Enrique Viramontes is a Mexican immigrant who has come to Los Angeles in search of a better life.
Marshall Cromwell is a returning war veteran who has come home but leaves his small town to become an actor.
At first, the two get off on the wrong foo...
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Enrique
Marshall was actually a nice man. Very nice and welcoming. He apologized for the things he said to me. I invited him to script read with me and it was great hanging with my co-star. We may have gotten off the wrong foot but it's all good now.
I returned home later that day and couldn’t take Marshall’s smile off my face. His deep laugh, smooth black hair, and carved jawline. He indeed looked like a handsome war hero. These feelings scared me. Like I said before, it was hard for me to find attraction in women. But these… feelings… are towards a man.
I stayed up that night, wondering about these feelings. I thought ‘If I could kiss someone, who would it be?’ And I thought of a tall, sexy man.
Woah.
Five weeks later we continued to film. Being with Marshall everyday was one of the main reasons I went to work. I enjoyed hanging with him.
But movie work has me beat. I had to quit my job at the diner one week into filming because my schedule was hectic. I was able to survive off money that I had saved. And slowly, my paychecks for being in the movie came in. The amount, however, was small. And I came to the realization that I would not survive like this.
“Hey, En, you okay?” Marshall asked. I entered the studio that morning and I was exhausted. I stayed up all night preparing my lines. I guess Marshall noticed how tired I was.
“Perfect. Never better.” I said. I walked to the snack bar and got a cup of coffee and gulped it down quickly.
“They let spics in here now?” Someone said. I turned around and saw a guy walking away from me while glaring at me. It’s happened a lot since I began working here. Sometimes people would glare at me. Other times they made their hatred known by saying something to me.
And then there were times when Marshall defended me.
We finished filming for the day. We’re only 1/4 of the way done and we still had more scenes to shoot. But my drive came from the idea that this is what I’ve always wanted. I could feel my parents looking down at me, smiling seeing their child achieving their dreams.
“See you tomorrow.” Marshall said, pulling me into a hug and patting my back. I smiled, knowing that I had one person still alive who cared about me.
I began to walk home. It was during the past week when I stopped driving my car. I saved on gas but that meant I would arrive at work a little sweaty and exhausted.
Panic set in when I realized that rent was due in a few days and I didn’t have enough. I worried that I might get kicked out of my home. The cold breeze swept through my curls and I inhaled the air. I looked from where I just came from and saw the searchlights waving into the sky. I could feel the Hollywood energy sweeping through me.
