1	Arts The evocative sculptures of New Mexico artist Deborah Rael-Buckley. read more...
2	Film & TV Leonor Varela looks at the past and the future; Francia Raisa shoots for stardom. read more...
3	Music Brazil’s bossa nova remains fresh even as it celebrates its 50-year anniversary; the twin sisters who comprise Nina Sky are back with a new album and a fashionista vibe. read more...
4	Ask Julie How to find opportunities beneath the surface of this troubled economy. read more...
5	Calendar Noteworthy Hispanic events around the country in February and March. read more...

FILM & TV

Leonor Varela

Class Act

Multicultural actress Leonor Varela sheds light on her past and a not-so-distant future in her new film, Sleep Dealer.

Leonor Varela’s childhood resembled that of a gypsy, moving with her family around the world, learning new languages. Unknowingly, she was preparing for a career in acting.
The soft-spoken international actress was born in Santiago, Chile, and has Spanish, French and Hungarian roots. As a child, her family left Chile due to political instability under dictator Augusto Pinochet. Her father’s research led him to teach, and the family spent time in such places as Costa Rica, Germany, France and the Unites States.
“Most of my childhood was spent traveling,” she says. “I changed languages five times before I was 12.” In fact, she’s fluent in English, Spanish, French and Italian. She explains that, as a result, she feels comfortable wherever she goes. “Adaptation is something I’m good at. It’s the reason I became an actress, for the ability to be moving all the time.”
Varela boasts a diverse cultural background. Besides traveling, at an early age she was exposed to the arts. She played the guitar as a teenager, painted and danced. But, it was when she was 18 years old, on a trip to Paris, that she first felt a spark for acting.
“I saw a play Peter Brook directed —it was The Tempest by Shakespeare —and I was transported by the magical journey my imagination took. I wanted people to feel what I felt at that time,” she says. To prepare, she studied acting at a private theater-oriented school, then at a French conservatory.
One of her first roles involved playing a young motocross competitor for French television. Her first paid acting job was in a music video for Sting for the song, Let Your Soul Be Your Pilot.
The stunning actress first caught the eye of American audiences when she played Cleopatra in the 1999 ABC mini-series of the same name. She beat more than 30 other actresses for the lead role. During filming, she met and dated co-star Billy Zane, to whom she eventually became engaged. They later broke it off.
More recently, Varela starred in the independent drama, Where God Left His Shoes, starring opposite John Leguizamo. Distributed through Video on Demand in December, the story follows a down-and-out boxer, played by Leguizamo, as he struggles to find work and a place to live for his family during the holidays. Varela earned an Imagen Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the film, which spoke deeply to her.
“It’s very beautiful and sincere,” she explains. “It’s a movie about the hope people have despite adversity. They manage to stick together, and value family above all.”
Varela says her biggest personal challenge is to find balance between her life and career. She says she’s been with someone for some time now, a fellow actor, but prefers not to say whom.
“This business requires so much of you; it’s hard to have stability in a relationship and your personal life,” she explains. “It takes a grounded woman to be a mom, wife and actress.”
The actress Varela has been quite busy. Fans will next get to see her in her new movie, Sleep Dealer, scheduled for an April release. She describes the film as a sci-fi story about a not-so-distant future in which technological progress allows people to plug their “vital energy” into computer. Essentially, she explains, you log your body into the Internet and wars are fought this way.
“The topics—immigration, war, sweatshop labor—are relevant,” she says. “They’re all happening in the world today. It was interesting for me to be involved with bringing this topic to conversation.”
Varela plays Luz. “As the name implies, she sheds light on a situation,” she says. Luz is a journalist who likes to write stories, and journeys to find the truth, she adds. Except in the film, she doesn’t just post a story, she also downloads memories.
“She’s fascinated by rural, authentic places and true people. It’s a contrast to far-fetched technology.” Luz meets a man who has lost his home in a wrongful attack. From there, the story follows three strangers and how their paths cross.
The film was nominated for a 2009 Independent Spirit Award. The director is Alex Rivera, who won awards at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and Berlin International Film Festival.
Besides acting, Varela, who is vegetarian, is also active in animal rights and environmental causes, especially those in Chile. She fights to protect whales and is producing a series of documentaries on the Chilean Patagonia.
“I have a particular passion for the ocean,” she says. “I’ve brought my attention to these themes [so others can] understand what we have... what we’re losing with global warming.”

Mini mogul

Who: Jake T. Austin, Actor. Age: 14
where you’ve seen him: The wizards of waverly place, Go, Diego, Go!, The perfect game, and hotel for dogs
As one of the stars of the stars Disney Channel’s most popular shows, The Wizards of Waverly Place, Jake T. Austin became a household name playing Max Russo, a young man born into a family of wizards. But, at merely 14, Austin, whose family hails from Puerto Rico has enjoyed an acting career coveted by even the most seasoned professionals. On television he pulls double duty as Max and as Nickelodeon’s Diego, from the animated series. In film he’s headlined both The Perfect Game, with Cheech Marin and Hotel for Dogs, in theaters now, with the likes of Don Cheadle, Lisa Kudrow and Matt Dillon. Needless to say, this youngster’s star is on the rise.

FRANCIA RAISA

By Kiko Martinez

Francia Raisa was only 5 years old when she saw her first telenovela, turned to her father, and said, “That’s what I want to do.”
While Raisa, who is of Honduran and Mexican descent, hasn’t reached telenovela stardom yet, she has found enough drama on ABC Family’s The Secret Life of the American Teenager.
Now in its second season, Secret Life, which won the Teen Choice Award for Choice Summer TV show and received strong ratings during its premiere season, follows a group of high schoolers tackling issues such as teen pregnancy and divorce. In the show, Raisa, who has starred in such films as Bring it On: All or Nothing and The Cutting Edge 3: Chasing the Dream, plays Adrian Lee, a member of the majorettes squad who uses her sex appeal to get what she wants.
“Secretly, I think it’s every girl’s dream to be that way—very seductive and very confident,” Raisa, 20, says. “It’s really fun for me to be a flirt because it’s my job. Unfortunately, you can’t be that way in real life without being judged.”
It’s the scandalous hallway chatter Raisa says she remembers most about her high school years when she was a self-described “typical cheerleader.” Gossip of the day would usually center around which students were pregnant and which were sexually active. The taboo topic of sex is something Raisa thinks parents and teens need to talk about even if it’s uncomfortable at first.
“My mom was so open about it, but my dad would turn pale and run to the other room,” she says. “What I like about [Secret Life] is every guy or girl can relate to one of the characters. It’s a lot easier to get through something if someone else going through the same thing.”