"Gordita Chronicles" is a new HBO MAX comedy about an immigrant Latino family determined to create a spicy American Dream!
Zoe Saldana is part of the creative team as an executive producer and she spoke with ABC7's Hosea Sanders about the series.
It's the 80s in Miami, and a family of four is struggling to fit in but keep the heart of their heritage.
Sanders: "Why was it so important for you to bring this story to the screen?"
Saldana: "As a proud, American, Latinx, Dominican, Afro-Carribean Islander, it was always my dream to see a Dominican-American experience on the silver screen or on TV, because I knew I was always so proud of my family."
Sanders: "Juan, Victor is a man on a mission, isn't he?"
Juan Javier Cardenas, who plays "Victor": "To move to a new place with new customs, new culture, new movies, new culture at school, new clothing, you have to make sure you have that kind of steely determination to help them through that to work as hard as you can to fulfill those dreams for the family."
Sanders: "Savannah, how do you relate to Emilia, she is a great character, she is just exploring and assimilating, is that fun to play?"
Savannah Nicole Ruiz, who plays "Emilia": "Oh, my God, so much fun to play, you know, in real life I have a younger brother so it doesn't take much for me to channel that older sister energy, if I need an attitude, I snap into it, it's like a super power."
Saldana: "If I'm allowed to have one little pleasure that I give to myself it's to make sure that whatever it is that I watch, I see an accurate representation of the life that I'm living. It's important, we want to relate to others, and I feel like that's the universal theme of the Gordita Chronicles."
Sanders: "Well, good representation, keep on doing the good things and sending you so much love from Chicago, good luck with the show!"