There’s nothing wrong with a little controversy. Just ask actress Ana Ortiz, one of the groundbreaking cast of five Latinas starring on Lifetime’s “Devious Maids.”
“Any conversation about getting more people of color on TV is a good start,” says Ortiz, best known for playing America Ferrera’s older sister, Hilda, on “Ugly Betty.” “Even if people are really upset.”
Some people are upset, in part, because of the title of the show, loosely based on a Mexican telenovela and reshaped by a master of campy soaps, “Desperate Housewives” creator Marc Cherry. But they are more upset because the five actors are all playing maids who know the dirt about their filthy rich bosses.
For some in the Hispanic community, that means playing into the worst kind of demeaning stereotype. For others, including Ortiz, who plays housekeeper Marisol Duarte, it means portraying a way of life that was, and is, a time-honored occupation for recent immigrants.
“My grandmother was a maid,” says Ortiz, who was born and raised in Washington Heights. Ortiz’s grandmother, who emigrated from Puerto Rico, lived on the Lower East Side and worked uptown. She eventually earned enough money to put her son, Ortiz’s father, through Columbia Law School. The good fortune continued to flow to the third generation.
“Growing up,” says Ortiz, “I was lucky enough to go to [Walden] from first to eighth grade because I got a scholarship. It was on the Upper West Side.” She pauses, remembering. “All of my friends had maids. And of course we didn’t. So that was an interesting perspective.”
Ortiz, 42, who is married with two children and lives in LA, says she never met the families her grandmother worked for, nor does she remember hearing the ins and outs of a domestic’s life. “My grandmother is such a strong, proud, incredible woman. By the time I was aware of what she did, she was retired.”
But Ortiz is fully aware that her grandmother’s hard work made her life today possible. She believes that portraying a maid is as legitimate an exercise as playing a cop, doctor or lawyer. “These characters are fully realized, kick-ass ladies,” she says, taking exception when she reads, on Twitter, some of the feedback from people she’s convinced have not seen the show or given it a fair chance. “There were definitely some hurtful comments like, ‘You’re just the lap dogs for the white man’, or ‘Marc Cherry’s house girls,’ and not saying it that nicely.”
But Ortiz admits that she, too, had a knee-jerk reaction before joining the cast, which includes Judy Reyes, Dania Ramirez, Roselyn Sanchez and newcomer Edy Ganem.
“It was the title,” says Ortiz, who was afraid that the show would tilt toward the silliness of characters reminiscent of Carmen Miranda, Brazilian showgirl from the ’40s and ’50s and film star famous for wearing fruit on her head.
Says Ortiz, “I got the script, and I was like: Oh my God, I just came off of ‘Ugly Betty,’ which is a show I’m so incredibly proud of, and was also ground-breaking television. So immediately, when I saw ‘Devious Maids’ on the first page, I was a little off-put. But that being said, I know the show is based on a novela, which means it’s very soapy, campy and crazy. It’s not a documentary. So I said, ‘Let me read it.’ I wanted to give it a shot.”
Now, she’s a full-on fan. “It’s been an amazing experience,” she says. “I get to work with these actresses who have been my competition for a hundred years. And yes, we’ve had some bumps along the way, so it took some navigation. But we respect each other so greatly that we just keep problems amongst ourselves. We don’t go to the producers and say, ‘Oh, why is she getting this or that?’ We just sort it out ourselves. We don’t want to screw this up or take it for granted.”
The bottom line for Ortiz is that people have the right to be skeptical, but should keep talking — and watching. “I think we feel a big weight on our shoulders,” she says. “We’re not going to win people over easily, and I don’t expect we should. I think we have to earn it.”