1	higher ED The Top 26 Colleges for Latinos. read more...
2	SALSA FOR THE WORLD Competitive salsa dancing goes global at the Third Annual World Salsa Championship. read more...
3	LEARNING TO DREAM Dany Garcia Johnson’s Beacon Experience foundation is bringing an education within reach to children of low-income families. read more...
4	AMERICAN ME Introducing San Antonio’s Alameda Smithsonian, the first Hispanic-themed affiliate of the nation’s top museum. read more...
5	LEADING HEALTHCARE Meet Jose R. Sanchez, the man at the helm of Northern Manhattan Health Center, New York City’s largest multi-hospital network. read more...
6	ROLE PLAYER With so many parts to play, there’s nothing desperate about Housewives’ actor Ricardo Antonio Chavira. read more...
7	SONGS FROM THE HEART Oscar-winning music artist Jorge Drexler wrestles with restlessness, uncertainty and doubt on his latest release, 12 segundos de oscuridad. read more...

the better half

There is a part of the Desperate Housewives cast that gets less attention than it deserves—the husbands—but that hasn’t stopped actor Ricardo Chavira from developing a stellar career.

The voice on the telephone is brimming with excitement. On the other end of the line, clothes, maybe a suitcase, are being tossed around.
“I’m jumping on an airplane to go see my little boy,” says actor Ricardo Antonio Chavira, about Tomasito, his 4-year old son. For this young and handsome actor, who splits his time between Los Angeles and his hometown of San Antonio, seeing his son is not the only reason he’s wound up. The day before, he got word he had been offered a role he really wanted in the independent film, Don’t Let Me Drown, which was developed at the Sundance Institute Screenwriters and Filmmakers Labs.
“I jumped out of my head when I found out I got it,” he says. “It’s a really beautiful story.” The script, co-written by New York-based writer Cruz Angeles—who will also direct the film—follows a working-class Dominican family dealing with a bunch of issues in a post 9/11 New York. Chavira will play a father who’s lost one of his daughters in the terrorist attacks.
“I read the script and wanted to audition for it because it’s such a crazy role—the character is an S.O.B., but he also has his sympathetic side,” he says of the character in the script, which won Cruz Angeles a 2006 Sundance/NHK International Filmmakers Award. “I wanted to ... make sure I was the right person.”
And he was. In a way, Chavira was born to play this role. His father, who comes from a family of migrant workers, is Mexican. His mother, who died at age 43 from breast and ovarian cancer, was German-Irish. Her family moved to Texas in the early 1800s.
“I was born in the early 70s,” he says. “By the time I hit school, I was looked at differently because my parents were a biracial couple.” And when he started school in South Texas, he goes on to explain, teachers and school officials were trying to do away with kids speaking Spanish in school.
“One story my dad loves to tell is when I was in first grade. The teacher was calling names and they call for Richard and everyone is looking for Richard, and so am I.” The teacher at his private Catholic school had translated his name. “I get taken to the office for being insubordinate and they call my dad in and tell him they were calling my name and I wasn’t answering.” At that point, he says with a chuckle, “My dad says, ‘hijo, go wait outside for a while.’ ” According to Chavira, his father exchanged some words with the nuns. “I was given the name for a reason, and it took me a long time to understand why I should be proud of my name.”
His name is not all he has to be proud of. He’s one of the stars on the ABC’s drama, Desperate Housewives, where since the show’s premiere in 2004 he’s played
Carlos Solis, a rich, shady businessman who goes broke trying to please his wife Gabrielle, played by Eva Longoria. The couple recently divorced, (due to infidelity by both characters), but Chavira hints their relationship might not be over just yet. “There will be some time of resolution for the two characters, whether they’ll get back together or not.”
He’s also costarring in the television film, Kings of South Beach airing March 12 on the A&E network. Chavira plays “Enrique,” bodyguard and right-hand man to Steven Bauer’s character, “Allie Boy,” a Cuban drug lord. “It’s an area of the world I’m not too familiar with, but very interested in.” The film recounts the rise of the Miami club scene, and one of its most notorious club promoters and owners, Chris Paciello, around the time of fashion designer Gianni Versace’s 1997 murder. “The cast is very solid,” he says. Donnie Wahlberg and Jason Gedrick also star in the film.
Chavira is also in a small independent film called Rockaway (no release date available as of press time) where he plays a homeless man living under a bridge. He will also have a cameo in the yet-to-be-filmed Chasing 3000, about two brothers who drive cross-country to witness Major League Baseball hall-of-famer Roberto Clemente get his 3,000th hit. Ray Liotta, Rory Culkin and Lauren Holly round out the cast.
Yet another project is a film adaptation called A Better Man based on the book by Marc Silver, Breast Cancer Husband: How to Help Your Wife (and Yourself) During Diagnosis, Treatment and Beyond. The Lifetime TV film deals with a husband coming to terms with his wife being diagnosed with breast cancer and how he has to become a better man for his family. Chavira stars as the husband, and also acts as producer. “The loss of my mom is one of the reasons I was attracted to it,” he says.
Chavira lost his mom when he was a teenager and her death pushed him into acting as a way to deal with his emotions. Today, he is involved with the Susan G. Komen Foundation as an honorary spokesman for its San Antonio chapter and has also served a national team captain for the Race for the Cure in Washington, D.C.
While he looks to inspire others, Chavira himself got his inspiration from his parents. His feisty father is a judge and was also a professor who earned a Ph.D. in medical sociology before getting his law degree. Chavira’s mother had three master’s degrees, in anthropology, public health and theology.
“My parents were professors,” he says. “I grew up on a college campus.” The love of education was passed on to him and he found a way to meld that with his love of acting. Although he started acting in high school, he says, it started culminating in college.
“My big break professionally was getting a recurring role on [HBO’s] Six Feet Under in its second season. For me personally, my big break was getting into graduate school.” Chavira was accepted to Yale University and New York University, but turned them both down. “They weren’t giving me enough money.” In addition, he was accepted to the highly regarded graduate program at University of California, San Diego where he earned his master of fine arts degree from the school’s professional acting program. He moved to Los Angeles two-and-a-half years later.
As for future goals: His priority is to get some rest. “This Mexican needs some sleep,” he says half jokingly. “I just want to do work that’s thought-provoking and interesting to me. Housewives has made me financially stable. I can look for and entertain ideas that to me seem interesting.”
Although Chavira has found success as a working Latino actor, he would like to see more Hispanics represented throughout the industry overall.
“Being a Latino actor [now] is not much different than before,” he says. “There are more parts and more opportunities for actors. The problem is there are very few Latino and ethnic Latino directors and writers. It’s unfortunate. They have voices, and they should be given the opportunity to voice their opinions and their stories.”
As for those in the industry who have made it, as he has, he prescribes: “Don’t turn your back on your people. Remember your stories, regardless [of whether] you’re a director, writer, actor—these stories are indicative of where you come from.”
However, he reminds, actors are actors. And though relaying stories of one’s past and roots are important, so is being open-minded about considering Hispanic actors for roles outside the predictable.
“I enjoy playing characters that are part of my culture. Everyone thinks I’m Cuban or Puerto Rican. I can play those characters, but I can also play [others]. I look ethnic, but I can act like other things and look like other things. My industry is very narrow-minded. [But] I’m happy to be working and playing roles that are representative of my people. I try not to go for stereotypes. Would I like more crossover roles? Sure, I guess.”