Hey there, welcome to Latina to Latina. I'm Alicia Menendez, your host and contributing editor at Basso.

I like that there's a story for little girls that teaches them that they can win if they're good and they don't give up.

And I think that that's actually like a big recurring theme in my life,

is that if I work hard and I don't give up, maybe I'll win like my character did.

This episode, I'll be talking to Christella Alonzo.

When we met four years ago, she was on her way to making TV history

as the first Latina to create, produce, and star in a network sitcom.

She's amazing.

But all that career stuff is nothing compared to the actual, in-person magic that is Cristella Alonso.

All the talent, none of the ego.

You've lived one of the things on my bucket list, which is voicing, in my case, a Disney character.

You voiced a Pixar character.

I'm a toy.

I'm a, I'm a, I'm a teenager toy.

What came with that was friends from high school reaching out and asking you if you would like call their kid to be like, hey, it's Cruz Ramirez.

It's funny because I get people that say, do the voice, do the voice for my kid, it's my voice.

So I just talk.

Hi.

Yes.

So I'm like, hi, this is Cruz.

And you can tell they're so disappointed. Like they wanted me to turn into a yellow car right in front of them. Like I'm a transformer. It's my voice. It's my voice. Was it cool? It was awesome. You know, it took, I got the job. I'll be honest. I had been honest to do the view, and I turned down the view. I loved the view,

and I loved the women on the view. But when you know it's not for you, you just can't make it work.

...