A Feliz Navidad Premiere Night: Pablo De León (Fort Worth Community Special)

Hello, my people—welcome back to The Global Latin Factor .

This is a special on-the-streets episode from Fort Worth's Historic Northside at Artes de la Rosa, covering the premiere of A Feliz Navidad: A Family's Journey to Reconnection by Lúcido Films.

You'll hear real conversations with:

• Pablo De León on grief, forgiveness, and turning a personal story into film
• Julio César Cedillo on humanity over labels, cultural accuracy, and why our stories are universal
• Cast, community leaders, and supporters who showed up for Latino storytelling done right

This night was culture in motion—mariachi, folkloric art, and community—all celebrating family and reconnection.

⏱️ Audio Chapters 

00:00—Intro: live from the premiere 
 02:00 — Greg (Primo Advertising): why this film matters 
05:10—Julio César Cedillo: Fort Worth roots and storytelling 
14:05—Northside history and culture as community 
20:30—"There is no Hollywood" message to creators 
23:10—Cast and community quick interviews 
39:30—Pablo De León post-screening: the real story behind the film 
52:10—How to support the feature-length version 
56:10—Closing message

Transcript

Hola toosento the global land factor baby. Thank you so much for being here. As you can tell we are not at the studio today. We are out on the streets. We are covering today felis navididat a family's journey to reconnection by Lucido Films. We got a little invite to come and check out and cover media. Haven't done much of this. But guess what? We're not afraid to go ahead and tackle it on and talk to some amazing people about the Navididan in general. very important holiday for our cultura. So they have fultoico, they have mariachis, and of course the actors and people VIPs that are coming in. So we're going to get to talk to them. So once again, enjoy this episode. Make sure you subscribe to the channel. Do not miss an opportunity to get some amazing amazing content that we have in our channel. Once again, courtesy of the Global Cavayto here with a familiar face. One of our fellow ambassadors, Greg with Primos. He's uh tell them about your company a little bit. What do you do? So, Primo Advertising that is full service marketing agency, advertising agency. I come from the TV business. Absolutely. Came from advertising for two 20 years and I noticed that there was a large gap between people that were buying the advertising and people that were selling the advertising. So people buying it really didn't know what they were doing. Um and they needed some advice and so that's how I started. Three more advertising. Tell me about the movie itself. How did you find out about it? So through the fourth Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. That's how we met. Yeah. So but you know we meet a lot of people there. I met Pablo there about a couple weeks ago and he was telling about it and I'm like yes this is something I want to be a part of. Absolutely. What do you what do you imagine that you're going to get out of the movie once you watch it? Because when you think about movies, a lot of time is not maybe Latino or Hispanic movies, but what do you think you think out of this movie? Well, I think there's going to be a lot of familiarity with like the way that we grow up. Absolutely. You know, with and and the family tamales and and different things just just different styles that you don't see on TV every day. Absolutely. So, real quickly before I let you go again, thank you very much for stopping by, talking to me. You're my first one, by the way. But tell me all your social media. Where can people reach you at? Okay. Uh, Primo Advertising LLC is my Instagram. You can also Google TV advertising, billboard advertising, all that type of stuff. Fort Worth, and I'm typically number one there. I do advert like websites, SEO, that type of stuff, too. He This is just a little one though, right? Because we have him listed here very soon on the podcast so he can tell his whole story of everything he's been doing for so many years. So, thank you, sir. Thank you, Gracias, man. Okay. Gracias. We have Julio Cesaro here right here in Fort Worth. I don't know if he knows it. He's very humble. He's a taxpaying individual, but he's been in so many amazing projects from little projects to big projects. You probably recognize him. Hola. How are you doing today? I'm I'm I'm doing good. Amazing. As long as I have my cane and I don't fall. So, you are uh here to see the movie today, the premiere. What are your expectations? Because I was telling somebody earlier that a lot of times we think of Christmas movies. It's not about our cultura. So, this is a little bit different and neat, right? Yeah. Look, look, uh, look, I've I met Pablo years ago and, uh, we just we've been keeping track of each other. Absolutely. And so, first of all, I grew up in Fort Worth. Yes. I grew up in Diamond Hill. I was in North Side. I spent a lot of time in Marine Park as a kid. Absolutely. Uh the Isis Theat's not far from here. I I rode my bicycle there. I would watch movies back in the early 80s. Yeah. And so for me to be here, it's it's I have no expectation. It's about celebrating just celebrating film making. Absolutely. And I think that the key thing here is that it's not that it's about Latinos, it's about family that happen to be Latinos. Because what happens is when we label ourselves as Latino filmmakers, Latino actors, then what we're telling people is that this is all we know. And that's the opposite. And so, and so when people, and you asked me, so when people ask me what I think, for me, it's like, no, the beauty is that when you have Latinos telling their stories, Yes. as long as they can find the balance between telling their sto good stories and then the culture and who we are is just part of the makeup, but it's not the story. Yeah. Because our story is is strong. We're no different than any families around the world. We just have to be careful because we don't want to perpetuate our own stereotype is what Absolutely. What I love about it is that a lot of interviews that I saw you said the same message and you've been saying the same messaging forever. We just happen to be human beings. They're labeled this, right? We're part of the community. So, so it's like we can celebrate who we are, but the thing about being Latinos is that there's so many layers to Latinos, and so what happens is when we focus on being Latin in our projects. Gotcha. Then what we start doing is we forget that we really should just be telling a story and tell a more personal story. The more personal the story is, the more universal the messages. Got that's why they're more powerful that way. Yes. Right. I do like a few things that you do even even though still Hollywood is what it is. They're going to see you serve but but a lot of the things that you do for example uh labeling Chupacabra in a movie instead of a kui because the kui more familiar to you find yourself doing a lot of those things. Well, I have to correct a lot of things and and and one of the things that look my responsibility as an actor is as an actor, not as a Mexican actor, not as a Latin as an actor, right? Is that I have to make sense of the text and I have to flesh out all the stupidity, all the nonsense. But when I do that, it's to is to is to make smart choices so that I as an actor can represent my own people. Absolutely. in a smart way without without stereotyping my own people. Yeah. So that and you brought that up. It's funny you did your research because somebody wanted me to one of the directors wanted me to say, "Oh, we better go before Chopakabra comes up." And I'm like, "Yeah, that's that's that's pop culture. That has nothing to do with our culture. Elu koku that goes around the world." Absolutely. But it's small things. And sometimes it's where I have to add Spanish in some things and some things I have to I say, "No, we also speak like in Mados, Mexico, they wanted me to have an accent and I said, "No, this guy speaks five languages. How is he going to have an accent?" Right. And isn't it beautiful if I can show that I can speak two languages very well. Yes. And that makes my character more vague, more more powerful. Well, I was right. Yeah, I was right. So, so but the thing is I'm here to celebrate um my community. I'm here to celebrate Pablo. I'm here I'm here to celebrate Christmas. Yes, absolutely. That is uh so really it's just and there's no judgment. Yes. Because movies are hard to make. Even the bad ones are hard to make. Okay. Yeah. It's a lot of time. Oh, there's a lot of bad ones and there's they're still hard to make. And I've been in a few of those. So, you know, like So, yeah. I think I think No, it's great. And I I love and I hope more people come because you know Art Rosa Well really it it was it has a history actually the Rose theaters had a long history. Absolutely. Where can FLA they wouldn't let them they they wouldn't let them stay in hotels. They had to stay in the neighborhood. Oh wow. Yes. Yes. So this main street divided Latinos from wealthy whites. Yes. So our history is here. This is a landmark theater. Tell me about the north side for you growing up in this. What does it seem to you? The north side has so much. It has a lot of I've had a lot of joy here and I've had a lot of pain here in the north side because I've seen how our I've seen how our neighborhoods have been forgotten at times. I've seen how sometimes the lack of money and investment in in in outreach programs is always a problem. And it's also hard where you see the community that you know they need to do their part too. Absolutely. You know, you know what I mean? Because like in Mexico City or any part of Mexico, they have free museums and they're always packed. Yeah. Right. They're always packed. Why is that? Because they understand the importance of culture at large. Absolutely. And so the fact that you know Artisa is here continuing that that mission, right? And then the people in the neighborhood are big part of it. I mean the amount of restaurants that have changed constantly. Over 60% people speak Spanish here. Exactly. Exactly. But you know it's always it's never easy. Absolutely. But the fact that a place like this still exists is important. So my I you know I went to u uh all saints uh I the church here. I was part of a youth group as a kid. There's a particular priest that was very influential in that time I move here. Father Ron Father Ron was my my priest. You did your research. So I so I know this place. It's changed over the years. In fact, I used to go swimming here at the Marine Park. Yes. They had they had a swimming pool. You can go. Were you here when Selena was here in 93 and 95? So I was actually living in New York for two years. I have a long story about Selena because I used to I used to hang out with her and her brother Abby in their bus cuz the girl I dated at the time, her father was a promoter, Sunonny Flores. Oh, nice. And so I I at the Hiho I would go in the bus and hang out with the Grand Perry. And Grand Prairie. And I didn't know I didn't really know much about her because I I was more um rancheras. And so I was So durango. So I never really was into hano music, but it was my girlfriend who who who introduced me to tano music and so I got to see that and be a part of that for a little while. But yeah, so I I've been around a long time, man. So tell me this, you being a Mexican and uh with a somebody from Argentina, what is a Christmas looks to you as far as celebration? Do you have particular things that you mix together as far as culturally? No, the thing the thing Well, yeah, my my wife is from Buenocitis. Uh, you know, no, it's it's more it's more traditional. It's it's almost more American. As much as I would say, uh, no, we we we keep it pretty simple because my my wife doesn't have the patience to be, you know, sitting there with, you know, everywhere. Yeah. Everywhere. So, so most for you is more in the morning, the 25th get up instead of No, no. Amazing. Yeah. But no, it you know, it's more about family. Yes. You know, the heart of the family is that it's like that's how we celebrate. But, you know, it's like my my kids. We know we don't focus on the material things. Yeah. Absolutely. Cuz we're we're very fortunate. I I really love the way that you see stuff because the podcast that I have is called the global land factor. But I just wanted to see the human element at the end when I closed it out. Talk about that. When I was seeing a few of the interviews that you have like, oh yes, this is what I'm talking about. We're just people. It just happened to be label people throw labels just how they are. Right. Well, because we're, you know, we're we're we're going through times. Look, I'll give you an example. Co COVID political upheaval um industries changing. At the end of the day, if you're an immigrant, if you're an immigrant, absolutely. And especially if you're Latinos. We've been through this. Yes. We've been through so much as a people. We were we were bred to survive these sort of times. Yes. So my message to people is do not panic. This is not our first rodeo. Absolutely. We have suffered so much. We know how to cook for ourselves. We know how to take care of ourselves. We've never asked for a handout. So don't look at us as though we're the ones that uh are asking for help. We we will ask help from those who love us and our community, but we don't need help from people who divide us. Yes. I don't ever want anything from people who divide us. Absolutely. So I think and so and it doesn't matter what you do and any anything you take on in your life whether you're an artist right in the arts or just in general don't let people define you. Yes. Don't let us don't let them define us. We're continuing to evolve as Latinos. Period. Absolutely. And we have to remember who we are, where we come from, but we also have to know where we're going. Yes. And then we define ourselves. That's why like people ask me, why do you work so much? I'm like, because I'm a hustler, I hustle. Mhm. And when I attach myself to something, I'm going to give it my all, but I'm not going to let Hollywood decide how how they're going to use me. I'm going to tell them what I can do for them. Yes. Absolutely. Amazing. I love it. Before we close out, thank you so much for giving me the time. I know I wanted to do a short, but I wanted to spend more time with you. Uh, one thing that people don't realize is for me it seems like you are literally a jewel here on Fort Worth as far as an individual human being that's that that's going on in Hollywood and doing what he does. But one thing, if you had an opportunity to write a love letter to all those up and cominging Latino actors, what would you tell them? I know that you want to try to get away, but what would you tell them to encourage them for them to pursue their dreams? Okay. Okay. Well, first of all, I'm going to say two things here. Absolutely. Number one, there is no Hollywood. Absolutely. Hollywood is a mindset. Hollywood is what they tell us so that you don't have access to it. So as long as you know there is no Hollywood, you're going to be good. Awesome. And so Hollywood is actually in your backyard. Hollywood is in your room. Yes. Okay. What I would tell anyone and it doesn't matter what age you start. You could start when you're a young child up to your 60s. The important thing is that be yourself. Be you. The more you're you, the more powerful your story is. Love it. Love it. And there's no need to label yourself in any way. You're again, you are Latino and be proud of it. But we know that be a great photographer, be a great chef, be a great teacher, be yourself in the most full way possible. Absolutely. And that way you don't struggle trying to figure out who you are. Just pay attention to what you want and go do that. Amazing. Love it. It's as simple as that, but it's hard for a lot of people. Julio, is it a fresh air to say your name the right way? Well, that's part of that's not my whole name, but it's it's even Oh, thank you for stopping by, talking to us for a little bit. For sure. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, we got more coming up here at this amazing premiere of Telis Navid. All right. Damasier, we have one of the gentlemen cast of the movie, Pora. Tell me your name. My name is Willie Sora. Willie, sir, how long you been acting for? I've been acting since 2022. Wow. 22. So, 3 years. How did you get involved with Felis Navid? How did that project come about for you? Uh, I auditioned, saw a posting for Pablo, Pablo's posting, and I auditioned for it, went through the process, and um, now I'm here. Awesome. Well, people that have not watched the movie that eventually one of the days they're going to see it. What do you want them to take away out of the movie? What I want them to take away is that family means everything and that um no matter what, family will always have your back and no matter what happens with family can overcome a lot of obstacles. Awesome. As far as for you, you have any particular need tradition that your house does during Christmas time? Normally a a tradition for us is the box game. We get a big box and we smash it. Oh, really? That's right. We get a prize, a gift card. Get a little prize at the end of it. That's right. For everybody that's watching this, where can they follow with you? Where can they check out some of the projects that you have out now? You can follow me on Instagram at willie_sorya and you can check out my projects on there, any updates, things like that. Awesome. Thank you so much for the time again. I can't wait to see uh the movie itself and your work. It seemed like a very bright Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I can't wait to see more of the things that you have coming up. So, thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. Look what we found. Look what we found today. One of our guests, one of our friends here at the podcast. uh we're familiar with her story. Uh one of the uh individuals that's like super powerful in regards to what she's doing. She's been doing she's about to graduate by the way and also she's performing at this beautiful event. Tiffanyas. Excellente. How did you get involved with this event? How uh what brought you to coming here today and perform? Well, actually what you could say what became my interest or how I got involved was through you. Really? Yes. What did I do? Um, well, you're great with social media and I saw that you shared that there was this event and I was like, well, I have to reach out, you know, and that's how I became involved. That's amazing. Real quickly for you, Navididad, what does it mean to you at your household? What does it look like the traditions? Is there anything particular that you do that's a little bit different than everybody else's? I would say for me, Navidida just stands for family like in general like it brings um the community together, friends, family, and maybe a tradition that we do. I it's it may be common but I love to bake. Besides dancing I love to bake. So I like to bake konchas or hararas guos all of the above. Uhhuh. So for anybody that's like what is the must try of your goodies that you bake? Oh haras. Yeah. Yes. They're delicious. Thank you so much Tiffany once again. Can't wait to see some of your performance. We're going to grab some of it and I can't wait to see the movie Tamilian. For anybody that doesn't know, hasn't seen our podcast, where can they follow you on social media? You can follow me in Tiffany_Y_F4 and then here. Absolutely. Make sure you check out her full episode that we have on the podcast. She's an amazing individual. I mean, I can't thank you enough for coming to the podcast and congratulating you for graduating and for also starting a palico degree to the group of the dancing. There's so much things that you've done is amazing to me. I feel inspired even by talking to you. So, gracias. Thank you. It's an honor. Thank you so much for having me. All right, gentlemen. We are getting some of we are running to a lot of people that we know. Of course, we're here in the historic north side, historic north side. And Art de la Rosa has an amazing amazing history that the gentleman just uh told me about as far as uh Julioa. I can't believe all the history of this year. So, definitely going to be working on an episode of Arteos in general and the history. So, stay tuned for more interviews. We'll be right back. Ladies and gentlemen, we have another very, very, very familiar person to me, Erica Gara, the president and CEO of the Hispanic Fourway Hispanic Chamber. Hola, awesome. So, excellent. Gracias. So, talk about powerful events. Talk about amazing events. Coffee with the chambers where we met Pablo and now we're here to check out the movie. Ain't that amazing? Oh, it's incredible. I mean, I think that's the power of connection and the power of getting to know people. So, Pablo, for instance, came to our coffee with the chamber. What was it two weeks ago? Two weeks ago. It was two weeks ago. We had over 300 people at that coffee with the chamber. But the important part was that he was not a member yet, but he understood the power of meeting so many people and the chamber. And like yourself, we took action immediately and we started posting this event. Absolutely. and the amount of people that have showed up and for me it was really important to be here today because it is the spirit of Christmas and this is a story that's told about family and without family Christmas is nothing Christmas is nothing for sure indeed to be here at the red carpet seeing all these people here and most importantly having de la Rosa yes isn't that amazing historic north sites community comes together yes absolutely so for you do you have any expectations for the movie yet have you looked at a few of the clips and so like hm I I think it might be like this. Anything comes to mind? Yeah. Well, I have a couple. I think for me in particular, it's just really, you know, it's been it's been a year. Yes. It's been a year of unexpected things. It's been a year of challenge with family as well with my mom. And so, for me, it's really coming here, seeing this moving, seeing everybody just rekindling that spirit of Christmas and feeling family. So, what a great way to like launch it into the holiday. And that's why we're here. Absolutely. By the way, she's going to be with the podcast for a full episode because again, this this lady is amazing, super powerful beyond words. I can probably just spend talking to how great she is. But she's going to be doing an episode with us very soon. But for you, as far as familia, as far as Navididad, what are some of the things traditionally that you do at Taso? Oh, well, traditionally for us is we bake cookies. Cafe to see. If you had an opportunity to write a love letter to all the Hispanic Chamber members, what kind of message would you like to tell them about the amazing work that all the entrepreneurs do in the community? Casia, I mean, that letter would be extremely long. I would be writing it forever. But really, I mean, I think I would start off with number one with gratitude. The letter would be just full of gratitude and just talking about entrepreneurship. But most important, I think the letter would be about supporting entrepreneurs. It would be about supporting small businesses, especially right now in the times of holidays, right? Support each other, buy things for each other, give back to the community, and let us as a chamber and our community and our members help you as well. That's what I think the the extent of the letter would be gratitude and encouraging people to support our entrepreneurs, support our businesses and just really encourage our entrepreneurs to keep going. Absolutely. We are together. Yes. If you have not been a member or have not become a member, seen post about being part of the for Hispanic Chamber member, this is your time right now. This is like your flag, your signal to be a part of member because things like this happen, magic happens, and the work that they do. I'm so passionate about doing the things that I do as I said on my speech when I got the uh ambassador of the year because y'all really do it's like an infection but in a good way to be able to be so involved with people because I see that they have hopes I see they have dreams and y'all are there to support them the entire way. So thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you Kispina and we appreciate your kind words we have more little uh interviews that we're going to grab. This is an amazing event. The house is full by the way. She'll get here shots and again stay tuned for some more. Yes. Ladies and gentlemen, we have one of the board members, the first ever Latina of Arteza Rosa here that's going to tell us a little bit about why you should be checking out the artist de la Rosa. You have amazing history. Hola, kumastias. Yes. I would like to share a rich history that we have here Rosa. This is actually been here for over a hundred years. We used to have great artists that would come here like um there's just rich history here. We also, if you look, this is our gallery. So, we try to focus on having Latino artists come and share their um art with us and so that we can share it and provide our community with a way to come and see the visual art. We also have our artist academy here and that's our students that come and they learn about how to put on a program, how to put on a show. Um it's mostly about building those that what I want to say building that esteem to be able to go out in the community and serve the community as well. So why we use arts as a vehicle for them it's also to give them a voice to have confidence and also be out in the community. So we do a lot of things here at Artis Labosa. This year we are celebrating 25 years. Wow. Um our actual building has been here like I said over a hundred years. So we do many many things. And I encourage everyone to go to artist de laar rosa.org to learn about all of the things that we're doing here. Next weekend we're going to have Miachi Christmas which we do every year with our madiachi uh performers. We're also going to have balorico performing. So it's a beautiful event. So we hope that you can come out here next Saturday as well and join us for our mariachi Christmas. When Pablo came to you about the movie premiere, what what came to what crosses your mind as far as like a mex a Latino felis vida title movie? It was amazing. We were so honored that he chose Artis Rosa to fil to show his film. So, we're so excited. As you can see, we have a really good crowd here. Uh we're always here to serve our community. We love bringing film um to our community and we love that everybody's here. Absolutely. We're so excited. One of the other things you told me is uh other things that used to happen back in the days where like particular famous actors couldn't even stay in a hotel. Tell me a little bit about that again. They couldn't. So Main Street was actually the divider. So on this side of Main Street were the Latinos and all of I guess the brown people and across the street was everyone else, right? So a lot of times these artists would come to town to perform and they weren't allowed to stay in local hotels. So many of the families that now had their homes behind Art Sarosa would take them in um and and board them while they were performing here. Yeah. Once again, if people want to follow you to be more informed and arosa, where can they find you at? They can find us at artist de la rosa.org and that will have many of our events. Um if you want to get involved, we love people coming out and volunteering as well. So we encourage everyone to go out to our uh website and learn more about what we do here. Yeah. And tell me again your name. Your your name is very unique in particular. Stanicia Castillo. Tanishia. What is Tanishia originated from? I'm just curious. Yes. My grandmother roots from Mexico and her name was Estani Slada. Oh wow. So they took the tanis out of it and made it Tanishia. And I've never run across a woman named Estanislava, but I have run across a male named Tanis. Estanislavia. Tanishia. No, there's a lot of Tanishas, but no Tanishia. I'm the only one. Awesome. or again, how do you feel to be the first Latina ever on the board? Well, I was the first Latina chair to serve on the board. It was very exciting. I feel like we've open I opened the door for many after me. Since then, we've have two others. We currently have another Latina chairing our board. So, it was a it was a a really great experience. I'm glad to share it with others and uh kind of root them on and help them and and support them as well. Thank you so much for sharing with that. Thank you so much again. We have more content, more interviews that we're grabbing. We have a place full of of individuals that here part of the north side and some of them got connected through the Hispanic Chamber and again friends of mines of course. So stay tuned. We got more to come. And we are back with another actress of the movie. She's going to tell us about her experience and what is Julia Vera. Julia, how did it feel to be part of a Christmas movie par? Oh, well, first off, Christmas is such a big celebration in my family anyways, but to celebrate with Pablo and the cast and to put this together, it's it's hard to put into words. It was an a tremendous experience at a very meaningful time for me personally. Can you share a little bit about that part as far as a meaningful part for you that other people maybe see it reflected in the movie? You know, I think the holidays, especially Christmas, fisad, is such a huge part of our our family, our upbringing, and no matter where you're from, a huge part of our culture. And so being able to share in something that is so special with people that um you know come from have similar roots as me, similar dynamics and put that together in in art, I think it's just I mean it's otherworldly. Yeah. By the way, I don't know if the camera can see it, but her outfit is amazing. Red carpet worthy. The inspiration was from where you said from Spain. Yes. Ballet. Ballet. Ballet Flamingco. Flamnco. Yes. Yes. Amazing. By the way, she is ready to rock the everything. So for people that are haven't watched the movie maybe here in the near future might watch the movie when it comes out what can they expect what can they expect to take away especially to be a Feliz Navididat that sometimes a lot of the times Christmas movies like The Grinch and all the other movies but not maybe Hispanic title movies. I think what they can take away is the organic feel of it. It's very organic. It's very whole and I think from a Latino family myself a lot of the dynamics that are in the picture it's it's very relatable. That's what that's what I was seeing as well as far as the small things that like a lot of times we can only understand it because we're the only ones that live it, right? Exactly. Yes. Exactly. Absolutely. For anybody that wants to follow you, where can they reach you? Where can they find you on social media? They can find me on Facebook, Julia Fernandez de Mz, or also on Instagram, thunderruck_trainer. Trainer. Yeah, I can definitely see you do some training. Definitely a great fit. What is your character name in the movie on this one? You're going to edit that, right? No, we're going to cut that, bro. It's been a year and a half since picture. Wow. Okay, let's Yeah, we're going to So, thank you so much for your time. I can't wait to see the entire uh as far as your experience in general for movies. Is this one a little bit different for you or was it kind of sort of the similar thing? Oh, it's absolutely different. It's really different. You know, Pablo himself is just such an amazing actor. He's such an amazing uh director. everything that he does really helps us to have a good grasp of what's his vision and so yeah I mean this has absolutely been a very unique project one of a kind Julia thank you so much for stopping by and speaking with us once again this is another small interview stay tuned we got a whole lot more coming up is the place is full and we're going to grab some of the art and b-roll to be able to put some of these amazing art Rosa talent that are here as well we are back once again with one of the other actress of the movie all the way from Mexico. Okay. What are they going to be waiting? What are they going to expect in the movie? What can they expect to see? They can expect a family that loves each other so much, but there were like some things that haven't been said, but it's just a nice warm family, a nice warm feeling about the movie. Yeah. A lot of the times top movies are not like maybe Hispanic or Latino title movies. So, is that something that it was uh important for you to be part of? Yes. Every time that I have a a chance to represent a Hispanic family or a Hispanic theme, it's so important. Hispanics are the most growing population here in the United States and we are underrated. We have so much to offer. Do you have any particular tradition that you do at your house every year? Something something in particular stands out? So a lot of people on social media they realize that some people are like what the 24th we celebrate the 24th not the 25th. No we celebrate on the 24th. The 24th is our Christmas and then the 25th is like with the small family. The big f the big Christmas is with all the family, all the cousins, the nephews, the grandparents, everyone. For anybody watching this movie, uh what do you want to leave a message with to them? What do you want to tell them as far as why they support why they should support this movie and Latino Hispanic movies? Family is the most important part of our lives. Hispanic families, we are so united. We're always close to each other. We have cousins and nephews and nieces galore. So come see what a Hispanic family looks like in a very nice warm movie. Thank you so much for the time. Now for anybody that sees these, where can they follow you on social media? Are you open to them following you on social media or notto? Of course they can follow me at maruarciactor.com. That's my website. And they can hire me, they can find me. Um just request and I will be there. Maru Garcia actor. Thank you so much. Thank you so much again. We're grabbing some amazing I think we're going to have a performance here soon. So stay tuned. We got a lot more at the la vista. All right, ladies and gentlemen, we uh just watched an amazing movie by Pablo Deleon. Thank you so much for the invite. It was amazing. It was truly amazing. I I was literally like that happened to me in my household one time as I was watching it. So whenever you were doing this, is that what you were thinking about as far as the emotions when you wanted to grab? Yeah. I mean, it was it was a lot of emotion there because I had just lost dad a year ago, you know, during co. So reminiscing back to how our relationship was and what I really wanted from him and then now he's gone. It's like I mean I I was fortunate to have spent the last 20 years because we at this point we had already established and reunite our relationship. And so I was so blessed to be able to have had that. But you know, you never forget the past. Of course, being an artist, I always want to bring those elements to, like Julio said, humanity. You know, you got to be real with yourself. And you can't impact the world if you're not being honest. Absolutely. So again, congratulations. Is there anything else that you want people to know as far as making it to a full film? I know that the short one's very impactful. Uh, it was a good solid amount of time, but what else do you want people to know to help support your cause to make the full a full movie? Yeah, there's so there's several ways. I mean, you can make donations. If you want to partner as an investor, you know, just feel free to give me a call or shoot me an email. Um, city city city of Fort Worth. Um, there's, you know, we're going to be meeting up. So, I mean, there's there's so many opportunities there that for me, you know, and it's just matter of getting someone to believe in your vision and and I feel like that's what I wanted to show tonight to to show exactly how the the families come together, the community comes together. That's absolutely great. So, from professional white wings to being a feature film now and film in general, the big screen, how did did you ever see yourself being in this place? I did as a by as a as a kid what you guys as a kid I've always wanted to be actor first. It wasn't until a European family comes down Lover's Lane. That's the street I grew up on. They come and they see a Mexican kid say, "Hey man, you know, let's get him. He he probably knows how to play baseball." Wow. And so that took me in a different path. And so it I'm glad I went on that path because it disciplined me and so I wouldn't have the motivation, the desire to, you know, take the hard hits, take the hard slides, and and and just keep going up to bat, not be afraid to strike out. You said an amazing thing because I was in the service military and growing up with a tough dad, it kind of sort of prepared me aside later going backwards. So I'm like, he really got me ready for this because he was a tough dad, too. So I'm like, did you see that as well as part of your preparation for life? I didn't at the time, but as I gotten older and and became more mature and had a lot of closure and unforgi had had uh forgiven my father for a lot of things, that's when I began to see and and understand that no, I mean, the man never walked out of our life. He was hard, but he never walked out of my life. Absolutely. He did his he did his best. You said forgiveness. Forgiveness. Tell me about that part, man. The hard part was forgiving him. One, there was a lot of deep things that I felt like my father failed to protect us because there was some things that happened in my life as a kid that, you know, it's like why why did he have the courage to put a whoop into my butt, but he wouldn't whoop the other person that, you know, that invaded our home. So that's that's another story. But yeah. Yeah, absolutely. is powerful one because a lot of times people don't realize forgiveness for yourself to be able to be freed of everything else and and be able to grow as a person. So again congratulations. We have a pending interview later on at full full podcast. But thank you so much for the time and the invite. It was amazing. The event was great showcasing the cultura cultura with the dancers uh the ballet for everything. It was amazing. Thank you so much. I appreciate and historical venue that we're at. Art de la Rosa. I got to thank the guy here to my right. He's been amazing. He's been uh like I said like a dad, man. He's been supporting me. He's he's he's been on on me and he's been encouraging in a lot of the things that I didn't get because that's why when we put that he put the beer. He didn't say I'm sorry. That was his way of saying I'm sorry. Yeah. You know, absolutely. People might not grasp that part. Yeah. Yeah. Might not grab that. Sometimes they don't say the words, but the little actions that they say that's how they kind of speak to us and I understood it. Yeah. Absolutely. Thank you, Mike. So, what made you want to take up on this project? I mean, it's just a little bit uh I don't know if this normally the films that you get into, but what made you want to be inspired to try to produce this? You know, Pablo and I were just talking, man, sometimes you just believe in people and the passion and it just so happened I we had a place that we could go and uh up in the mountains and see if it was a fit for the film. And it happened that it was. And you know, so you just got to believe in people and you know, sometimes it's your gut feeling and and sometimes it's the story. This time it was the story and the gut feeling. So whenever he was telling you the story, were you in your mind already thinking of the things that you need to set in place to make sure that it captured what he thought the vision? Uh, no, not really. You know, but I believe in family. We have a strong family. U my wife and I do going down, you know, growing up like him. I played baseball. My dad went to two games. one in high school and one in college. So, it's sort of like we had a little commonality there that I probably didn't even realize until I continue to hear his story. But, you know, we have always believed in a strong family unit at our home today. And um you know, and that's one reason why my wife's not here tonight because she has this a different family commitment that we already had committed to. So, absolutely, we just divided and conquered because of our support for Pablo. So, in the podcast that I do, I call it the global Latin factor. open up a window for people to be able to see how our family functions, how human beings function that they call Latino. For you, was it an eyeopening experience to be able to see the way that he he grew up and having to having to be able to be in that household like that and having those type of conflicts or are you able to relate that that's something like that that you grew up as well? I didn't grow up the same way. I had I had supportive parents. I mean, I had food on the table and a roof over the head, right? So, you know, uh, as a kid, so I think you do not understand everything around you, right? You just you look back on it one time and you go, I did a lot of this stuff with a little support. You know, my dad was Air Force originally, so you know that strict upbringing. Yes. And so, uh, he was tough. Uh, I think there's some, um, I didn't know going into this project really what I was getting into. It was It's only the second project I'd ever been in. Wow. And so, uh, this industry is new to me. And so, u, you know, again, I looked at the situation and what the film was about and he shared that with me and I believed in it. And, you know, there were some commonalities as we we we didn't know each other that well going in. Absolutely. But, you know, again, um, my whole life has been trusting people. Assume good intentions. Okay. So, I always assume good intentions with people, right? And so, until they burn you, right? A lot of people don't know that this took a little while to get going and get it on screen, right? Absolutely. Can you tell me about the time of how long it took actually for us to be here today? About how long it was? I know this is a lot bigger. the industry is a lot more complicated than ever I ever imagined from start to finish and putting it all together. So, you know, I I don't know if I'm answering your question there, but how long before the beginning filming to actually getting here? My goodness. We started uh March of When did we start filming? Was that March of 24? March of 24. Yeah, March of 24 year. Wow. So, go. So, it does take time. It does take time. And did you learn because I know about filming is like sometimes it's not in sequence. Sometimes you film this or that. Sometimes you do a whole day and maybe try to get as much as you can. So, and they do 25 takes on walking out of a store. You know, this is like, you know, I don't know what I'm looking at. I'm just sitting there sort of watching. Okay, this is cool. I was watching one of Julio's interviews. He was talking about he spent five hours on the water to just capture like two minutes worth of scenery. And I was like, what? That is so true. Yeah. So true. That is so true. I mean, I never know what the finished product turned out really good and you know, but when you're sitting there watching it all happen, you don't have a clue. And at least I didn't. Yeah. So, are y'all planning to put this on uh pitch it into film festivals at all whatsoever or are y'all going to put it on social media? You happen to know any chance which way you going next with this? Well, it's very difficult. Yeah. Okay. Okay. He's good. You can start with that. It's very difficult to try to share the vision. So when I talked to Mike, I wanted, you know, you just feel that connection have the confidence to share. But I had a hard time sharing because every time I shared it, especially ones that we have common, you know, goals and dreams in terms of film, it kept getting or you know, someone still try to hijack it. So it was difficult. It was hard for me to share it. So it's very hard to just go out to other people and pitch it. Like I I gave out a lot tonight showing all that what the vision is. Yeah. Because trying to express or explain somebody to understand my vision all it's hard to explain in words. Yeah. I know you got very emotional during that particular time because a lot of people don't believe sometimes but you're the only one that sees this just kind of like yourself and different things like you're the only one that can see it and sometimes even the words are not there but it's kind of hard for them to believe even jump on board because the vision was given to you to make happen right. Yeah. And like folks that I knew that try to hijack is still is not my vision and so that's the good thing about it. That's awesome. Yeah. So, thank you so much again for the invite and for the amazing man. I'm telling you, I was really touched. I was telling her like, I really like this movie. I really like this movie. I really I can really relate to this movie as far as it was playing out and everything. So, and the event itself in general. Again, thank you so much for the time. Thank you so much. Thanks for having us. This was another amazing and different episode of the Global Latin Factor podcast. Remember to subscribe to the channel. Why? You have such amazing content to get such amazing stories that inspire you of amazing Latinos doing amazing things and collaborating with different people to make sure that we make things happen. And remember, we are just like you. We are people. We are the spice and flavor in this melting pot that we call the world. Till next time. Well done.