Meet Candida Orosco (Abuela Claudia)
Meet Candida Orosco (Abuela Claudia)If you won $96,000 from the lottery, what would you do with it?
Pay off debt and help the animal rescues I volunteer with, maybe open a cat farm.
Who’s someone in your life that’s not blood related, but who you consider to be family?
My best friend, Chuck. He calls himself “chuckorosco” and we haven’t decided if he’s my son or brother.
What was your neighborhood like when you were growing up?
Suburban, all Caucasian (including my own mother), except for one other brown family way down the street.
What’s that neighborhood like now?
My old neighborhood has become mainly Hispanic, with maybe one Caucasian family way down the street.
What’s your favorite photo from your childhood?My favorite photo is of my sister and me fighting over a hammock on my 7th birthday.
One of my sisters always says the family favorite is the one with all 7 children in it. There are actually 8 children, so it was taken before I was born. She calls it, “The Good Times.”
Anywhere my family is. I made the mistake of leaving them once to have an experience of a lifetime, but I realized that without them near me, I had nothing and the experience was miserable. That realization literally impeded my ability to function and I went home to where my happiness lived. Like the song says, “Everything is easier, when you’re home.”
Party animals like Abuela and I are? Of course! Although, I think our drink of choice would be cafe con leche. I looooove listening to people who come from another era because their experiences are so interesting, full of rich details, and they make me appreciate the things I have and the progress that has been made in technology. There are valuable lessons to be learned from people like Abuela.
Do you have a favorite moment in the play?
My favorite moment in the play is when Kevin sings “Inutil”. Besides being a beautifully written song, as a parent, I understand wanting so much for your child that you would sacrifice anything and everything that gets in the way of their success. To think that you might be the reason your child won’t achieve success and then telling yourself, “I should’ve chosen a different career, I should’ve saved more, I should’ve been more…” is a lot of pressure we put on ourselves as parents. The song makes me cry.
How do you prepare to work on a project like this?
I truly appreciate the table work with [In The Heights director] Oanh, as he wants to help us inhabit our characters and get to know them before we get on our feet. So, table work, visits to my voice teacher, and Pei Po Koa.
What was your first job in theater?
Why, that would have been Ching (obviously) from Anything Goes.
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