Biography
Yalitza Aparicio was a Mexican actress who came into the business by happenstance, and found herself catapulted to international acclaim, and a groundbreaking Academy Award nomination, when she was picked out of obscurity to star in a highly personal passion project from one of world cinema's most ambitious auteurs. Born on December 11, 1993 in the town of Tiaxiaco in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, Aparicio is of indigenous origin: her father is of Mixtec descent, while her mother is Triqui. Aparicio and her siblings were raised by their mother, who supported the family by working as a maid. Originally, it was one of Aparicio's sisters who was planning on auditioning for a secretive, prestigious film project, but she ended up being too far into a pregnancy to attend. She managed to convince Aparicio, who had just completed a degree in early childhood education and was passing time before starting her first teaching job, to audition in her place. Despite having no experience, or even any real interest, in acting, and going up against hundreds of other women who auditioned, writer/director Alfonso Cuarón cast Aparicio in the starring role of his next film, "Roma" (2018). Named for the neighborhood in which Cuarón grew up (in fact, the house in which most of the film takes place was literally right across the street from Cuarón's childhood home), and shot in sumptuous black and white with scenes playing out in extended single takes, Aparicio starred as Cleo, the live-in maid to a middle-class Mexico City family who find their own personal trials and tribulations mirrored by the political unrest of 1970 and 1971: as student protesters clash violently with renegade bands of fascists in the streets, Cleo deals with an unwanted pregnancy, while the marriage at the center of the family she cares for falls apart. Premiering at the 2018 Venice International Film Festival, where it took home the Golden Lion, "Roma" wowed critics, many of whom praised Aparicio's quietly magnetic and naturalistic performance. "Roma" was nominated for ten Academy Awards, including a Best Actress nod for Aparicio, making her the first indigenous woman and only the second Mexican woman to ever be nominated in that category.
