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On landing the role of Carla Espinosa on Scrubs:
“This was back in 2001. I had been going back and forth between New York and L.A. for years, doing TV pilots [none of which got picked up]. But none of the ones I’d done were as good as this one. I was the only Latina auditioning for the part, which was written for a Latina, so I went in there feelilng confident, thinking, “If I get this, I got the rent paid.� I got hired that same day, and I moved back to L.A.�
On people still mixing up her ethnicity:
“I recently did an interview for a Latin business magazine and the interviewer said, “So, you’re Puerto Rican?� And it was on-camera, so I turned to it and said, “Mami, forgive her.�
On what her family did for fun:
“Our parents would take us to clubs where [salsa or meringue] bands were playing. Guys would actually ask them, “May I dance with your daughter?� And they’d say, “Okay.� So you never had to worry about guys trying to get all fresh with you.�
On her marriage to ex-husband Edwin Figueroa:
“We were together for 11 years [they split a few years ago], and it was a gorgeous marriage. But if you don’t change together, you become two different people.�
On her mother’s battle with breast cancer:
“It was 14 years ago; my mother was 49. She got misdiagnosed by a gynecologist she’d been seeing for 10 years. She felt something in her right breast, but he kept telling her it was a cyst. She went back to him four times in one year, but he kept saying there was no need for a mammogram. When she went for a second opinion, the doctor confirmed she had cancer. They caught it in time before it spread. She got a mastectomy and then took chemo pills, which had side effects-nausea and depression.�
The advice she offers to women going through the same thing:
“As Latinos, we’re raised to think that doctors are gods. But they’re human; they make mistakes. My mother took the doctor that misdiagnosed her to court and got a settlement. So question everything and do your research. Now we have so much information available in English and Spanish. Learn how to examine yourself and trust your instincts. I believe that people go through things so other people don’t have to. In retrospect, my mother might have gotten a lumpectomy [surgery to remove the lump, as opposed to the entire breast].�
On the bond with her family that was strengthened after what they went through:
“It made the relationship with my mother and sisters stronger, but my father left. On top of that, my mom was going through menopause. But now she lives in Atlanta; she’s healthy and happy. She has a good doctor and an extraordinarily patient new man. I say “I love you� to my family now more than I ever did when we all lived together. I guess that’s the beautiful irony of it all.
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