Film
Ontiveros once estimated that she had played a maid at least 150 times on stage and screen; [3] Ontiveros wanted to see more diverse roles available to Latina actors, noting: "I'm proud to represent those hands that labor in this country. I've given every maid I've ever portrayed soul and heart." [6] In part because of her history in this role, Ontiveros was chosen as the narrator for the documentary Maid in America. [7]
One of her most prominent early film roles was in the 1983 Gregory Nava film El Norte , in which Ontiveros played a seamstress and maid who acts as mentor to a newly arrived immigrant girl from Guatemala. In a 2004 interview with the Dominican newspaper Listin Diario , Ontiveros called El Norte "the film that always will remain in me... [it] tells the immigrants' story" when asked to name her favorite film from her long career. [8] Ontiveros played the housekeeper, Rosalita, a Spanish-speaking maid hired to assist in the packing and moving of the Walsh family in the hit adventure film The Goonies (1985) and a housekeeper in Dolly Dearest (1992). Ontiveros also had a notable cameo appearance in Blood In Blood Out (1993) as Carmen, a drug dealer who Paco (Benjamin Bratt) busts in a sting operation as an undercover cop pretending to be a drug dealer.
Ontiveros worked with Nava in subsequent films, including My Family/Mi Familia (1995) and Selena (1997). In the latter film, she portrayed Yolanda Saldívar, the murderer of Tejano superstar Selena. Long after the film was released, Ontiveros would still reportedly be "hissed" at by Selena fans while in public. [9] Ontiveros also appeared in the Academy Award-winning film As Good as It Gets . [10]
In 2000, Ontiveros was featured in the film Chuck & Buck , in which she played Beverly, a tough theater director who puts on a play written by one of the film's main characters. Ontiveros said in multiple interviews that she accepted the role even before seeing the script, solely on the basis of being asked to play a character who was not defined by Hispanic ethnicity. For that role, Ontiveros was nominated for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture at the 2000 Independent Spirit Awards.
During her acting career, Ontiveros participated in the web series Los Americans (2011), which is characterized by having a multigenerational focus, a middle-class family living in Los Angeles. During the series, she participated with Esai Morales, Tony Plana, Yvonne DeLaRosa, JC Gonzalez, Raymond Cruz and Ana Villafañe.
Ontiveros co-starred with America Ferrera in the 2002 film Real Women Have Curves , as the overbearing mother of Ferrera's character. Her performance received excellent reviews and earned Ontiveros and her co-star a Special Jury Prize at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival. Ontiveros and Ferrera appeared together again in the family comedy Our Family Wedding . Ontiveros continued to work in the studio and independent films, such as This Christmas in 2007 and My Uncle Rafael in 2012.
Television
Ontiveros had a recurring role in the 2004–05 season of American prime time soap opera series Desperate Housewives as Juanita Solis, Gabrielle's suspicious mother-in-law. She received an Emmy nomination as Best Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for this role. In 2004, Ontiveros also began a role as Abuela Elena, the grandmother of the title characters in the animated PBS children's series Maya & Miguel . The multicultural and bilingual series later introduced a deaf character, Marco, after a sign language-themed episode was suggested by the actress, who had two deaf adult sons. [11]
Ontiveros was a star of the short-lived the WB's Greetings from Tucson , playing the grandmother in an upwardly mobile family of mixed Irish and Mexican heritage. She also had recurring guest roles in the series Veronica's Closet , for which Ontiveros won an ALMA Award in 1998, and in the short-lived soap opera Pasadena . She was a guest star in Hill Street Blues , Red Shoe Diaries , Resurrection Blvd. , Cory in the House and King of the Hill , among many other series.
