It\u2019s because of the difference the movie made in the lives of some people who watched it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had five screenings at Sundance. But on the first one, somebody stood up. I remember in the Q&A and said, You have changed my mind about the way that I see undocumented immigrants in this country,\u201d said Villalobos.<\/p>\n
She said she wrote the script because she was asked for a screenplay about immigration. But she really wanted to tell the story of the pain children feel when they are abandoned.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s the abandonment of all these children who are left behind because their parents have to come and live here.\u201d<\/p>\n
The film traces the journey of a little boy named Carlitos, who alone, leaves Mexico in search of his mother. The young boys journey depicts the distress many children encounter when crossing the Mexico and U.S border.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/usc2019.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/03\/IMAGE-ONE-1024x768.jpg\")
Ligiah Villalobos stands near a mural in Boyle Heights depicting the story of “La Misma Luna” (Photo courtesy of Ligiah Villalobos.)<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cLa Misma Luna\u201d channels the pain from Villalobos\u2019 childhood. \u00a0\u201cThe immigration storyline is really the plot. But the theme is abandonment,\u201d Villalobos said. She grew up in a divorce-torn household and by age 11 had migrated from Mexico City to Provo, Utah. \u00a0\u201cI decided to do that story because I was trying to figure out a way that I could hide my own story in a greater story, in a bigger story.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/usc2019.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/03\/IMAGE-TWO-400x600.jpg\")
Disney-Pixar\u2019s \u201cCoco\u201d won \u2018Best Animated Feature\u2019 at the 2018 Academy Awards.<\/p><\/div>\n
Breaking through in Hollywood is not easy. Women directed less than 11% of digital scripted shows, according to the 2019 UCLA Hollywood Diversity Report<\/a>.<\/p>\n Villalobos\u2019 feelings of abandonment fueled many of her career ambitions. She even started working as a child to ensure she could always support herself and learned secretarial skills as a practical backup skill — even after having degrees in cultural geography and dance.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember coming into this country at 11. And I told my mother, I need to get a job. She ended up calling some friends who owned a Mexican restaurant called El Azteca. I would roll enchiladas until midnight,\u201d said Villalobos.<\/p>\n She took typing classes where she learned to type 95 words per minute.<\/p>\n \u201cI knew my mother had made a living as a bilingual secretary. That was enough to support five children,\u201d said Villalobos. \u201cSo if nothing else happened in my life, I knew I could be a secretary and make enough money to support myself.\u201d<\/p>\n When she wasn’t at work, she said she would help take care of her younger siblings, and to this day, she\u2019s very close to them.<\/p>\n \u201cI’ve been raising children my entire life. I am now raising students,\u201d said Villalobos, who now teaches at California State University, Los Angeles, a predominantly Hispanic university<\/a> where a majority of students are on Pell grants<\/a>.<\/p>\n Students learn screenwriting from Ligiah Villalobos, an internationally acclaimed screenwriter and filmmaker. (Photo credit: Sandy Ch\u00e1vez)<\/p><\/div>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"\"](\"https:\/\/usc2019.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2019\/03\/IMAGE-THREE-1024x768.jpg\")