How America Ferrera is leaving her mark in the entertainment world

Los Angeles native Honduran actress and activist America Ferrera knows she wants to leave her mark in the entertainment world; therefore, her mantra is always to dream big and make things happen. “I believed … as an American, there was nothing I couldn’t achieve if I worked hard enough, long enough, and wanted it bad enough,” she told “Morning Joe.”

However, as a Latina, the lack of representation hit her hard. “It was not very clear that there was room for someone like me in the industry, which was why I was discouraged by a lot of people in my life not to take that route,” she recounted.

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“I’m a lot more aware now of the nuances of what it takes to make it in an industry where there is no representation, [where] there aren’t people like you invested in your stories, invested in changing what those stories are,” Ferrera said. “I think a lot of us who have been in the industry for a few decades have come to the realization that if it’s going to change, we’re the ones who have to change it.”

The Emmy-winning actress decided to build her table and pull chairs for people with the same background. Behind the lens, she became an executive producer and director for Netflix’s “Gentefied” and “I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter.”

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“I realized that I had the access … to championing space for more of us and more of our stories,” she said. “Things have shifted somewhat … but I think we need to see more Latinos in executive rooms, as producers, as the folks who make decisions about what stories get told and who gets to tell them.”

The Golden Globe and SAG award winner also shared how disconnected she was from her identity. “‘[I felt] like there wasn’t an easy identity or label,” she told “Morning Joe.”

“I felt 100 percent American and I felt Honduran and Latina. Parts of me are some of these things, some are not. Labels in general are faulty and don’t really get the job done. The book is about me embracing the multiplicity of my own identity and realizing … that this isn’t just a ‘me’ experience, or even a Latina experience – this actually is an American experience,” she added.