Welcome to Latina to Latina, a bustle podcast.

I'm your host, Alicia Menendez.

I realized that that's when I had to fight because there were a lot of women before me that had to fight a lot harder.

And I wasn't going to let somebody that talked about the way that I look affect my love of what I do.

You've heard that voice.

Yeah, you have.

You've maybe even sung along with her.

I have been obsessed with Mandy Gonzalez since I heard her on the original cast recording

of Lynn Manuel Miranda's in the Heights, where she was my favorite character,

Nina Rosario. Since then, she has been Alpha Button Wicked, released a solo album, and now she's starring as Angelica Schuyler in Hamilton. And no, she can't get your tickets. So,

confession, I am a musical theater nerd. Really? Oh, this is retired. This is good. This will make

you for an easy conversation. And I remember a turning point for me. I think I was in a production

of Annie. And there was a mom of one of the other kids who was a costume designer on rent. And she said,

I was like, oh, no, I want to grow up and I want to do musical theater. And she was like, okay. She was like, if you can do anything else, if you can imagine yourself doing anything else, you're like six. Yeah. You're like, oh, but I have dreams. She's like, listen, kid. You got bills. And she was like, if you could imagine doing anything else, then you should do that. And I actually thought as harsh as that might have been for like I was probably nine or ten. Yeah. There is a truth to it. Yeah. I think it's a hard life. And it's a small community. And I don't realize it all the time because I've been doing it on Broadway for 17 years, which is amazing. you know and i don't realize it all the time because I've been doing it on Broadway for 17 years, which is

amazing, you know, and I, but I don't think about it on the daily like always how fortunate I

am because the age shows a week and you get tired and all this stuff, but then when you do sit down

and think about it, you're like, oh, I was, I was chosen. And, uh, and that's an

incredible thing. But I think when I go and teach kids like in master class and they say, you know,

my parents are worried, um, that I want a life in the arts. And I'm not going to make any money.

And I always think you just never know.

There's so many things that you can do in the arts that kids don't know about, like create a podcast or, you know, make a YouTube channel that is uniquely you, you know?

Or because I think a life and training in the arts will serve you in anything that you do.

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