Evelina Fernández

Evelina Fernández is an American playwright and actress from Los Angeles.

Early life and education Fernández is a second generation Mexican-American. Fernández's grandparents immigrated to the United States in 1910 from Jalisco, to escape the Mexican Revolution. Fernández was born in Los Angeles but lived the first nine years of her life in Arizona before returning to live with her grandparents after her parents got divorced.

Fernández first got involved in drama in the Garfield High School Drama Club. She then attended California State University, Los Angeles, where she continued to pursue theater and became involved in the Chicano Movement.

Career Her first prominent role as an actress came in Luis Valdez's Zootsuit in 1978.

A theme of her work is to fight the common representation of Latino/a characters as victims. Her frustration with the portrayal of Latino/a characters prompted her to write the screenplay for the film Luminarias, released in May 2000. Luminarias is a commentary about race, sex and love from the perspective of single, Chicana women. In addition to writing Luminarias, Fernández also produced and starred in the film as the actress of one of the protagonists, Andrea. The Trilogy is made up of Faith, Hope and Charity. In 2007 she was nominated for the Humanitas Prize for her work on an episode of the T.V. series Maya and Miguel. In 2000, the year that Luminarias was released, Fernández won the Nosotros Golden Eagle Awards for Outstanding Writer. Two of her works, Solitude and Dementia have made the Los Angeles Times Critic's Choice list. Evelina has received two Ted Schmitt Awards from The Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle for A Mexican Trilogy: An American Story and The Mother of Henry''.

Personal life Fernandez is married to the artistic director and one of the founders of the Latino Theater Company, Jose Luis Valenzuela. Jose has directed many of the plays that Evelina has written and starred in. Valenzuela and Fernández have two children and live in Los Angeles.

Filmography

Acting

Film

Television

Writing

Film

Television