<\/p>\n
With eyes shining as bright as the metallic toes of her hardshell Adidas, Cristela Alonzo bounds into Guelaguetza, a cherished Oaxacan restaurant in Los Angeles\u2019 Koreatown.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always wanted to find places that reminded me of home,\u201d the comedian and actor, originally from the Texas borderlands, says of her affinity for the family-run restaurant<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\nThe smell of fresh mole, the restaurant\u2019s specialty , lingers in the air. Each table is topped with brightly colored yellow and red fabric \u2014 not unlike that of the Mexican-inspired American flag Alonzo drapes around her shoulders at the end of her most recent Netflix special, \u201cUpper Classy.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cI had to make sure I drank some water \u2014 room temperature \u2014 because I hate ICE,\u201d she opens the hour, taped in June on No Kings Day<\/u><\/a>, a day of nationwide protests against President Trump\u2019s authoritarian actions. The audience in Dallas \u2014 the city where the comedian began her stand-up career and later set her self-titled network sitcom<\/u><\/a> \u2014 hoots and hollers in response.<\/p>\n\u201cUpper Classy,\u201d which premieres Tuesday on Netflix, is the last of a trilogy of specials about Alonzo\u2019s experience growing up in abject poverty, a subject matter that will feel familiar for longtime fans. The first two specials are aptly named \u201cLower Classy\u201d and \u201cMiddle Classy<\/u>\u201d<\/u><\/a> \u2014 and to demonstrate that she\u2019s really made it to \u201cUpper Classy,\u201d she ditches her casual jeans and t-shirt for a sparkly black jumpsuit. <\/p>\nBut where, in 2017\u2019s \u201cLower Classy,\u201d Alonzo jokes about immigrants digging tunnels to evade Trump\u2019s promised wall, in this project, she acknowledges the collective scars of the pandemic, especially for mixed-status families such as hers, who she says were taught to work hard in their pursuit of the American Dream but not to live hard.<\/p>\n\u201cWhen you grow up in poverty, you grow up in survival mode,\u201d she says in one of several direct exhortations to the audience. \u201cYour problem isn\u2019t that you don\u2019t work enough; your problem is that you work too much.\u201d<\/p>\nThen, as if flipping a switch, she dives into a hilarious story about how she is fighting back by forcing her adult siblings to go on annual family vacations. She\u2019s the family matriarch, she explains, not because she\u2019s the eldest, but because she makes the most money.<\/p>\n\n <\/picture>\n\nAlonzo\u2019s latest special, \u201cUpper Classy,\u201d completes her trilogy of comedy specials about growing up in abject poverty.<\/p>\n(Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\nIt\u2019s this ebb and flow between real talk and humor that defines \u201cUpper Classy,\u201d Alonzo\u2019s most personal \u2014 and political \u2014 project yet.<\/p>\n\u201cWhen it comes to \u2018Lower,\u2019 \u2018Middle\u2019 and \u2018Upper Classy,\u2019 the \u2018Classy\u2019 is actually talking about the actual class system,\u201d she tells me over mole and a suero<\/u><\/a>, her eyes hardening as she explains the true meaning of the special\u2019s title. \u201cIt\u2019s not about you being fancy.\u201d<\/p>\nAs a child, Alonzo\u2019s family squatted in an abandoned diner; now, after decades of hard work, she can put her bills on autopay.<\/p>\n\u201cI had to strike it rich to get basic necessities,\u201d she says.<\/p>\nWhat\u2019s more American than that?<\/p>\nThis interview has been lightly condensed and edited for clarity. <\/i><\/p>\nHow are you feeling? <\/b><\/p>\nThere is an emptiness that happens after you shoot a special \u2014 I think any time you do anything that\u2019s creative that you\u2019ve invested so much time in \u2014 because now you\u2019re kind of like, I have to start all over again, and that\u2019s kind of weird, right?<\/p>\n\u201c<\/b>Upper Classy<\/b>\u201d<\/b> being the culmination of a trilogy of specials, how does it build on the previous two? <\/b><\/p>\nIt started off as this random idea that I had where I thought, what if I did a trilogy and showed life as I progress. I got the idea because when I had my sitcom, one of the biggest notes from network and studio was, \u201cIt has to be about ascension.\u201d The family has to improve, grow. And I always thought, \u201cWell what does that mean in your mind? What do you think making it means?\u201d Because I can tell you that, for my family, what making it means is very simple: We have money to pay the bills. But they\u2019re like, \u201cNo, more, more.\u201d Well, I don\u2019t know the more. I\u2019m still here.<\/p>\nSo I started thinking, what if I actually in a weird way document the ascension of me coming into my life. \u201cLower Classy\u201d really was: This is my bio; this is how my mom was; this is how my family was; this is how I\u2019m doing.<\/p>\nI shot the first special in August of 2016; then the election happened and I was so depressed because I had assumed that people were better than what they turned out to be. I actually didn\u2019t know what I was going to do, and I decided to take a break from stand-up and everything because I couldn\u2019t mentally handle it. I didn\u2019t feel like being funny; I didn\u2019t feel like being anything.<\/p>\nA couple of years later during the pandemic, it was the first hard time where I didn\u2019t feel like I struggled and it was because of the rice and beans theory. It was the fact that I knew how to survive a hard time that I knew I was going to be okay; I knew I had money for rice and beans. It was the moment that I realized I was a lot better than I was in 2016 when I shot the special.<\/p>\nI started to take stock of where I was. I found out I was diabetic \u2014 [that] changed my life. I realized that I had to eat better, I had to take care of myself, and I connected being able to take care of yourself with luxury.<\/p>\n\n <\/picture>\n\nAlonzo\u2019s latest special, \u201cUpper Classy,\u201d is her most personal and political yet.<\/p>\n(Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\nBecause my family was not taught to take care of themselves, going to the doctor was such a luxury. In this country, it\u2019s such a luxury to be able to get insurance to go to the doctor.<\/p>\nI started making a list of things that were different for me, and I wrote \u201chealth insurance,\u201d and that\u2019s when I realized I didn\u2019t know how health insurance worked. That\u2019s kind of how \u201cMiddle Classy\u201d started. The joke is that what you think is wealthy isn\u2019t about wealth. You\u2019re not rich, but you are rich to yourself. It\u2019s trivializing what you think money and class is, which led to this one, \u201cUpper Classy.\u201d It kind of has a play in two ways: Look at how rich I am \u2014 you didn\u2019t think I was going to be that rich because of the story that I share \u2014 but also look at the person my family made me to be.<\/p>\nAnd you culminated it in a fancy outfit.<\/b><\/p>\nLet me tell you, that was so hard for me. It was awkward; I fought it so much. When we were gonna do this special, I had an idea for an outfit, and my friend [and director of the special] Page [Hurwitz] was like, \u201cGet the hell out of here; there\u2019s no way you\u2019re wearing that.\u201d And I\u2019m like, \u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d She\u2019s like, \u201cThis is \u2018Upper Classy.\u2019 Cristela, go classy.\u201d<\/p>\nCut to April, I still hadn\u2019t picked an outfit. We look for options and we can\u2019t find anything and then I think I have this jumpsuit in my closet. It\u2019s still in the box and I\u2019m like, let me try it on. I send a picture to my friends, and they\u2019re like, \u201cWe need to see it in person; come down to the office.\u201d I went in and they\u2019re like, \u201cThat\u2019s it.\u201d It was very \u201980s makeover.<\/p>\nTo that point, you really pushed yourself for this special. There\u2019s a lot of thematic overlap in the three specials<\/b>,<\/b> but in this one you really take it to a more vulnerable place. <\/b><\/p>\nIn the time that we live in, I felt like we had to because, stating it one time, you realize that people don\u2019t really get what you mean. That\u2019s why you revisit the themes. It\u2019s not about repeating because you don\u2019t have anything else to say, it\u2019s about making sure that they understand the level that you\u2019re talking about.<\/p>\nI realized there\u2019s a lot of comics that talk about being poor \u2014 \u201cI was so poor, I did this\u201d \u2014 and I\u2019m like, let me tell you how poor we are because I want you to understand that it\u2019s a little different than what you\u2019re used to. When I started talking about my family, I mentioned squatting in a diner a lot throughout my career, but people still think that I\u2019m lying about it. People don\u2019t believe that it\u2019s a real thing because it\u2019s such a foreign idea to them. Also, people thought there is no way you grew up in an abandoned diner because you speak so well, as if not having money means that you\u2019re incapable of speaking in complete sentences.<\/p>\nBut that comes with age, right? I probably couldn\u2019t have done it during the first special. I don\u2019t think I was actually capable of describing it.<\/p>\n\n <\/picture>\n\nAs the family caregiver, Alonzo had to push herself to live her life to the fullest. <\/p>\n(Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\nAnother theme i<\/b>n<\/b> the special is living your life to the fullest. <\/b>Y<\/b>ou talked about being the one to bring your family on vacation, which made me wonder, are you taking care of yourself as well?<\/b><\/p>\nWhen this special came up, I started thinking about where I was in life, and thematically, it was about me being in my 40s and barely getting to the point where I\u2019m allowing myself to live. Because like I say in this special, I\u2019m the matriarch in the family; I take care of everybody. Anybody needs something, I\u2019m the person that does it.<\/p>\nAs I got older, I saw my siblings get older, and I realized that they\u2019ve never lived. It was really that moment where we tried to make a list of all the stuff we wanted to do. It was such a sobering moment when you realize that none of us knew what we wanted to do \u2014 we couldn\u2019t make a list of fun things \u2014 and that was so sad to me because I feel like that\u2019s so common.<\/p>\nAs a caregiver, you are taught to make sure that everyone else is taken care of, that you never think of yourself as a priority. That\u2019s another thing that I realized when I turned 40. We\u2019ve always been taught to talk about our 20s and 30s. A lot of people don\u2019t talk about their 40s. When I turned 40, I realized that if I\u2019m lucky, I still have another 40 years of this life left to live. That\u2019s a long time. So why do I deny myself things when I still have so much time left? Why do we deny ourselves things when we have so much time left? That\u2019s actually something that I really wanted to explore in the special. We constantly are taught we\u2019re running out of time. We actually need to accept that we have a lot of time.<\/p>\nLike next week, I signed up for swimming lessons.<\/p>\nI was going to ask you about this!<\/b><\/p>\nI\u2019m terrified. I\u2019m so terrified, but it\u2019s part of the upper classiness of it, where I\u2019m trying to make myself go out and do something that I never thought I would do.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s the perfect example of, like, people don\u2019t understand the kind of life I had, and people need to know this because especially politically right now, I am the prime example of so many people that are maybe in the news, but not really in the news. They are spoken about, but not spoken to.<\/p>\nThere are several moments in this special where you\u2019re actually directly encouraging the audience to do something. From a craft perspective, you would be in this really earnest moment and then end it with a joke. I would love to hear you talk about your rhythm and flow. <\/b><\/p>\nI actually do that on purpose. It\u2019s a style I\u2019ve developed over years, and it\u2019s because I like to trick people into learning things without knowing that they\u2019re being taught. So a lot of times, I\u2019ve said, you can make a joke out of anything, you just have to do it at the right time.<\/p>\nI think a lot of comics hate the silence. They hate not having the laughter from the audience. And I love the silence because I know that in the silence comes a big emotion, and I get to tell you what the big emotion is.<\/p>\nI think when people get preachy they can almost go towards condescending and once you do [that], you\u2019ve lost people. Which is actually another reason why I\u2019m so personal, because you might not like me, because you can\u2019t deny that it happened to me. It\u2019s an interesting thing where it\u2019s a comedy show, but also at the time that we\u2019re at, how can I not use the privilege that I have to be on a global platform and not acknowledge what\u2019s happening? It\u2019s like saying that in silence you\u2019re okay with it, and I\u2019m not okay with it.<\/p>\n\n\n <\/picture> <\/svg> <\/button> <\/ps-youtubeplayer> <\/div><\/div><\/div>\nYou recently did a series of Room Temperature (NO ICE) shows to raise money for detained immigrants<\/b>,<\/b> and at those and other shows of yours, you were handing out Know Your Rights <\/b>c<\/b>ards. <\/b>Why did you feel the need <\/b>to step up in this moment and how has your activism crystallized in your career as a comic? <\/b><\/p>\nIn 2015, I had done a show in Bakersfield, and after the show, I was at the meet-and-greet and I see a little old lady walk by, and I tell my friend, \u201cI think that\u2019s Dolores Huerta.\u201d I couldn\u2019t believe it.<\/p>\nDolores wasn\u2019t someone they taught you about in school, but I knew her because I was a big Latino history person. At that time, we had DACA and DAPA. This was during the Obama administration, and I had met a couple people doing immigration call to action. One of them was like, \u201cWe\u2019re doing this thing at the White House \u2014 would you come and host because you\u2019re so open about being a mixed status family?\u201d So I went to the White House, and Dolores was there and we started becoming friends.<\/p>\nThe thing about Dolores, she is so infectious with her change. I asked her, what is one of the biggest lessons you\u2019ve learned that you would tell people. She\u2019s like, \u201cI love seeing people come into their power. I love seeing people know that they are capable of change and they run with it.\u201d I realized that Dolores had done that to me. The activism, all of it came from Dolores. It was Dolores being around and saying yes to everything that I said. She taught me that change was possible on every level. You just really have to believe in it, but also you have to make sure you do it yourself because there is no guarantee that anybody else will do it.<\/p>\nThat\u2019s why I started doing the Room Temperature shows. My price point was $30 a ticket. You don\u2019t think that $30 is a lot of money, but when you group it with all these other people, we came up with tens of thousands of dollars for this nonprofit.<\/p>\nSo, we started the conversation talking about the emptiness that you feel when a project is over. What\u2019s next?<\/b><\/p>\nWhat\u2019s coming up next is I\u2019ll probably do a tour next year. We\u2019re working on dates right now, which means I have to write.<\/p>\nBut also, you know it\u2019s funny, the TV show that I had was only one season, 22 episodes. It was canceled in 2015, 10 years ago, and there is not a day that goes by that people don\u2019t ask me about it. People always ask me if I would do another TV show, and the truth is I never wanted to because when I had it, I was the first Latina to do it ever. And the problem that happens when you\u2019re that is that people don\u2019t know how to deal with you. You basically have to pitch your culture and ask them for acceptance.<\/p>\nBut now, I\u2019m at the point where having done \u201cUpper Classy\u201d and talking about where I\u2019m at and really taking stock of where I\u2019m at mentally and my approach to life, I actually think I\u2019m ready to do another show that\u2019s based on the themes that I talk about in \u201cUpper Classy.\u201d<\/p>\nI was talking to a network recently, and I was like, \u201cLook, I don\u2019t want to do a show about a single woman trying to navigate her dating life.\u201d Been there, done that. What if you actually explore somebody that\u2019s really, really happy with where they\u2019re at? What about a show with siblings? What about a show with something a little different? Because not everybody has this desire to date and be married. It\u2019s like, what about those people?<\/p>\nWe didn\u2019t even talk about not wanting to get married. Do you want to talk about it? <\/b><\/p>\nWhen you\u2019re happy with where you are, when you can take care of yourself, I mean, that\u2019s a power people don\u2019t understand. Not everyone can do it; it\u2019s impressive as hell that you can do it, especially in L.A.<\/p>\nThere\u2019s times that I drive around L.A. and I\u2019m driving back home, and there\u2019s a moment of realization where I\u2019m like, \u201cDamn, you live in L.A. You were able to come from this border town with nothing and not only do you get to survive in L.A., you get to thrive in L.A.\u201d Like, that is mind blowing. That\u2019s something that never goes away. It\u2019s this wonder. I don\u2019t even want to call it being grateful because I don\u2019t think grateful encapsulates it, but it\u2019s this weird triumph because when you don\u2019t expect anything, everything is such a surprise.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.latimes.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With eyes shining as bright as the metallic toes of her hardshell Adidas, Cristela Alonzo bounds into Guelaguetza, a cherished Oaxacan restaurant in Los Angeles\u2019 Koreatown. \u201cI always wanted to find places that reminded me of home,\u201d the comedian and actor, originally from the Texas borderlands, says of her affinity for the family-run restaurant. 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The smell of fresh mole, the restaurant\u2019s specialty , lingers in the air. Each table is topped with brightly colored yellow and red fabric \u2014 not unlike that of the Mexican-inspired American flag Alonzo drapes around her shoulders at the end of her most recent Netflix special, \u201cUpper Classy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI had to make sure I drank some water \u2014 room temperature \u2014 because I hate ICE,\u201d she opens the hour, taped in June on No Kings Day<\/u><\/a>, a day of nationwide protests against President Trump\u2019s authoritarian actions. The audience in Dallas \u2014 the city where the comedian began her stand-up career and later set her self-titled network sitcom<\/u><\/a> \u2014 hoots and hollers in response.<\/p>\n\u201cUpper Classy,\u201d which premieres Tuesday on Netflix, is the last of a trilogy of specials about Alonzo\u2019s experience growing up in abject poverty, a subject matter that will feel familiar for longtime fans. The first two specials are aptly named \u201cLower Classy\u201d and \u201cMiddle Classy<\/u>\u201d<\/u><\/a> \u2014 and to demonstrate that she\u2019s really made it to \u201cUpper Classy,\u201d she ditches her casual jeans and t-shirt for a sparkly black jumpsuit. <\/p>\nBut where, in 2017\u2019s \u201cLower Classy,\u201d Alonzo jokes about immigrants digging tunnels to evade Trump\u2019s promised wall, in this project, she acknowledges the collective scars of the pandemic, especially for mixed-status families such as hers, who she says were taught to work hard in their pursuit of the American Dream but not to live hard.<\/p>\n\u201cWhen you grow up in poverty, you grow up in survival mode,\u201d she says in one of several direct exhortations to the audience. \u201cYour problem isn\u2019t that you don\u2019t work enough; your problem is that you work too much.\u201d<\/p>\nThen, as if flipping a switch, she dives into a hilarious story about how she is fighting back by forcing her adult siblings to go on annual family vacations. She\u2019s the family matriarch, she explains, not because she\u2019s the eldest, but because she makes the most money.<\/p>\n\n <\/picture>\n\nAlonzo\u2019s latest special, \u201cUpper Classy,\u201d completes her trilogy of comedy specials about growing up in abject poverty.<\/p>\n(Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\nIt\u2019s this ebb and flow between real talk and humor that defines \u201cUpper Classy,\u201d Alonzo\u2019s most personal \u2014 and political \u2014 project yet.<\/p>\n\u201cWhen it comes to \u2018Lower,\u2019 \u2018Middle\u2019 and \u2018Upper Classy,\u2019 the \u2018Classy\u2019 is actually talking about the actual class system,\u201d she tells me over mole and a suero<\/u><\/a>, her eyes hardening as she explains the true meaning of the special\u2019s title. \u201cIt\u2019s not about you being fancy.\u201d<\/p>\nAs a child, Alonzo\u2019s family squatted in an abandoned diner; now, after decades of hard work, she can put her bills on autopay.<\/p>\n\u201cI had to strike it rich to get basic necessities,\u201d she says.<\/p>\nWhat\u2019s more American than that?<\/p>\nThis interview has been lightly condensed and edited for clarity. <\/i><\/p>\nHow are you feeling? <\/b><\/p>\nThere is an emptiness that happens after you shoot a special \u2014 I think any time you do anything that\u2019s creative that you\u2019ve invested so much time in \u2014 because now you\u2019re kind of like, I have to start all over again, and that\u2019s kind of weird, right?<\/p>\n\u201c<\/b>Upper Classy<\/b>\u201d<\/b> being the culmination of a trilogy of specials, how does it build on the previous two? <\/b><\/p>\nIt started off as this random idea that I had where I thought, what if I did a trilogy and showed life as I progress. I got the idea because when I had my sitcom, one of the biggest notes from network and studio was, \u201cIt has to be about ascension.\u201d The family has to improve, grow. And I always thought, \u201cWell what does that mean in your mind? What do you think making it means?\u201d Because I can tell you that, for my family, what making it means is very simple: We have money to pay the bills. But they\u2019re like, \u201cNo, more, more.\u201d Well, I don\u2019t know the more. I\u2019m still here.<\/p>\nSo I started thinking, what if I actually in a weird way document the ascension of me coming into my life. \u201cLower Classy\u201d really was: This is my bio; this is how my mom was; this is how my family was; this is how I\u2019m doing.<\/p>\nI shot the first special in August of 2016; then the election happened and I was so depressed because I had assumed that people were better than what they turned out to be. I actually didn\u2019t know what I was going to do, and I decided to take a break from stand-up and everything because I couldn\u2019t mentally handle it. I didn\u2019t feel like being funny; I didn\u2019t feel like being anything.<\/p>\nA couple of years later during the pandemic, it was the first hard time where I didn\u2019t feel like I struggled and it was because of the rice and beans theory. It was the fact that I knew how to survive a hard time that I knew I was going to be okay; I knew I had money for rice and beans. It was the moment that I realized I was a lot better than I was in 2016 when I shot the special.<\/p>\nI started to take stock of where I was. I found out I was diabetic \u2014 [that] changed my life. I realized that I had to eat better, I had to take care of myself, and I connected being able to take care of yourself with luxury.<\/p>\n\n <\/picture>\n\nAlonzo\u2019s latest special, \u201cUpper Classy,\u201d is her most personal and political yet.<\/p>\n(Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\nBecause my family was not taught to take care of themselves, going to the doctor was such a luxury. In this country, it\u2019s such a luxury to be able to get insurance to go to the doctor.<\/p>\nI started making a list of things that were different for me, and I wrote \u201chealth insurance,\u201d and that\u2019s when I realized I didn\u2019t know how health insurance worked. That\u2019s kind of how \u201cMiddle Classy\u201d started. The joke is that what you think is wealthy isn\u2019t about wealth. You\u2019re not rich, but you are rich to yourself. It\u2019s trivializing what you think money and class is, which led to this one, \u201cUpper Classy.\u201d It kind of has a play in two ways: Look at how rich I am \u2014 you didn\u2019t think I was going to be that rich because of the story that I share \u2014 but also look at the person my family made me to be.<\/p>\nAnd you culminated it in a fancy outfit.<\/b><\/p>\nLet me tell you, that was so hard for me. It was awkward; I fought it so much. When we were gonna do this special, I had an idea for an outfit, and my friend [and director of the special] Page [Hurwitz] was like, \u201cGet the hell out of here; there\u2019s no way you\u2019re wearing that.\u201d And I\u2019m like, \u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d She\u2019s like, \u201cThis is \u2018Upper Classy.\u2019 Cristela, go classy.\u201d<\/p>\nCut to April, I still hadn\u2019t picked an outfit. We look for options and we can\u2019t find anything and then I think I have this jumpsuit in my closet. It\u2019s still in the box and I\u2019m like, let me try it on. I send a picture to my friends, and they\u2019re like, \u201cWe need to see it in person; come down to the office.\u201d I went in and they\u2019re like, \u201cThat\u2019s it.\u201d It was very \u201980s makeover.<\/p>\nTo that point, you really pushed yourself for this special. There\u2019s a lot of thematic overlap in the three specials<\/b>,<\/b> but in this one you really take it to a more vulnerable place. <\/b><\/p>\nIn the time that we live in, I felt like we had to because, stating it one time, you realize that people don\u2019t really get what you mean. That\u2019s why you revisit the themes. It\u2019s not about repeating because you don\u2019t have anything else to say, it\u2019s about making sure that they understand the level that you\u2019re talking about.<\/p>\nI realized there\u2019s a lot of comics that talk about being poor \u2014 \u201cI was so poor, I did this\u201d \u2014 and I\u2019m like, let me tell you how poor we are because I want you to understand that it\u2019s a little different than what you\u2019re used to. When I started talking about my family, I mentioned squatting in a diner a lot throughout my career, but people still think that I\u2019m lying about it. People don\u2019t believe that it\u2019s a real thing because it\u2019s such a foreign idea to them. Also, people thought there is no way you grew up in an abandoned diner because you speak so well, as if not having money means that you\u2019re incapable of speaking in complete sentences.<\/p>\nBut that comes with age, right? I probably couldn\u2019t have done it during the first special. I don\u2019t think I was actually capable of describing it.<\/p>\n\n <\/picture>\n\nAs the family caregiver, Alonzo had to push herself to live her life to the fullest. <\/p>\n(Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\nAnother theme i<\/b>n<\/b> the special is living your life to the fullest. <\/b>Y<\/b>ou talked about being the one to bring your family on vacation, which made me wonder, are you taking care of yourself as well?<\/b><\/p>\nWhen this special came up, I started thinking about where I was in life, and thematically, it was about me being in my 40s and barely getting to the point where I\u2019m allowing myself to live. Because like I say in this special, I\u2019m the matriarch in the family; I take care of everybody. Anybody needs something, I\u2019m the person that does it.<\/p>\nAs I got older, I saw my siblings get older, and I realized that they\u2019ve never lived. It was really that moment where we tried to make a list of all the stuff we wanted to do. It was such a sobering moment when you realize that none of us knew what we wanted to do \u2014 we couldn\u2019t make a list of fun things \u2014 and that was so sad to me because I feel like that\u2019s so common.<\/p>\nAs a caregiver, you are taught to make sure that everyone else is taken care of, that you never think of yourself as a priority. That\u2019s another thing that I realized when I turned 40. We\u2019ve always been taught to talk about our 20s and 30s. A lot of people don\u2019t talk about their 40s. When I turned 40, I realized that if I\u2019m lucky, I still have another 40 years of this life left to live. That\u2019s a long time. So why do I deny myself things when I still have so much time left? Why do we deny ourselves things when we have so much time left? That\u2019s actually something that I really wanted to explore in the special. We constantly are taught we\u2019re running out of time. We actually need to accept that we have a lot of time.<\/p>\nLike next week, I signed up for swimming lessons.<\/p>\nI was going to ask you about this!<\/b><\/p>\nI\u2019m terrified. I\u2019m so terrified, but it\u2019s part of the upper classiness of it, where I\u2019m trying to make myself go out and do something that I never thought I would do.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s the perfect example of, like, people don\u2019t understand the kind of life I had, and people need to know this because especially politically right now, I am the prime example of so many people that are maybe in the news, but not really in the news. They are spoken about, but not spoken to.<\/p>\nThere are several moments in this special where you\u2019re actually directly encouraging the audience to do something. From a craft perspective, you would be in this really earnest moment and then end it with a joke. I would love to hear you talk about your rhythm and flow. <\/b><\/p>\nI actually do that on purpose. It\u2019s a style I\u2019ve developed over years, and it\u2019s because I like to trick people into learning things without knowing that they\u2019re being taught. So a lot of times, I\u2019ve said, you can make a joke out of anything, you just have to do it at the right time.<\/p>\nI think a lot of comics hate the silence. They hate not having the laughter from the audience. And I love the silence because I know that in the silence comes a big emotion, and I get to tell you what the big emotion is.<\/p>\nI think when people get preachy they can almost go towards condescending and once you do [that], you\u2019ve lost people. Which is actually another reason why I\u2019m so personal, because you might not like me, because you can\u2019t deny that it happened to me. It\u2019s an interesting thing where it\u2019s a comedy show, but also at the time that we\u2019re at, how can I not use the privilege that I have to be on a global platform and not acknowledge what\u2019s happening? It\u2019s like saying that in silence you\u2019re okay with it, and I\u2019m not okay with it.<\/p>\n\n\n <\/picture> <\/svg> <\/button> <\/ps-youtubeplayer> <\/div><\/div><\/div>\nYou recently did a series of Room Temperature (NO ICE) shows to raise money for detained immigrants<\/b>,<\/b> and at those and other shows of yours, you were handing out Know Your Rights <\/b>c<\/b>ards. <\/b>Why did you feel the need <\/b>to step up in this moment and how has your activism crystallized in your career as a comic? <\/b><\/p>\nIn 2015, I had done a show in Bakersfield, and after the show, I was at the meet-and-greet and I see a little old lady walk by, and I tell my friend, \u201cI think that\u2019s Dolores Huerta.\u201d I couldn\u2019t believe it.<\/p>\nDolores wasn\u2019t someone they taught you about in school, but I knew her because I was a big Latino history person. At that time, we had DACA and DAPA. This was during the Obama administration, and I had met a couple people doing immigration call to action. One of them was like, \u201cWe\u2019re doing this thing at the White House \u2014 would you come and host because you\u2019re so open about being a mixed status family?\u201d So I went to the White House, and Dolores was there and we started becoming friends.<\/p>\nThe thing about Dolores, she is so infectious with her change. I asked her, what is one of the biggest lessons you\u2019ve learned that you would tell people. She\u2019s like, \u201cI love seeing people come into their power. I love seeing people know that they are capable of change and they run with it.\u201d I realized that Dolores had done that to me. The activism, all of it came from Dolores. It was Dolores being around and saying yes to everything that I said. She taught me that change was possible on every level. You just really have to believe in it, but also you have to make sure you do it yourself because there is no guarantee that anybody else will do it.<\/p>\nThat\u2019s why I started doing the Room Temperature shows. My price point was $30 a ticket. You don\u2019t think that $30 is a lot of money, but when you group it with all these other people, we came up with tens of thousands of dollars for this nonprofit.<\/p>\nSo, we started the conversation talking about the emptiness that you feel when a project is over. What\u2019s next?<\/b><\/p>\nWhat\u2019s coming up next is I\u2019ll probably do a tour next year. We\u2019re working on dates right now, which means I have to write.<\/p>\nBut also, you know it\u2019s funny, the TV show that I had was only one season, 22 episodes. It was canceled in 2015, 10 years ago, and there is not a day that goes by that people don\u2019t ask me about it. People always ask me if I would do another TV show, and the truth is I never wanted to because when I had it, I was the first Latina to do it ever. And the problem that happens when you\u2019re that is that people don\u2019t know how to deal with you. You basically have to pitch your culture and ask them for acceptance.<\/p>\nBut now, I\u2019m at the point where having done \u201cUpper Classy\u201d and talking about where I\u2019m at and really taking stock of where I\u2019m at mentally and my approach to life, I actually think I\u2019m ready to do another show that\u2019s based on the themes that I talk about in \u201cUpper Classy.\u201d<\/p>\nI was talking to a network recently, and I was like, \u201cLook, I don\u2019t want to do a show about a single woman trying to navigate her dating life.\u201d Been there, done that. What if you actually explore somebody that\u2019s really, really happy with where they\u2019re at? What about a show with siblings? What about a show with something a little different? Because not everybody has this desire to date and be married. It\u2019s like, what about those people?<\/p>\nWe didn\u2019t even talk about not wanting to get married. Do you want to talk about it? <\/b><\/p>\nWhen you\u2019re happy with where you are, when you can take care of yourself, I mean, that\u2019s a power people don\u2019t understand. Not everyone can do it; it\u2019s impressive as hell that you can do it, especially in L.A.<\/p>\nThere\u2019s times that I drive around L.A. and I\u2019m driving back home, and there\u2019s a moment of realization where I\u2019m like, \u201cDamn, you live in L.A. You were able to come from this border town with nothing and not only do you get to survive in L.A., you get to thrive in L.A.\u201d Like, that is mind blowing. That\u2019s something that never goes away. It\u2019s this wonder. I don\u2019t even want to call it being grateful because I don\u2019t think grateful encapsulates it, but it\u2019s this weird triumph because when you don\u2019t expect anything, everything is such a surprise.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.latimes.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With eyes shining as bright as the metallic toes of her hardshell Adidas, Cristela Alonzo bounds into Guelaguetza, a cherished Oaxacan restaurant in Los Angeles\u2019 Koreatown. \u201cI always wanted to find places that reminded me of home,\u201d the comedian and actor, originally from the Texas borderlands, says of her affinity for the family-run restaurant. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2040781,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2040780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Cristela-Alonzos-new-Netflix-special-Upper-Classy-redefines-the-American.com2F3b2Fa62F1e3052eb4e9dac8c49ddfd11.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2040780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2040780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2040780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2040781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2040780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2040780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2040780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u201cUpper Classy,\u201d which premieres Tuesday on Netflix, is the last of a trilogy of specials about Alonzo\u2019s experience growing up in abject poverty, a subject matter that will feel familiar for longtime fans. The first two specials are aptly named \u201cLower Classy\u201d and \u201cMiddle Classy<\/u>\u201d<\/u><\/a> \u2014 and to demonstrate that she\u2019s really made it to \u201cUpper Classy,\u201d she ditches her casual jeans and t-shirt for a sparkly black jumpsuit. <\/p>\nBut where, in 2017\u2019s \u201cLower Classy,\u201d Alonzo jokes about immigrants digging tunnels to evade Trump\u2019s promised wall, in this project, she acknowledges the collective scars of the pandemic, especially for mixed-status families such as hers, who she says were taught to work hard in their pursuit of the American Dream but not to live hard.<\/p>\n\u201cWhen you grow up in poverty, you grow up in survival mode,\u201d she says in one of several direct exhortations to the audience. \u201cYour problem isn\u2019t that you don\u2019t work enough; your problem is that you work too much.\u201d<\/p>\nThen, as if flipping a switch, she dives into a hilarious story about how she is fighting back by forcing her adult siblings to go on annual family vacations. She\u2019s the family matriarch, she explains, not because she\u2019s the eldest, but because she makes the most money.<\/p>\n\n <\/picture>\n\nAlonzo\u2019s latest special, \u201cUpper Classy,\u201d completes her trilogy of comedy specials about growing up in abject poverty.<\/p>\n(Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\nIt\u2019s this ebb and flow between real talk and humor that defines \u201cUpper Classy,\u201d Alonzo\u2019s most personal \u2014 and political \u2014 project yet.<\/p>\n\u201cWhen it comes to \u2018Lower,\u2019 \u2018Middle\u2019 and \u2018Upper Classy,\u2019 the \u2018Classy\u2019 is actually talking about the actual class system,\u201d she tells me over mole and a suero<\/u><\/a>, her eyes hardening as she explains the true meaning of the special\u2019s title. \u201cIt\u2019s not about you being fancy.\u201d<\/p>\nAs a child, Alonzo\u2019s family squatted in an abandoned diner; now, after decades of hard work, she can put her bills on autopay.<\/p>\n\u201cI had to strike it rich to get basic necessities,\u201d she says.<\/p>\nWhat\u2019s more American than that?<\/p>\nThis interview has been lightly condensed and edited for clarity. <\/i><\/p>\nHow are you feeling? <\/b><\/p>\nThere is an emptiness that happens after you shoot a special \u2014 I think any time you do anything that\u2019s creative that you\u2019ve invested so much time in \u2014 because now you\u2019re kind of like, I have to start all over again, and that\u2019s kind of weird, right?<\/p>\n\u201c<\/b>Upper Classy<\/b>\u201d<\/b> being the culmination of a trilogy of specials, how does it build on the previous two? <\/b><\/p>\nIt started off as this random idea that I had where I thought, what if I did a trilogy and showed life as I progress. I got the idea because when I had my sitcom, one of the biggest notes from network and studio was, \u201cIt has to be about ascension.\u201d The family has to improve, grow. And I always thought, \u201cWell what does that mean in your mind? What do you think making it means?\u201d Because I can tell you that, for my family, what making it means is very simple: We have money to pay the bills. But they\u2019re like, \u201cNo, more, more.\u201d Well, I don\u2019t know the more. I\u2019m still here.<\/p>\nSo I started thinking, what if I actually in a weird way document the ascension of me coming into my life. \u201cLower Classy\u201d really was: This is my bio; this is how my mom was; this is how my family was; this is how I\u2019m doing.<\/p>\nI shot the first special in August of 2016; then the election happened and I was so depressed because I had assumed that people were better than what they turned out to be. I actually didn\u2019t know what I was going to do, and I decided to take a break from stand-up and everything because I couldn\u2019t mentally handle it. I didn\u2019t feel like being funny; I didn\u2019t feel like being anything.<\/p>\nA couple of years later during the pandemic, it was the first hard time where I didn\u2019t feel like I struggled and it was because of the rice and beans theory. It was the fact that I knew how to survive a hard time that I knew I was going to be okay; I knew I had money for rice and beans. It was the moment that I realized I was a lot better than I was in 2016 when I shot the special.<\/p>\nI started to take stock of where I was. I found out I was diabetic \u2014 [that] changed my life. I realized that I had to eat better, I had to take care of myself, and I connected being able to take care of yourself with luxury.<\/p>\n\n <\/picture>\n\nAlonzo\u2019s latest special, \u201cUpper Classy,\u201d is her most personal and political yet.<\/p>\n(Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\nBecause my family was not taught to take care of themselves, going to the doctor was such a luxury. In this country, it\u2019s such a luxury to be able to get insurance to go to the doctor.<\/p>\nI started making a list of things that were different for me, and I wrote \u201chealth insurance,\u201d and that\u2019s when I realized I didn\u2019t know how health insurance worked. That\u2019s kind of how \u201cMiddle Classy\u201d started. The joke is that what you think is wealthy isn\u2019t about wealth. You\u2019re not rich, but you are rich to yourself. It\u2019s trivializing what you think money and class is, which led to this one, \u201cUpper Classy.\u201d It kind of has a play in two ways: Look at how rich I am \u2014 you didn\u2019t think I was going to be that rich because of the story that I share \u2014 but also look at the person my family made me to be.<\/p>\nAnd you culminated it in a fancy outfit.<\/b><\/p>\nLet me tell you, that was so hard for me. It was awkward; I fought it so much. When we were gonna do this special, I had an idea for an outfit, and my friend [and director of the special] Page [Hurwitz] was like, \u201cGet the hell out of here; there\u2019s no way you\u2019re wearing that.\u201d And I\u2019m like, \u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d She\u2019s like, \u201cThis is \u2018Upper Classy.\u2019 Cristela, go classy.\u201d<\/p>\nCut to April, I still hadn\u2019t picked an outfit. We look for options and we can\u2019t find anything and then I think I have this jumpsuit in my closet. It\u2019s still in the box and I\u2019m like, let me try it on. I send a picture to my friends, and they\u2019re like, \u201cWe need to see it in person; come down to the office.\u201d I went in and they\u2019re like, \u201cThat\u2019s it.\u201d It was very \u201980s makeover.<\/p>\nTo that point, you really pushed yourself for this special. There\u2019s a lot of thematic overlap in the three specials<\/b>,<\/b> but in this one you really take it to a more vulnerable place. <\/b><\/p>\nIn the time that we live in, I felt like we had to because, stating it one time, you realize that people don\u2019t really get what you mean. That\u2019s why you revisit the themes. It\u2019s not about repeating because you don\u2019t have anything else to say, it\u2019s about making sure that they understand the level that you\u2019re talking about.<\/p>\nI realized there\u2019s a lot of comics that talk about being poor \u2014 \u201cI was so poor, I did this\u201d \u2014 and I\u2019m like, let me tell you how poor we are because I want you to understand that it\u2019s a little different than what you\u2019re used to. When I started talking about my family, I mentioned squatting in a diner a lot throughout my career, but people still think that I\u2019m lying about it. People don\u2019t believe that it\u2019s a real thing because it\u2019s such a foreign idea to them. Also, people thought there is no way you grew up in an abandoned diner because you speak so well, as if not having money means that you\u2019re incapable of speaking in complete sentences.<\/p>\nBut that comes with age, right? I probably couldn\u2019t have done it during the first special. I don\u2019t think I was actually capable of describing it.<\/p>\n\n <\/picture>\n\nAs the family caregiver, Alonzo had to push herself to live her life to the fullest. <\/p>\n(Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\nAnother theme i<\/b>n<\/b> the special is living your life to the fullest. <\/b>Y<\/b>ou talked about being the one to bring your family on vacation, which made me wonder, are you taking care of yourself as well?<\/b><\/p>\nWhen this special came up, I started thinking about where I was in life, and thematically, it was about me being in my 40s and barely getting to the point where I\u2019m allowing myself to live. Because like I say in this special, I\u2019m the matriarch in the family; I take care of everybody. Anybody needs something, I\u2019m the person that does it.<\/p>\nAs I got older, I saw my siblings get older, and I realized that they\u2019ve never lived. It was really that moment where we tried to make a list of all the stuff we wanted to do. It was such a sobering moment when you realize that none of us knew what we wanted to do \u2014 we couldn\u2019t make a list of fun things \u2014 and that was so sad to me because I feel like that\u2019s so common.<\/p>\nAs a caregiver, you are taught to make sure that everyone else is taken care of, that you never think of yourself as a priority. That\u2019s another thing that I realized when I turned 40. We\u2019ve always been taught to talk about our 20s and 30s. A lot of people don\u2019t talk about their 40s. When I turned 40, I realized that if I\u2019m lucky, I still have another 40 years of this life left to live. That\u2019s a long time. So why do I deny myself things when I still have so much time left? Why do we deny ourselves things when we have so much time left? That\u2019s actually something that I really wanted to explore in the special. We constantly are taught we\u2019re running out of time. We actually need to accept that we have a lot of time.<\/p>\nLike next week, I signed up for swimming lessons.<\/p>\nI was going to ask you about this!<\/b><\/p>\nI\u2019m terrified. I\u2019m so terrified, but it\u2019s part of the upper classiness of it, where I\u2019m trying to make myself go out and do something that I never thought I would do.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s the perfect example of, like, people don\u2019t understand the kind of life I had, and people need to know this because especially politically right now, I am the prime example of so many people that are maybe in the news, but not really in the news. They are spoken about, but not spoken to.<\/p>\nThere are several moments in this special where you\u2019re actually directly encouraging the audience to do something. From a craft perspective, you would be in this really earnest moment and then end it with a joke. I would love to hear you talk about your rhythm and flow. <\/b><\/p>\nI actually do that on purpose. It\u2019s a style I\u2019ve developed over years, and it\u2019s because I like to trick people into learning things without knowing that they\u2019re being taught. So a lot of times, I\u2019ve said, you can make a joke out of anything, you just have to do it at the right time.<\/p>\nI think a lot of comics hate the silence. They hate not having the laughter from the audience. And I love the silence because I know that in the silence comes a big emotion, and I get to tell you what the big emotion is.<\/p>\nI think when people get preachy they can almost go towards condescending and once you do [that], you\u2019ve lost people. Which is actually another reason why I\u2019m so personal, because you might not like me, because you can\u2019t deny that it happened to me. It\u2019s an interesting thing where it\u2019s a comedy show, but also at the time that we\u2019re at, how can I not use the privilege that I have to be on a global platform and not acknowledge what\u2019s happening? It\u2019s like saying that in silence you\u2019re okay with it, and I\u2019m not okay with it.<\/p>\n\n\n <\/picture> <\/svg> <\/button> <\/ps-youtubeplayer> <\/div><\/div><\/div>\nYou recently did a series of Room Temperature (NO ICE) shows to raise money for detained immigrants<\/b>,<\/b> and at those and other shows of yours, you were handing out Know Your Rights <\/b>c<\/b>ards. <\/b>Why did you feel the need <\/b>to step up in this moment and how has your activism crystallized in your career as a comic? <\/b><\/p>\nIn 2015, I had done a show in Bakersfield, and after the show, I was at the meet-and-greet and I see a little old lady walk by, and I tell my friend, \u201cI think that\u2019s Dolores Huerta.\u201d I couldn\u2019t believe it.<\/p>\nDolores wasn\u2019t someone they taught you about in school, but I knew her because I was a big Latino history person. At that time, we had DACA and DAPA. This was during the Obama administration, and I had met a couple people doing immigration call to action. One of them was like, \u201cWe\u2019re doing this thing at the White House \u2014 would you come and host because you\u2019re so open about being a mixed status family?\u201d So I went to the White House, and Dolores was there and we started becoming friends.<\/p>\nThe thing about Dolores, she is so infectious with her change. I asked her, what is one of the biggest lessons you\u2019ve learned that you would tell people. She\u2019s like, \u201cI love seeing people come into their power. I love seeing people know that they are capable of change and they run with it.\u201d I realized that Dolores had done that to me. The activism, all of it came from Dolores. It was Dolores being around and saying yes to everything that I said. She taught me that change was possible on every level. You just really have to believe in it, but also you have to make sure you do it yourself because there is no guarantee that anybody else will do it.<\/p>\nThat\u2019s why I started doing the Room Temperature shows. My price point was $30 a ticket. You don\u2019t think that $30 is a lot of money, but when you group it with all these other people, we came up with tens of thousands of dollars for this nonprofit.<\/p>\nSo, we started the conversation talking about the emptiness that you feel when a project is over. What\u2019s next?<\/b><\/p>\nWhat\u2019s coming up next is I\u2019ll probably do a tour next year. We\u2019re working on dates right now, which means I have to write.<\/p>\nBut also, you know it\u2019s funny, the TV show that I had was only one season, 22 episodes. It was canceled in 2015, 10 years ago, and there is not a day that goes by that people don\u2019t ask me about it. People always ask me if I would do another TV show, and the truth is I never wanted to because when I had it, I was the first Latina to do it ever. And the problem that happens when you\u2019re that is that people don\u2019t know how to deal with you. You basically have to pitch your culture and ask them for acceptance.<\/p>\nBut now, I\u2019m at the point where having done \u201cUpper Classy\u201d and talking about where I\u2019m at and really taking stock of where I\u2019m at mentally and my approach to life, I actually think I\u2019m ready to do another show that\u2019s based on the themes that I talk about in \u201cUpper Classy.\u201d<\/p>\nI was talking to a network recently, and I was like, \u201cLook, I don\u2019t want to do a show about a single woman trying to navigate her dating life.\u201d Been there, done that. What if you actually explore somebody that\u2019s really, really happy with where they\u2019re at? What about a show with siblings? What about a show with something a little different? Because not everybody has this desire to date and be married. It\u2019s like, what about those people?<\/p>\nWe didn\u2019t even talk about not wanting to get married. Do you want to talk about it? <\/b><\/p>\nWhen you\u2019re happy with where you are, when you can take care of yourself, I mean, that\u2019s a power people don\u2019t understand. Not everyone can do it; it\u2019s impressive as hell that you can do it, especially in L.A.<\/p>\nThere\u2019s times that I drive around L.A. and I\u2019m driving back home, and there\u2019s a moment of realization where I\u2019m like, \u201cDamn, you live in L.A. You were able to come from this border town with nothing and not only do you get to survive in L.A., you get to thrive in L.A.\u201d Like, that is mind blowing. That\u2019s something that never goes away. It\u2019s this wonder. I don\u2019t even want to call it being grateful because I don\u2019t think grateful encapsulates it, but it\u2019s this weird triumph because when you don\u2019t expect anything, everything is such a surprise.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.latimes.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With eyes shining as bright as the metallic toes of her hardshell Adidas, Cristela Alonzo bounds into Guelaguetza, a cherished Oaxacan restaurant in Los Angeles\u2019 Koreatown. \u201cI always wanted to find places that reminded me of home,\u201d the comedian and actor, originally from the Texas borderlands, says of her affinity for the family-run restaurant. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2040781,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2040780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Cristela-Alonzos-new-Netflix-special-Upper-Classy-redefines-the-American.com2F3b2Fa62F1e3052eb4e9dac8c49ddfd11.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2040780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2040780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2040780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2040781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2040780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2040780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2040780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
But where, in 2017\u2019s \u201cLower Classy,\u201d Alonzo jokes about immigrants digging tunnels to evade Trump\u2019s promised wall, in this project, she acknowledges the collective scars of the pandemic, especially for mixed-status families such as hers, who she says were taught to work hard in their pursuit of the American Dream but not to live hard.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you grow up in poverty, you grow up in survival mode,\u201d she says in one of several direct exhortations to the audience. \u201cYour problem isn\u2019t that you don\u2019t work enough; your problem is that you work too much.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then, as if flipping a switch, she dives into a hilarious story about how she is fighting back by forcing her adult siblings to go on annual family vacations. She\u2019s the family matriarch, she explains, not because she\u2019s the eldest, but because she makes the most money.<\/p>\n
Alonzo\u2019s latest special, \u201cUpper Classy,\u201d completes her trilogy of comedy specials about growing up in abject poverty.<\/p>\n
(Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n
It\u2019s this ebb and flow between real talk and humor that defines \u201cUpper Classy,\u201d Alonzo\u2019s most personal \u2014 and political \u2014 project yet.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen it comes to \u2018Lower,\u2019 \u2018Middle\u2019 and \u2018Upper Classy,\u2019 the \u2018Classy\u2019 is actually talking about the actual class system,\u201d she tells me over mole and a suero<\/u><\/a>, her eyes hardening as she explains the true meaning of the special\u2019s title. \u201cIt\u2019s not about you being fancy.\u201d<\/p>\nAs a child, Alonzo\u2019s family squatted in an abandoned diner; now, after decades of hard work, she can put her bills on autopay.<\/p>\n\u201cI had to strike it rich to get basic necessities,\u201d she says.<\/p>\nWhat\u2019s more American than that?<\/p>\nThis interview has been lightly condensed and edited for clarity. <\/i><\/p>\nHow are you feeling? <\/b><\/p>\nThere is an emptiness that happens after you shoot a special \u2014 I think any time you do anything that\u2019s creative that you\u2019ve invested so much time in \u2014 because now you\u2019re kind of like, I have to start all over again, and that\u2019s kind of weird, right?<\/p>\n\u201c<\/b>Upper Classy<\/b>\u201d<\/b> being the culmination of a trilogy of specials, how does it build on the previous two? <\/b><\/p>\nIt started off as this random idea that I had where I thought, what if I did a trilogy and showed life as I progress. I got the idea because when I had my sitcom, one of the biggest notes from network and studio was, \u201cIt has to be about ascension.\u201d The family has to improve, grow. And I always thought, \u201cWell what does that mean in your mind? What do you think making it means?\u201d Because I can tell you that, for my family, what making it means is very simple: We have money to pay the bills. But they\u2019re like, \u201cNo, more, more.\u201d Well, I don\u2019t know the more. I\u2019m still here.<\/p>\nSo I started thinking, what if I actually in a weird way document the ascension of me coming into my life. \u201cLower Classy\u201d really was: This is my bio; this is how my mom was; this is how my family was; this is how I\u2019m doing.<\/p>\nI shot the first special in August of 2016; then the election happened and I was so depressed because I had assumed that people were better than what they turned out to be. I actually didn\u2019t know what I was going to do, and I decided to take a break from stand-up and everything because I couldn\u2019t mentally handle it. I didn\u2019t feel like being funny; I didn\u2019t feel like being anything.<\/p>\nA couple of years later during the pandemic, it was the first hard time where I didn\u2019t feel like I struggled and it was because of the rice and beans theory. It was the fact that I knew how to survive a hard time that I knew I was going to be okay; I knew I had money for rice and beans. It was the moment that I realized I was a lot better than I was in 2016 when I shot the special.<\/p>\nI started to take stock of where I was. I found out I was diabetic \u2014 [that] changed my life. I realized that I had to eat better, I had to take care of myself, and I connected being able to take care of yourself with luxury.<\/p>\n\n <\/picture>\n\nAlonzo\u2019s latest special, \u201cUpper Classy,\u201d is her most personal and political yet.<\/p>\n(Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\nBecause my family was not taught to take care of themselves, going to the doctor was such a luxury. In this country, it\u2019s such a luxury to be able to get insurance to go to the doctor.<\/p>\nI started making a list of things that were different for me, and I wrote \u201chealth insurance,\u201d and that\u2019s when I realized I didn\u2019t know how health insurance worked. That\u2019s kind of how \u201cMiddle Classy\u201d started. The joke is that what you think is wealthy isn\u2019t about wealth. You\u2019re not rich, but you are rich to yourself. It\u2019s trivializing what you think money and class is, which led to this one, \u201cUpper Classy.\u201d It kind of has a play in two ways: Look at how rich I am \u2014 you didn\u2019t think I was going to be that rich because of the story that I share \u2014 but also look at the person my family made me to be.<\/p>\nAnd you culminated it in a fancy outfit.<\/b><\/p>\nLet me tell you, that was so hard for me. It was awkward; I fought it so much. When we were gonna do this special, I had an idea for an outfit, and my friend [and director of the special] Page [Hurwitz] was like, \u201cGet the hell out of here; there\u2019s no way you\u2019re wearing that.\u201d And I\u2019m like, \u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d She\u2019s like, \u201cThis is \u2018Upper Classy.\u2019 Cristela, go classy.\u201d<\/p>\nCut to April, I still hadn\u2019t picked an outfit. We look for options and we can\u2019t find anything and then I think I have this jumpsuit in my closet. It\u2019s still in the box and I\u2019m like, let me try it on. I send a picture to my friends, and they\u2019re like, \u201cWe need to see it in person; come down to the office.\u201d I went in and they\u2019re like, \u201cThat\u2019s it.\u201d It was very \u201980s makeover.<\/p>\nTo that point, you really pushed yourself for this special. There\u2019s a lot of thematic overlap in the three specials<\/b>,<\/b> but in this one you really take it to a more vulnerable place. <\/b><\/p>\nIn the time that we live in, I felt like we had to because, stating it one time, you realize that people don\u2019t really get what you mean. That\u2019s why you revisit the themes. It\u2019s not about repeating because you don\u2019t have anything else to say, it\u2019s about making sure that they understand the level that you\u2019re talking about.<\/p>\nI realized there\u2019s a lot of comics that talk about being poor \u2014 \u201cI was so poor, I did this\u201d \u2014 and I\u2019m like, let me tell you how poor we are because I want you to understand that it\u2019s a little different than what you\u2019re used to. When I started talking about my family, I mentioned squatting in a diner a lot throughout my career, but people still think that I\u2019m lying about it. People don\u2019t believe that it\u2019s a real thing because it\u2019s such a foreign idea to them. Also, people thought there is no way you grew up in an abandoned diner because you speak so well, as if not having money means that you\u2019re incapable of speaking in complete sentences.<\/p>\nBut that comes with age, right? I probably couldn\u2019t have done it during the first special. I don\u2019t think I was actually capable of describing it.<\/p>\n\n <\/picture>\n\nAs the family caregiver, Alonzo had to push herself to live her life to the fullest. <\/p>\n(Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\nAnother theme i<\/b>n<\/b> the special is living your life to the fullest. <\/b>Y<\/b>ou talked about being the one to bring your family on vacation, which made me wonder, are you taking care of yourself as well?<\/b><\/p>\nWhen this special came up, I started thinking about where I was in life, and thematically, it was about me being in my 40s and barely getting to the point where I\u2019m allowing myself to live. Because like I say in this special, I\u2019m the matriarch in the family; I take care of everybody. Anybody needs something, I\u2019m the person that does it.<\/p>\nAs I got older, I saw my siblings get older, and I realized that they\u2019ve never lived. It was really that moment where we tried to make a list of all the stuff we wanted to do. It was such a sobering moment when you realize that none of us knew what we wanted to do \u2014 we couldn\u2019t make a list of fun things \u2014 and that was so sad to me because I feel like that\u2019s so common.<\/p>\nAs a caregiver, you are taught to make sure that everyone else is taken care of, that you never think of yourself as a priority. That\u2019s another thing that I realized when I turned 40. We\u2019ve always been taught to talk about our 20s and 30s. A lot of people don\u2019t talk about their 40s. When I turned 40, I realized that if I\u2019m lucky, I still have another 40 years of this life left to live. That\u2019s a long time. So why do I deny myself things when I still have so much time left? Why do we deny ourselves things when we have so much time left? That\u2019s actually something that I really wanted to explore in the special. We constantly are taught we\u2019re running out of time. We actually need to accept that we have a lot of time.<\/p>\nLike next week, I signed up for swimming lessons.<\/p>\nI was going to ask you about this!<\/b><\/p>\nI\u2019m terrified. I\u2019m so terrified, but it\u2019s part of the upper classiness of it, where I\u2019m trying to make myself go out and do something that I never thought I would do.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s the perfect example of, like, people don\u2019t understand the kind of life I had, and people need to know this because especially politically right now, I am the prime example of so many people that are maybe in the news, but not really in the news. They are spoken about, but not spoken to.<\/p>\nThere are several moments in this special where you\u2019re actually directly encouraging the audience to do something. From a craft perspective, you would be in this really earnest moment and then end it with a joke. I would love to hear you talk about your rhythm and flow. <\/b><\/p>\nI actually do that on purpose. It\u2019s a style I\u2019ve developed over years, and it\u2019s because I like to trick people into learning things without knowing that they\u2019re being taught. So a lot of times, I\u2019ve said, you can make a joke out of anything, you just have to do it at the right time.<\/p>\nI think a lot of comics hate the silence. They hate not having the laughter from the audience. And I love the silence because I know that in the silence comes a big emotion, and I get to tell you what the big emotion is.<\/p>\nI think when people get preachy they can almost go towards condescending and once you do [that], you\u2019ve lost people. Which is actually another reason why I\u2019m so personal, because you might not like me, because you can\u2019t deny that it happened to me. It\u2019s an interesting thing where it\u2019s a comedy show, but also at the time that we\u2019re at, how can I not use the privilege that I have to be on a global platform and not acknowledge what\u2019s happening? It\u2019s like saying that in silence you\u2019re okay with it, and I\u2019m not okay with it.<\/p>\n\n\n <\/picture> <\/svg> <\/button> <\/ps-youtubeplayer> <\/div><\/div><\/div>\nYou recently did a series of Room Temperature (NO ICE) shows to raise money for detained immigrants<\/b>,<\/b> and at those and other shows of yours, you were handing out Know Your Rights <\/b>c<\/b>ards. <\/b>Why did you feel the need <\/b>to step up in this moment and how has your activism crystallized in your career as a comic? <\/b><\/p>\nIn 2015, I had done a show in Bakersfield, and after the show, I was at the meet-and-greet and I see a little old lady walk by, and I tell my friend, \u201cI think that\u2019s Dolores Huerta.\u201d I couldn\u2019t believe it.<\/p>\nDolores wasn\u2019t someone they taught you about in school, but I knew her because I was a big Latino history person. At that time, we had DACA and DAPA. This was during the Obama administration, and I had met a couple people doing immigration call to action. One of them was like, \u201cWe\u2019re doing this thing at the White House \u2014 would you come and host because you\u2019re so open about being a mixed status family?\u201d So I went to the White House, and Dolores was there and we started becoming friends.<\/p>\nThe thing about Dolores, she is so infectious with her change. I asked her, what is one of the biggest lessons you\u2019ve learned that you would tell people. She\u2019s like, \u201cI love seeing people come into their power. I love seeing people know that they are capable of change and they run with it.\u201d I realized that Dolores had done that to me. The activism, all of it came from Dolores. It was Dolores being around and saying yes to everything that I said. She taught me that change was possible on every level. You just really have to believe in it, but also you have to make sure you do it yourself because there is no guarantee that anybody else will do it.<\/p>\nThat\u2019s why I started doing the Room Temperature shows. My price point was $30 a ticket. You don\u2019t think that $30 is a lot of money, but when you group it with all these other people, we came up with tens of thousands of dollars for this nonprofit.<\/p>\nSo, we started the conversation talking about the emptiness that you feel when a project is over. What\u2019s next?<\/b><\/p>\nWhat\u2019s coming up next is I\u2019ll probably do a tour next year. We\u2019re working on dates right now, which means I have to write.<\/p>\nBut also, you know it\u2019s funny, the TV show that I had was only one season, 22 episodes. It was canceled in 2015, 10 years ago, and there is not a day that goes by that people don\u2019t ask me about it. People always ask me if I would do another TV show, and the truth is I never wanted to because when I had it, I was the first Latina to do it ever. And the problem that happens when you\u2019re that is that people don\u2019t know how to deal with you. You basically have to pitch your culture and ask them for acceptance.<\/p>\nBut now, I\u2019m at the point where having done \u201cUpper Classy\u201d and talking about where I\u2019m at and really taking stock of where I\u2019m at mentally and my approach to life, I actually think I\u2019m ready to do another show that\u2019s based on the themes that I talk about in \u201cUpper Classy.\u201d<\/p>\nI was talking to a network recently, and I was like, \u201cLook, I don\u2019t want to do a show about a single woman trying to navigate her dating life.\u201d Been there, done that. What if you actually explore somebody that\u2019s really, really happy with where they\u2019re at? What about a show with siblings? What about a show with something a little different? Because not everybody has this desire to date and be married. It\u2019s like, what about those people?<\/p>\nWe didn\u2019t even talk about not wanting to get married. Do you want to talk about it? <\/b><\/p>\nWhen you\u2019re happy with where you are, when you can take care of yourself, I mean, that\u2019s a power people don\u2019t understand. Not everyone can do it; it\u2019s impressive as hell that you can do it, especially in L.A.<\/p>\nThere\u2019s times that I drive around L.A. and I\u2019m driving back home, and there\u2019s a moment of realization where I\u2019m like, \u201cDamn, you live in L.A. You were able to come from this border town with nothing and not only do you get to survive in L.A., you get to thrive in L.A.\u201d Like, that is mind blowing. That\u2019s something that never goes away. It\u2019s this wonder. I don\u2019t even want to call it being grateful because I don\u2019t think grateful encapsulates it, but it\u2019s this weird triumph because when you don\u2019t expect anything, everything is such a surprise.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.latimes.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With eyes shining as bright as the metallic toes of her hardshell Adidas, Cristela Alonzo bounds into Guelaguetza, a cherished Oaxacan restaurant in Los Angeles\u2019 Koreatown. \u201cI always wanted to find places that reminded me of home,\u201d the comedian and actor, originally from the Texas borderlands, says of her affinity for the family-run restaurant. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2040781,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2040780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Cristela-Alonzos-new-Netflix-special-Upper-Classy-redefines-the-American.com2F3b2Fa62F1e3052eb4e9dac8c49ddfd11.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2040780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2040780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2040780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2040781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2040780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2040780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2040780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
As a child, Alonzo\u2019s family squatted in an abandoned diner; now, after decades of hard work, she can put her bills on autopay.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had to strike it rich to get basic necessities,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s more American than that?<\/p>\n
This interview has been lightly condensed and edited for clarity. <\/i><\/p>\n
How are you feeling? <\/b><\/p>\n
There is an emptiness that happens after you shoot a special \u2014 I think any time you do anything that\u2019s creative that you\u2019ve invested so much time in \u2014 because now you\u2019re kind of like, I have to start all over again, and that\u2019s kind of weird, right?<\/p>\n
\u201c<\/b>Upper Classy<\/b>\u201d<\/b> being the culmination of a trilogy of specials, how does it build on the previous two? <\/b><\/p>\n
It started off as this random idea that I had where I thought, what if I did a trilogy and showed life as I progress. I got the idea because when I had my sitcom, one of the biggest notes from network and studio was, \u201cIt has to be about ascension.\u201d The family has to improve, grow. And I always thought, \u201cWell what does that mean in your mind? What do you think making it means?\u201d Because I can tell you that, for my family, what making it means is very simple: We have money to pay the bills. But they\u2019re like, \u201cNo, more, more.\u201d Well, I don\u2019t know the more. I\u2019m still here.<\/p>\n
So I started thinking, what if I actually in a weird way document the ascension of me coming into my life. \u201cLower Classy\u201d really was: This is my bio; this is how my mom was; this is how my family was; this is how I\u2019m doing.<\/p>\n
I shot the first special in August of 2016; then the election happened and I was so depressed because I had assumed that people were better than what they turned out to be. I actually didn\u2019t know what I was going to do, and I decided to take a break from stand-up and everything because I couldn\u2019t mentally handle it. I didn\u2019t feel like being funny; I didn\u2019t feel like being anything.<\/p>\n
A couple of years later during the pandemic, it was the first hard time where I didn\u2019t feel like I struggled and it was because of the rice and beans theory. It was the fact that I knew how to survive a hard time that I knew I was going to be okay; I knew I had money for rice and beans. It was the moment that I realized I was a lot better than I was in 2016 when I shot the special.<\/p>\n
I started to take stock of where I was. I found out I was diabetic \u2014 [that] changed my life. I realized that I had to eat better, I had to take care of myself, and I connected being able to take care of yourself with luxury.<\/p>\n
Alonzo\u2019s latest special, \u201cUpper Classy,\u201d is her most personal and political yet.<\/p>\n
Because my family was not taught to take care of themselves, going to the doctor was such a luxury. In this country, it\u2019s such a luxury to be able to get insurance to go to the doctor.<\/p>\n
I started making a list of things that were different for me, and I wrote \u201chealth insurance,\u201d and that\u2019s when I realized I didn\u2019t know how health insurance worked. That\u2019s kind of how \u201cMiddle Classy\u201d started. The joke is that what you think is wealthy isn\u2019t about wealth. You\u2019re not rich, but you are rich to yourself. It\u2019s trivializing what you think money and class is, which led to this one, \u201cUpper Classy.\u201d It kind of has a play in two ways: Look at how rich I am \u2014 you didn\u2019t think I was going to be that rich because of the story that I share \u2014 but also look at the person my family made me to be.<\/p>\n
And you culminated it in a fancy outfit.<\/b><\/p>\n
Let me tell you, that was so hard for me. It was awkward; I fought it so much. When we were gonna do this special, I had an idea for an outfit, and my friend [and director of the special] Page [Hurwitz] was like, \u201cGet the hell out of here; there\u2019s no way you\u2019re wearing that.\u201d And I\u2019m like, \u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d She\u2019s like, \u201cThis is \u2018Upper Classy.\u2019 Cristela, go classy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cut to April, I still hadn\u2019t picked an outfit. We look for options and we can\u2019t find anything and then I think I have this jumpsuit in my closet. It\u2019s still in the box and I\u2019m like, let me try it on. I send a picture to my friends, and they\u2019re like, \u201cWe need to see it in person; come down to the office.\u201d I went in and they\u2019re like, \u201cThat\u2019s it.\u201d It was very \u201980s makeover.<\/p>\n
To that point, you really pushed yourself for this special. There\u2019s a lot of thematic overlap in the three specials<\/b>,<\/b> but in this one you really take it to a more vulnerable place. <\/b><\/p>\n
In the time that we live in, I felt like we had to because, stating it one time, you realize that people don\u2019t really get what you mean. That\u2019s why you revisit the themes. It\u2019s not about repeating because you don\u2019t have anything else to say, it\u2019s about making sure that they understand the level that you\u2019re talking about.<\/p>\n
I realized there\u2019s a lot of comics that talk about being poor \u2014 \u201cI was so poor, I did this\u201d \u2014 and I\u2019m like, let me tell you how poor we are because I want you to understand that it\u2019s a little different than what you\u2019re used to. When I started talking about my family, I mentioned squatting in a diner a lot throughout my career, but people still think that I\u2019m lying about it. People don\u2019t believe that it\u2019s a real thing because it\u2019s such a foreign idea to them. Also, people thought there is no way you grew up in an abandoned diner because you speak so well, as if not having money means that you\u2019re incapable of speaking in complete sentences.<\/p>\n
But that comes with age, right? I probably couldn\u2019t have done it during the first special. I don\u2019t think I was actually capable of describing it.<\/p>\n
As the family caregiver, Alonzo had to push herself to live her life to the fullest. <\/p>\n
Another theme i<\/b>n<\/b> the special is living your life to the fullest. <\/b>Y<\/b>ou talked about being the one to bring your family on vacation, which made me wonder, are you taking care of yourself as well?<\/b><\/p>\n
When this special came up, I started thinking about where I was in life, and thematically, it was about me being in my 40s and barely getting to the point where I\u2019m allowing myself to live. Because like I say in this special, I\u2019m the matriarch in the family; I take care of everybody. Anybody needs something, I\u2019m the person that does it.<\/p>\n
As I got older, I saw my siblings get older, and I realized that they\u2019ve never lived. It was really that moment where we tried to make a list of all the stuff we wanted to do. It was such a sobering moment when you realize that none of us knew what we wanted to do \u2014 we couldn\u2019t make a list of fun things \u2014 and that was so sad to me because I feel like that\u2019s so common.<\/p>\n
As a caregiver, you are taught to make sure that everyone else is taken care of, that you never think of yourself as a priority. That\u2019s another thing that I realized when I turned 40. We\u2019ve always been taught to talk about our 20s and 30s. A lot of people don\u2019t talk about their 40s. When I turned 40, I realized that if I\u2019m lucky, I still have another 40 years of this life left to live. That\u2019s a long time. So why do I deny myself things when I still have so much time left? Why do we deny ourselves things when we have so much time left? That\u2019s actually something that I really wanted to explore in the special. We constantly are taught we\u2019re running out of time. We actually need to accept that we have a lot of time.<\/p>\n
Like next week, I signed up for swimming lessons.<\/p>\n
I was going to ask you about this!<\/b><\/p>\n
I\u2019m terrified. I\u2019m so terrified, but it\u2019s part of the upper classiness of it, where I\u2019m trying to make myself go out and do something that I never thought I would do.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the perfect example of, like, people don\u2019t understand the kind of life I had, and people need to know this because especially politically right now, I am the prime example of so many people that are maybe in the news, but not really in the news. They are spoken about, but not spoken to.<\/p>\n
There are several moments in this special where you\u2019re actually directly encouraging the audience to do something. From a craft perspective, you would be in this really earnest moment and then end it with a joke. I would love to hear you talk about your rhythm and flow. <\/b><\/p>\n
I actually do that on purpose. It\u2019s a style I\u2019ve developed over years, and it\u2019s because I like to trick people into learning things without knowing that they\u2019re being taught. So a lot of times, I\u2019ve said, you can make a joke out of anything, you just have to do it at the right time.<\/p>\n
I think a lot of comics hate the silence. They hate not having the laughter from the audience. And I love the silence because I know that in the silence comes a big emotion, and I get to tell you what the big emotion is.<\/p>\n
I think when people get preachy they can almost go towards condescending and once you do [that], you\u2019ve lost people. Which is actually another reason why I\u2019m so personal, because you might not like me, because you can\u2019t deny that it happened to me. It\u2019s an interesting thing where it\u2019s a comedy show, but also at the time that we\u2019re at, how can I not use the privilege that I have to be on a global platform and not acknowledge what\u2019s happening? It\u2019s like saying that in silence you\u2019re okay with it, and I\u2019m not okay with it.<\/p>\n
You recently did a series of Room Temperature (NO ICE) shows to raise money for detained immigrants<\/b>,<\/b> and at those and other shows of yours, you were handing out Know Your Rights <\/b>c<\/b>ards. <\/b>Why did you feel the need <\/b>to step up in this moment and how has your activism crystallized in your career as a comic? <\/b><\/p>\n
In 2015, I had done a show in Bakersfield, and after the show, I was at the meet-and-greet and I see a little old lady walk by, and I tell my friend, \u201cI think that\u2019s Dolores Huerta.\u201d I couldn\u2019t believe it.<\/p>\n
Dolores wasn\u2019t someone they taught you about in school, but I knew her because I was a big Latino history person. At that time, we had DACA and DAPA. This was during the Obama administration, and I had met a couple people doing immigration call to action. One of them was like, \u201cWe\u2019re doing this thing at the White House \u2014 would you come and host because you\u2019re so open about being a mixed status family?\u201d So I went to the White House, and Dolores was there and we started becoming friends.<\/p>\n
The thing about Dolores, she is so infectious with her change. I asked her, what is one of the biggest lessons you\u2019ve learned that you would tell people. She\u2019s like, \u201cI love seeing people come into their power. I love seeing people know that they are capable of change and they run with it.\u201d I realized that Dolores had done that to me. The activism, all of it came from Dolores. It was Dolores being around and saying yes to everything that I said. She taught me that change was possible on every level. You just really have to believe in it, but also you have to make sure you do it yourself because there is no guarantee that anybody else will do it.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why I started doing the Room Temperature shows. My price point was $30 a ticket. You don\u2019t think that $30 is a lot of money, but when you group it with all these other people, we came up with tens of thousands of dollars for this nonprofit.<\/p>\n
So, we started the conversation talking about the emptiness that you feel when a project is over. What\u2019s next?<\/b><\/p>\n
What\u2019s coming up next is I\u2019ll probably do a tour next year. We\u2019re working on dates right now, which means I have to write.<\/p>\n
But also, you know it\u2019s funny, the TV show that I had was only one season, 22 episodes. It was canceled in 2015, 10 years ago, and there is not a day that goes by that people don\u2019t ask me about it. People always ask me if I would do another TV show, and the truth is I never wanted to because when I had it, I was the first Latina to do it ever. And the problem that happens when you\u2019re that is that people don\u2019t know how to deal with you. You basically have to pitch your culture and ask them for acceptance.<\/p>\n
But now, I\u2019m at the point where having done \u201cUpper Classy\u201d and talking about where I\u2019m at and really taking stock of where I\u2019m at mentally and my approach to life, I actually think I\u2019m ready to do another show that\u2019s based on the themes that I talk about in \u201cUpper Classy.\u201d<\/p>\n
I was talking to a network recently, and I was like, \u201cLook, I don\u2019t want to do a show about a single woman trying to navigate her dating life.\u201d Been there, done that. What if you actually explore somebody that\u2019s really, really happy with where they\u2019re at? What about a show with siblings? What about a show with something a little different? Because not everybody has this desire to date and be married. It\u2019s like, what about those people?<\/p>\n
We didn\u2019t even talk about not wanting to get married. Do you want to talk about it? <\/b><\/p>\n
When you\u2019re happy with where you are, when you can take care of yourself, I mean, that\u2019s a power people don\u2019t understand. Not everyone can do it; it\u2019s impressive as hell that you can do it, especially in L.A.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s times that I drive around L.A. and I\u2019m driving back home, and there\u2019s a moment of realization where I\u2019m like, \u201cDamn, you live in L.A. You were able to come from this border town with nothing and not only do you get to survive in L.A., you get to thrive in L.A.\u201d Like, that is mind blowing. That\u2019s something that never goes away. It\u2019s this wonder. I don\u2019t even want to call it being grateful because I don\u2019t think grateful encapsulates it, but it\u2019s this weird triumph because when you don\u2019t expect anything, everything is such a surprise.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.latimes.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With eyes shining as bright as the metallic toes of her hardshell Adidas, Cristela Alonzo bounds into Guelaguetza, a cherished Oaxacan restaurant in Los Angeles\u2019 Koreatown. \u201cI always wanted to find places that reminded me of home,\u201d the comedian and actor, originally from the Texas borderlands, says of her affinity for the family-run restaurant. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2040781,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2040780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Cristela-Alonzos-new-Netflix-special-Upper-Classy-redefines-the-American.com2F3b2Fa62F1e3052eb4e9dac8c49ddfd11.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2040780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2040780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2040780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2040781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2040780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2040780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2040780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.latimes.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With eyes shining as bright as the metallic toes of her hardshell Adidas, Cristela Alonzo bounds into Guelaguetza, a cherished Oaxacan restaurant in Los Angeles\u2019 Koreatown. \u201cI always wanted to find places that reminded me of home,\u201d the comedian and actor, originally from the Texas borderlands, says of her affinity for the family-run restaurant. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2040781,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2040780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Cristela-Alonzos-new-Netflix-special-Upper-Classy-redefines-the-American.com2F3b2Fa62F1e3052eb4e9dac8c49ddfd11.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2040780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2040780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2040780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2040781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2040780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2040780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2040780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
With eyes shining as bright as the metallic toes of her hardshell Adidas, Cristela Alonzo bounds into Guelaguetza, a cherished Oaxacan restaurant in Los Angeles\u2019 Koreatown. \u201cI always wanted to find places that reminded me of home,\u201d the comedian and actor, originally from the Texas borderlands, says of her affinity for the family-run restaurant. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2040781,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2040780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Cristela-Alonzos-new-Netflix-special-Upper-Classy-redefines-the-American.com2F3b2Fa62F1e3052eb4e9dac8c49ddfd11.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2040780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2040780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2040780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2040781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2040780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2040780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2040780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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