw that weight around.
09:23 And I think we have to show up for each other.
09:25 We have to continue to be heard.
09:27 We have to continue to be seen.
09:29 And I want to thank you, Time Magazine,
09:32 for uplifting everybody's work on this list.
09:35 And I do want to stress, we're not just Latino leaders.
09:37 We are leaders.
09:39 Too many.
09:40 You are leaders.
09:42 Punto.
09:43 So I am humbled.
09:45 I'm humbled to be in your company.