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Amid brightly colored stands selling spices, candies and imitation Labubus in all shades, the mono-monikered actor Tonatiuh sips on a hibiscus agua fresca at El Mercadito<\/a> in Boyle Heights. The indoor market has been a staple of Latino life and commerce since it opened in the late 1960s.<\/p>\n Not far from here, his aunt still runs the business that she and Tonatiuh\u2019s mother, an immigrant from the Mexican state of Guanajuato, opened decades ago. \u201cMy mom cut hair for a long time, so I grew up in a beauty salon,\u201d he says, casually dressed in a light blue button-up shirt. \u201cThat’s why I talk so much.\u201d<\/p>\n The school Tonatiuh attended as a kid, Our Lady of Lourdes, is also in the vicinity, as is the place where he learned to ride a bicycle, Hollenbeck Park. To say that the streets of Boyle Heights<\/a>, where he was born, nurtured his worldview would be an understatement.<\/p>\n \u201cThese last few months have been really difficult,\u201d Tonatiuh tells me, referencing the recent ICE raids<\/a> that have ravaged the fabric of the city. He calls them vicious: a \u201cPR cycle against people with dignity, taxpaying individuals who are feeding their families and running businesses, quite literally living the American dream, as clich\u00e9 as that may sound. \u201d<\/p>\n Even as his own dreams are beginning to materialize, Tonatiuh, 30, remains tethered to these places and people. His career is about to launch into Hollywood\u2019s firmament with a dual role in director Bill Condon\u2019s screen adaptation of the stage musical version of \u201cKiss of the Spider Woman\u201d (in theaters Oct. 10). The rising Mexican American actor shares dramatic space with superstars Jennifer Lopez and Diego Luna<\/a>.<\/p>\n Reviews out of the Sundance Film Festival, where the movie debuted in January, praised Tonatiuh\u2019s performance as a breakthrough. His electrifying turn is equal parts heart-wrenching, deliciously irreverent and technically impressive.<\/p>\n For the bulk of the film, Tonatiuh plays Luis Molina, a passionate gay prisoner in jail during Argentina\u2019s 1970s-era Dirty War who is infatuated with the dazzling escapism of the movies \u2014 especially with the allure of fictional screen diva Ingrid Luna (a standout Lopez).<\/p>\n Molina indulges in fantasies to stay sane, a dreamscape we experience as scenes from a 1940s classic Hollywood musical. In them, Tonatiuh sings and dances as the dashing Kendall Nesbitt dressed to the nines in elegant tuxes. The musical portion of the film was shot in New York, while for the prison sequences only involving Tonatiuh and Diego Luna as Valentin, a rugged revolutionary, the production relocated to Uruguay. The effect, Tonaituh says, was like making two separate movies.<\/p>\n To perform alongside Lopez, he rehearsed with Broadway dancers for a month leading up to the shooting. \u201cWhen I first met Jennifer, I was like, \u2018Oh my God, that’s Jennifer Lopez, what the hell?\u2019\u201d he recalls with contagious energy. \u201cI must have turned left on the wrong street because now I’m standing in front of her. How did this happen? What life am I living?\u201d<\/p>\n One would think Tonatiuh\u2019s mother knew he was destined to become a star when naming him after the brightest heavenly body.<\/p>\n \u201cShe had a dream when she was pregnant with me where she was in a field surrounded by golden orbs and they turned into the sun,\u201d he explains. \u201cAnd because of the Aztec mythology of Tonatiuh being the sun god, she woke up from the dream and was like, \u2018My kid’s name is going to be Tonatiuh.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Growing up around Latinos, his Indigenous name didn\u2019t raise eyebrows. But that changed once Tonatiuh got a taste of the demands of assimilation. \u201cAs we moved to West Covina, everyone tried to impose their anglicized identity onto me, and I went with it for many years,\u201d he says. \u201cThen I started realizing, \u2018Why am I denying even my own name to fit in?\u2019 It’s so stupid.\u201d<\/p>\n The entertainment industry proved just as unwilling to accept all of him. Those advising him warned him to play ball. \u201cIt’s already hard enough given the way you look,\u201d Tonatiuh recalls hearing from them. \u201cI was just like, \u2018Are we going to change my name to Albert?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n As for his last name, Elizarraraz, he conceded it might be a bridge too far for English-only speakers. \u201cMy first name’s already difficult enough,\u201d Tonatiuh says. \u201cThey are not ready for that.\u201d<\/p>\n Increasingly, he found the concept of a mononym enticing. \u201cI was like, \u2018How many other Tonatiuhs are in the industry?\u2019 I looked it up on SAG, and it was just me,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Enamored with drama from a young age, Tonatiuh remembers watching James Cameron\u2019s \u201cTitanic\u201d on VHS as a formative experience. But it wasn\u2019t until a friend\u2019s mother invited him to see a live performance of \u201cWicked\u201d when he was a teenager that acting grabbed him.<\/p>\n \u201cI like stories with a hook and a bite to it,\u201d he says. \u201c\u2018Wicked\u2019 is about segregation and the rise of it in America. But it’s in metaphor. \u2018Animal Farm\u2019 is the same way. There are beautiful, entertaining works that are also poignant, with messaging. That messaging is what’s most interesting to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
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