The lone Latinos: Freddy Rodriquez & Judy Reyes: actors - Main Cover - Cover Story

Latino Leaders: The National Magazine of the Successful American Latino, April-May, 2003 by Rick Laezman

With all the talk of Latinos on television, an important distinction has been overlooked. In recent years, the Latino community has celebrated the success of several programs with Latino themes and, in some cases, all-Latino casts, not to mention writers, directors, and producers. Breakthrough shows such as Resurrection Boulevard and American Family have captured audiences while giving the national viewing public a realistic take on Latino life. While these programs have transcended stereotypical roles and added a few more faces to the growing list of Latino stars, a less conspicuous but equally important trend is also taking shape. A number of actors are achieving fame the old-fashioned way, as lone Latinos on predominantly white casts.

One of the stars of HBO's Six Feet Under, Freddy Rodriquez has never worried about being an outsider. He took up acting as a young boy in Chicago with no one to show him the ropes. In a recent conversation he shared his experience. "I did it all myself," he says of his youthful ambition. He took up acting as a 13-year-old, when he auditioned for a theater company made up of children from inner city schools.

On that note, sensing the opening of a dramatic angle, I ask trim about an online biography that describes the company as one composed of youth at risk. To my disappointment, he leaves me empty handed.

"We weren't a bunch of gang bangers," he explains. "We just didn't have the same kinds of opportunities." He pauses and adds, "Yeah, I gotta have that bio changed."

If acting didn't save Rodriquez from a life behind bars, it did represent a turning point in his young life, which was devoid of ally privilege. He auditioned for the company out of curiosity more than anything else. "It was something to do on the weekends," he says, sounding somewhat amused by his teenage motives.

Once in, Rodriquez experienced a profound transformation. "I remember the moment," he recalls in a reflective tone. "It was a 20-week program. At the end, we put on a big play, a musical, and I starred in it. I had this epiphany. It was as if God was talking to me. That's when I knew that this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life."

He later enrolled in an arts high school and appeared in a string of Chicago theater productions. Eventually he wound up in Los Angeles, where he made his first television and film appearances in 1994 as a teenager. He made his feature film debut in 1995, in A Walk in the Clouds, which starred Keanu Reeves and Anthony Quinn.

Along the road to success, Rodriquez was his own best motivator. When he was a teenager, his parents played no part in his pursuit of an acting career. Not that they were unsupportive. They just didn't have the know-how or the resources to help.

"I did it all myself," he says nonchalantly. "I had no stage room. I went to auditions on my own, and when the time came, I got myself an agent."

Rodriquez recalls hopping on the train for auditions on Saturday mornings. He waited alone for his call, while the other kids huddled with their families for support.

"My parents were old school," he says of his Puerto Rican mother mad father. "They don't even speak English."

Rodriquez doesn't necessarily consider himself courageous. It was more a matter of having nothing to lose. "I grew up poor. I knew that 1 couldn't go any lower."

In spite of his tremendous success, Rodriquez hasn't forgotten where he came from. He gladly donates his spare time to a variety of efforts that aim to give other underprivileged kids the same break he got as a teenager.

"I go back to my old high school. I'm working on some other programs in Chicago. And I'm working with Larry David--the star and creator of HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm--on a program to raise money for an programs in inner city schools."

With the part on Six Feet Under, Rodriquez finds himself at the center of a major television upheaval. In its third season the HBO series leads a lineup of cable shows that has redefined traditional programming. Like The Sopranos, The Shield, and Sex and the City, it breaks the prime-time mold with adult themes and ironic situations that network TV would just never touch.

In its short lifespan Six Feet Under has won over audiences and critics, and has six Emmys, a Golden Globe, numerous other awards, and several nominations under its belt. It was created, co-written, and executive-produced by Alan Ball, who wrote the screenplay for the award-winning film American Beauty.

The show's appeal can be traced, at least in part, to its darkly comic premise: the story revolves around the life of the fictitious and dysfunctional Fisher family, who owns and operates an independent funeral home in Los Angeles. Rodriquez plays Federico Diaz, a young mortician and family man who has risen from the status of employee to partner in the business.

"This is not the 'normal' role," he says only somewhat facetiously. "There has never been a Latino mortician on TV. He is professional and he is educated."

For Rodriquez, such an unconventional combination in a Latino character would appear to be almost prerequisite. "I always try to do projects with a certain level of quality," he explains. "And I avoid stereotypical roles. I have played them, but I try to steer away from them."