Last week, in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, Central’s Multicultural Center welcomed Jackie Cruz, known best for her role in the Netflix hit series “Orange Is the New Black“ (OITNB), to talk with Central students about her life and the many accomplishments she has had in her career.
During her talk with students, Cruz told her life story and how she got into the acting industry as well as the adversities she has overcome both in her personal and professional life and her own identity as a Hispanic woman in Hollywood. Cruz was born in New York and was raised in the Dominican Republic with her mother and aunts during her early life before moving to Los Angeles with her mom to pursue an acting career.
During her talk with students she shared the many different adversities she has faced and what she has done to overcome those adversities. She also shared her successes in her career including her role as Flaca in OITNB, her singing career, her life as a mom and her life while living in Mexico. Cruz has also had an impact on many people with her career including students here at CWU.
Cruz talked about the early parts of her life, including when she was homeless at 16 and when she got into a near fatal car accident at 17. When asked about what has been her favorite story about her life to share with people, Cruz said “my accident is probably my favorite to share because I lost my beauty and I realized that beauty never came from what you look like, it’s always who you are from the inside.” Cruz spoke about how her head had to be partially shaved for brain surgery and was having a hard time accepting her appearance. She was able to recover and went on to start an acting career.
When it came to starting her career, Cruz had a hard time getting roles that weren’t stereotypical Latinas and the roles were small and far between. So she quit acting and decided to pursue more music, though she did talk about missing it and decided to go back with her first role being booked as Marisol ‘Flaca’ Gonzales on the now hit series OITNB.
When talking about her time on OITNB, Cruz mentions the close friendship she has with Diane Guerrero, who portrays her best friend on the show, Maritza, and how they were still working during the first three seasons of the show before becoming series regulars in season four. Cruz has appeared in a number of projects after the show and is in the middle of filming for another movie that is to premiere on Hulu.
Cruz’s portrayal of ‘Flaca’ also had an impact on some students here at Central as well. Mariana Leos-Bravo, a business analytics and marketing management major, spoke about her admiration for Cruz’s work and how she loves the character and the development that ‘Flaca’ had throughout the show as well as Cruz’s TED Talk and how she was inspired and moved by her story.
“My favorite thing to come out of the conversation was her authenticity, how real and raw she was about how her life was, what it took for her to achieve the success she has now.” Leos-Bravo also mentioned how inspiring it was to hear her story since she is also at an age of going through change and how Cruz was able to persevere through her adversities.
Izellah Rainer, an entrepreneurship major with a minor in digital marketing, also talked about how inspiring it was to have Cruz here on campus. She also is a fan of Cruz’s through the show and loved her character but she also is a fan of Cruz’s personality off-camera as much as her personality on-camera. Rainer talked about how genuine Cruz is and how connected the actress is with her culture.
“I love how she embraces her culture. She’s very genuine, and she brings her culture to the table with her whole self. And that’s the most inspirational thing you can do, especially nowadays, is be yourself,” Rainer said. They also praised how Cruz is very friendly with fans and how Cruz was very engaging with students and staff at Central.
In 2024 Cruz released her most recent song, Fruta, and Cruz wanted to bring more light to her music career and share more about it. Her album, Hija de Chavez, seems to be an extremely proud moment for her. When talking about the album, Cruz mentioned how each song is dedicated to her family members. She talked about how she looks up to her aunts and how she wanted her album to be dedicated to her family members.
The album is also named after her father and her birth name, Jaquilene Chavez, which she doesn’t use often, preferring the name Jackie Cruz. Cruz mentioned how she wants to continue to make music and she will continue to pursue her creative endeavors. She sang a quick snippet of her song, Sweet 16, in which the audience applauded for.
Right now, Cruz lives with her husband and three kids on the coast of Mexico and talked about how, in the part of Mexico where she lives, she has a community with her neighbors especially with the tropical storms that the area goes through. She talked about how she can go to her neighbors if she is having car troubles, needs sugar, or if they need somewhere to hide from the hurricanes.
Cruz mentioned how she has had trouble finding community or finding a place where she belongs and that recently with her move to Mexico, that it has started to change. She talked about how grateful she is with her life and how she loves being a mom while also being able to pursue her career still.
Mal Stewman, director of the Multicultural Center, talked about how it was a great honor to be able to bring in Cruz. Central has a partnership with Yakima Rotary, Heritage College, Opportunities Industrialization Center of Yakima and other partners on campus that was able to bring Cruz to Central.
“Her story is just a real story of someone coming from, you know, what seems like nothing, and really staying true and connected to the dream that she had,” Stewman said.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source cwuobserver.com ’
