Tanya Saracho Quotes

As Latinas, we tend to be overly partial considering stereotypes. I'm interested in being naughty and edgy.

I have to represent. I feel proud to have a culture that's different... and proud to be a Latina. We're not all categorized as one type of person... there's people from everywhere doing different things who have different types of cultures. Being Latina for me is also being a strong woman.

When people see a Spanish last name, they have an image in their head of what the typical Latina looks like. I think it's important on television to have different representations of people. And I'm so proud of being Latina. I love it.

No one tells every white person in this country how to be. No one tells every Hispanic, or Asian or Jewish person in this country how to be. There is no single definition of whiteness or single definition of blackness.

I am instinctively wary of identity politics. Ultimately, no two black men are the same, any more than two white men are the same.

I need to point out that African-Americans are not a monolith and do not operate in groupthink.

I'm not the standard Asian girl.

Is it my fault if I do not look like an English girl and I do not talk like a Nigerian? Well, who says an English girl must have skin as pale as the clouds that float across her summers? Who says a Nigerian girl must speak in fallen English...?

Black people, we are not this monolithic group, you know?

People often ask how I can reject the phrase 'woman writer' and not reject the phrase 'Jewish writer' - a preposterous question. 'Jewish' is a category of civilization, culture, and intellect, and 'woman' is a category of anatomy and physiology.

If I'm in a gathering of filmmakers, I'm first and foremost a British Indian; if I'm in a gathering of British Indians, I'm a woman director. There are so many sides to who I am that I change all the time.

I'm not stereotypically Canadian. I don't really follow hockey. I don't feel like anything other than myself, basically.

Writers can write outside their ethnicity or sex depending how open and vulnerable they wish to be.

Not only do I not want to be stereotyped as this Asian girl who fights - gee, what a wonder - but also I have more to offer than that.

The image of Ireland is projected as a male image in the acting world, similar to the way that the word of Ireland is male dominated.

I have a theory. An audience doesn't need to get wrapped up in blackness every time they see a Negro actor. And a movie doesn't have to be about race just because there's a Negro in it.

It's undeniable that what we are taught as a culture to believe about disability is at odds with traditional notions of masculinity.

I'm not trying to represent the whole Latino community. There are too many different cultures, and Latinos will always say, 'My family doesn't do that.'

Of course we've been fighting against stereotypes from Day One at East West. That's the reason we formed: to combat that, and to show we are capable of more than just fulfilling the stereotypes - waiter, laundryman, gardener, martial artist, villain.

Being black, Latino, or Asian is not a genre. Romantic comedies, thrillers, action - those are genres. I think there's a lot of people who want to have the conversation. I don't think people are afraid of it, I just think it's the time to have that conversation. Race is not a genre.

Being Latina for me is also being a strong woman.

The girl next door isn't necessarily blonde and blue-eyed anymore. So I don't feel like I need to morph into that all-American thing.

I am definitely a person of color.

You don't have to be a certain thing to be cool. If you're white, you don't have to act black or whatever. Just be you and know who you are.

I've never been one to bow down to people who try to question my identity because I don't fit their mould of what an Aboriginal Australian is supposed to be or look like.