Prototype Issue
A Macho Man Ain't So Bad After All
By Kamren Curiel
(page 1 of 1)Between prepping for her "Macho Men" nationwide tour, which launched in LA at the Kodak Theatre (she’s the first Latina to ever perform here) and basking in her recent Imagen Award win for Best Theatrical Performance, Maria Costa took some time out to chat with RTLA.
Costa may just as well be the funniest female comic out right now. And no, not just because she exudes unending sex appeal, stamina and curves—something Latinas are far too often stereotyped—but because she has the courage to confront oftentimes embarrassing cultural traditions and the dysfunction that falls upon most families and laugh about it. And if laughter is therapy, as we’ve all heard, then Costa could just as well be a therapist.
Socially and politically conscious with hip-shaking moves that could kill, Costa has some serious cojones (“balls”). She’s not afraid to tell it like it is, which is why they call her the female John Leguizamo and Latina Lucille Ball. She simultaneously represents Afro Latinas in the entertainment industry; a presence that’s obviously lacking. In fact, one of her career goals is to play Celia Cruz on the big screen.
But it wasn’t until she turned 15 that she began digging deeper into her Cuban roots. Growing up in Detroit, Michigan (“Yes, there are Latinos there,” she says) and raised by her Hungarian grandmother, Costa, who’s father is Cuban and mother is Hungarian, remembers using her hips far too much for the traditional “structured” dances she would practice with grandma.
“I always felt like an outsider. Here I was, negra with curly hair. I didn’t look like anybody,” she says. “When I first heard salsa I was like, ‘I’m free, I’m free.’”
When Costa’s mother, who is mentally ill and didn’t play too huge a role in her childhood, was growing up in the same Detroit ‘hood, Costa’s grandmother told her she regretted not leaving like most of the Hungarians did when Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans and Cubans started moving in. She decided to stay and Costa’s mother “went wild with the Cuban boys” and at one point even decided to join a black militant group.
“A lot of my characters come from my mom,” Costa says. “She’s so free. She has no edit button.” After a lot of healing, Costa and her mother finally forged a relationship. While Costa’s biological father was absent, it was her uncle Les who was the positive male role model in her life and taught her how to be an entrepreneur.
When Costa, who says she’s 30-something, first came to LA about 10 years ago, she landed a TV role and once considered the entertainment industry her community, having struggled to meet people in the city of angels. It wasn’t until she found her Cuban community with the help of the Agape International Spiritual Center in Culver City that she felt supported in LA. Founded by Spiritual Director Michael Bernard Beckwith, who makes a cameo in The Secret, the Agape Center is where Costa recruited all the dancers for her show. World-renowned Cuban percussion legends Francisco Aguabella and Lazaro Galarraga also bless the stage with beats that transport you to a place close to heaven. The show, which travels to San Diego, San Francisco, Miami and New York, is choreographed by world class salsero Albert Torres and features dancers Alberto Elejarde, Pedro Muneco Aguilar and Nory Reyes.
“Part of what I’m doing with the show is merging the Cuban community with other communities like the African American one,” Costa says.
The self-described Hungry-Cuban says she still battles being accepted as a Latina not only in Hollywood, but even at the local taco truck. Once, while ordering tacos with a friend, the man making them wouldn’t stop talking to her in English even though she was addressing him in Spanish. She finally got frustrated and told him “Soy Latina!” Her friend was like, “Ai, Maria!” Costa took it upon herself to address the fact that so many people in LA fail to recognize the more African looking as Latino. Costa identifies strongly with both her Hungarian and Afro-Latina roots and says she’s been “all inclusive” since birth.
Costa’s muse for her Macho Men play you ask? None other than her Salvadoran husband, Francisco Segovia, who she celebrated 5 years of marriage with in September. “He’s not so much machismo as he is a mama’s boy,” she says. The cast for the play, which she wrote, directed and stars in, depicts the Indian, African and European blood running through all Latinos.
With a resume that includes a reoccurring role on Ugly Betty (she plays Valerie, the nemesis trying to bring Hilda down) and starring roles on ABC’s Dangerous Minds, The It Factor: Los Angeles and as the mother of Chano Pozo (the Cuban percussionist killed during a fight in Harlem) in the independent film Rumbero, Costa’s career is just warming up. Macho Men is going into pre-production later this year for a film version.
Costa’s Macho Men and The Women Who Love Them proves that love takes sacrificing personal freedom and independence sometimes in order to honor culture and tradition, while also fulfilling your man’s understandable needs.
“Sometimes I don’t cook for a week and by the seventh day my man gets grouchy,” Costa says. “All I have to do is cook him a nice meal and he’s fine.” Not a bad exchange for a husband who has always supported her career in an industry that demands endless hours and bizarre scheduling. Macho men may just be getting a bad rap they don’t deserve. Costa seems to think so at least.
For more about Costa, check out www.mariacosta.com.
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