Diego Luna Discusses Cesar Chavez Biopic And Current ‘Prejudice’ Toward Mexican-Americans
By Carolina Moreno, Huffington Post Latino Voices
Diego Luna may have traveled into the future for his role in the sci-fi action movie “Elysium” but the Mexican actor recently also went back in time to direct “Chavez.”
The 33-year-old star sat down with HuffPost Live’s Alyona Minkovski on Tuesday to chat about his latest projects, including his first English-language feature film based on the life and work of American civil rights activist Cesar Chavez.
Despite being born and raised in his native Mexico, Luna said he learned more about the Mexican-American activist during the time he was was living in the United States.
“The idea behind the film is to talk about a community that now I have a strong connection with,” the actor, whose first son was born in the U.S., told Minkovski. “And I found out that no one has done a film about him and I don’t think it has been celebrated enough. And I think it’s the right time to tell the story of Cesar Chavez.”
The movie is currently in post-production, according to its IMDb page, and will star Michael Peña as Cesar Chavez, Rosario Dawson as Dolores Huerta and America Ferrera as Helen Chavez, among others. The script was written by Keir Pearson (“Hotel Rwanda”) and the storyline will cover ten years of Chavez’s life starting in 1962, when the National Farm Workers Association was founded.
For Luna, the movie’s message transcends time and speaks about the Mexican-American community’s current relationship with Mexico and the rest of the United States’ population.
“There’s so much prejudiced instilled today about this community, from people in the States and people in Mexico,” the star told HuffPost Live. “And there is a connection that hasn’t been established between Mexico and Mexican-Americans. I learned about this community from Mexico and when I moved here I realized it was a completely different story.”
When asked what exactly is the perception …
This article was first published in Huffington Post Latino Voices.
[Photo by El Pelos Briseño]