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[0:00] Martín Acuña: Hi, everyone. I am Martín Acuña, and you're listening to Backstage Talk.

[0:10] Martín Acuña: Hello, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Backstage Talk. Today's guest is someone I have admired for a long, long time. We had her husband last year, Jaime Lozano, on the show also on the Ladinson Musical Theater Special. So you might now know who we have. But anyway, we have Florencia Cuenca on the show today. She is a Mexican actress, singer, writer, director, based in New York City. Back in Mexico, she was known for working on some telenovelas and for being part of the successful Mexican musical Si Nos Dejan, the Mexican premiere of Shrek the Musical and Selena the Musical. Her first album, Aquí, the New Standards, made her tour all around Mexico, Latin America, and New York City, and she has performed off-Broadway in a lot of great places and venues.

Right now, she is developing a new musical about feminicides in Mexico, as well as working on her new album Broadway in Spanglish. Flo, thank you so much for being here. Thank you for joining us on Backstage Talk. Welcome to the show.

[1:26] Florencia Cuenca: Hola, Martín. I'm so happy to be here with you. Thank you so much.

[1:31] Martín Acuña: I love it. So I just gave your bio, but I want to go back to your beginnings, back to your origin story in Mexico, and get to dive a little bit into your journey all the way to New York City. So you have the mic.

[1:50] Florencia Cuenca: Well, as you said, I was born and raised in La Ciudad de Mexico, Mexico City, the most beautiful city in the world for me. I was born in, I was so lucky to be born in an artist family, if you can call it like that. My father, he was a comedian, a famous comedian in Mexico during the 60s and 70s. He was part of a duo called Los Polivoces, where they were impersonators, and they would create their own characters. And my mom, she was a model. She was a model. So I was born in the business. Since I was three years old, I wanted to be an actress. I don't recall a day where I was like, Oh, you know, I'm going to be an actor. No, I've always wanted this. So I started acting with my father. He was my mentor, my teacher, my father, my everything.

And he passed away when I was nine years old. So that was very difficult for me because I lost everything you can imagine. But my mom, she was so kind with me and intelligent enough to say, What do you want to do next? Do you want to keep going with this artist thing? Or do you want to just be a kid? And I was like, No, I want to keep going. I love this. And she said, Okay, I found this classes. It's musical theater. So go, let's go. And I was like, Okay, I was when she told me that I was around 11 years old. So I was chiquita.

[3:42] Florencia Cuenca: You were pretty young. Yeah, I was pretty young. And when I was a girl, I used to watch The Sound of Music or My Fair Lady. I remember one time we went to the theater in Mexico and we saw Singing in the Rain. And I was like, What is this? It's raining. And they are tap dancing and they are singing. I love it. But it wasn't until my mom said like, Okay, now you're in this musical theater classes that I was like, Okay, now I'm gonna get to do it. And the rest is history. Like I loved it. I was like, This is what I love singing, dancing, acting at the same time with a live audience. I love a live audience. It's tricky because sometimes you have like a very good audience. And then sometimes you have like a sleepy audience.

But I love it. I wouldn't change it. So then I was so lucky to start working when I was 15 years old. I was in a Selena musical in Mexico City. And I started that at 15 years old and it kept going. And I remember I was 23 and I was like, Okay, what's next here in Mexico? Because in Mexico, we have all these beautiful musicals that are like kind of the tour productions from the US, you know, and they bring it to Mexico. They teach you everything as it is like on Broadway or on tour. But I would say that sometimes as an artist, you don't feel that creative because you are emulating someone else's thing. Yeah. So I was like, I want to do something else. I want to create something from the scratch.

I want to get to know what is that. And I was lucky to find my husband, Jaime Lozano. We got married and he was like, You know, I think the next step is going to New York. And I was like, Oh my god, do you think so? And he was like, Yes, I think we need to move there and get to do what we love there. So we moved here. And it's been a wild journey, a roller coaster, where the good is very good and bright and amazing and out of this world. But the bad, it's so difficult and the struggle and the hustle, you know, and the cultural shock and the language and everything. But I wouldn't change it at all. So yeah, now I'm here. We've been here almost for seven, eight, seven, eight years. And we're still here.

[7:02] Martín Acuña: I love that. I love that. And also you have a project called Broadway in Spanglish, which I want you to dive into it because I remember when I saw the first video, the chills that my whole body had when I was listening to you and Jaime performing the song with a couple of Spanish words thrown into the music in a totally different genre in terms of music. So yeah, let's double click on Broadway in Spanglish.

[7:37] Florencia Cuenca: Well, when I moved here, I tried my best to fit in a box that it was impossible to fit in. I realized that I wasn't an American girl. And that's not bad. It's like, I'm not that girl. My tongue, it's not an American girl tongue. You know, the way I speak, the way I act, the way I sing. So I was a little bit frustrated and sad because I was like, okay, I'm already here. So what's next? And when I came here to New York, also one thing that I realized is that everybody has the survival jobs. And for me, that was a shock. I was like, what is this? Why do I have to work in something that it's not related with the arts? But it's because New York, it's so freaking expensive. So everybody needs like three jobs to get to the end of the month.

So I was teaching Spanish music classes to pre-K kids. And it was beautiful, but also it was so difficult. You can't imagine teaching little kids. My voice was like, I can't talk anymore. And, you know, dealing with the kids and pee and poo and so it was like, oh my God, should I go back to Mexico? What am I doing here? And I remember it was winter in New York. It was freezing. And I was on the bus listening to Hamilton. And then Burn started. And I was like, this is such a good song. Then I started to pay attention to the words. What is she saying? And I was like, this woman, she's hurt. And then I was like, wait a second. This is a ranchera. This is a mariachi song. This is what we sing when we sing mariachi.

And I was like, it makes sense. It totally makes sense. All the words she's saying. And then I come home and I was like, Jaime, Jaime, Jaime, I have this big idea. What if we do this song in mariachi with Spanglish? And Jaime was like, you know what? That's a very cool idea. I think it totally works. And that was January 2020. So we started like to workshop the song. Jaime with the guitar here at home. I was like working in putting some Spanglish here and there.

[10:42] Florencia Cuenca: And why Spanglish is because when you move to this country, even if your first language is Spanish, you start to borrow English words in your Spanish language. There are words that you feel better or the meaning is better in English and you want to do it in Spanish. And we have a seven-year-old kid that he always talks in Spanglish. And I was like, because this is what we are. We immigrants, we Latino, Latine immigrants here in the U.S., we speak in Spanglish all the time. So I started to workshop the lyrics in Spanglish, Jaime, the music, and it was March 2020, the pandemic hit. And during those months, we started to record the mariachi with friends in Mexico. They were recording at home, and we released "Burn" and the video, and it was a success.

We sent it to Lin-Manuel and he was like, Oh my God, guys, this is amazing. This makes sense. Of course. I love it. He tweeted about it. Everybody, like his followers saw it and they were like, Oh my God, we love it. And the rest is history because that song opened so many doors for me and for Jaime because we were locked in, so everybody was looking at the phone and everybody saw it and watched that video and they loved it. And institutions like Joe's Pub and Lincoln Center and the civilians, they were so interested in the work that we were doing. And now we are so excited because we're always having concerts all through the city. In a couple of weeks, we're having a concert at Little Island. We just had one at Lincoln Center. And then in the fall, we're having one at Joe's Pub. Next year, we're having 54 Below. So I think there is an audience for those kinds of projects.

[13:18] Florencia Cuenca: Yeah, I love it. Maybe this next question is one that is a little bit redundant, but how has your heritage influenced your artistry? Right now, I think this Florencia, a 30-year-old Florencia is so in peace with what she is because it wasn't always like this. When I moved here, I tried to fit in a box to fit in a box. And I forgot about my roots because I was like, so focused in saying, no, no, no, I need to be this. But the moment I was like, you know what? I am a Mexican woman, very proud of my music, my culture, my stories, my food. So I'm going to bring that to this new place that I'm living, to New York. And the moment that I decided to merge all of that together in a quesadilla, I was like, this is who I am.

This is. I think since that moment, everything changed. And the people, I started to have more work in ratings and workshops because I was finally who I am. I wasn't trying to be someone else. So it has influenced a lot. It's literally my DNA. It's what I am. I love mariachi. I love rancheras. I love cumbias. I love Tejano music. But I also love musical theater and I love Sondheim and I love Jason Robert Brown and I love tap dancing. So those, both things are okay. Both things are who I am.

[15:23] Florencia Cuenca: Yes, absolutely. I love that. And thank you for sharing that. For you, what is the best thing about being a Latin artist? The community. The Broadway Latine community, the theater Latine community here in New York City is amazing. It's like, it's truly a family. There's always someone who will recommend you for a job. There is someone who always thinks about you for a work that she's doing or he's doing. The moment that you step in a Latine room, oh my God, it's so different. I've been so lucky to be working in all Latine rooms for the last two to three years with Latine directors, Latine composers, Latine writers, Latine creative team. It's amazing. We get each other. Even we're not the same, Mexicans, Colombians, Salvadorians. I know, but there's something bigger than us, our language, our food. It's amazing. So the community is what fills my heart.

[16:52] Florencia Cuenca: I love that. I love that. I know this is going to be a tricky question, but who is your biggest Latin inspiration? Baby G.O.A.T. During the pandemic, I was thinking about that because we had so much time to think about things. I did a clash, a big clash of every person that has impacted my life or inspired me in some way. So, of course, I had Salma Hayek, but I had Chita Rivera and Rita Moreno and Penélope Cruz. She's Hispanic, but I love the way she has guided her career with her accent and being so unapologetic. And then I had Frida Kahlo, of course. I had the guerrilleras, las adelitas that are from Mexico. They were soldiers, female soldiers that had to fight for our revolution. So I had all these people, but also I had Gloria Kelleth and Tania Saracho and Kiara Alegría, because I think it's, for me as an artist, it's not just like because I'm an actor, it's like, oh, no, just America Ferrera, you know? Why not? But it's also all the people who have done something to give me the opportunity to be who I want to be. And they all in some way have represented me. So it's a mezcla de todo.

[18:49] Florencia Cuenca: Yeah, it's a big merge of a lot of people. I love that. I love that. My last question for you is what are your top five favorite musical theater shows? Okay. Oh, my God. Of course, I'm a fan of Sondheim. So here it goes. I love Sondheim so much. "Into the Woods." "Sunday in the Park with George." "Company." I love "The Wheeze," because I think it has a very similar experience with the immigrant experience, how it is to leave home and everything you love and know behind. Then you go to a new world and experience new things that you love. And how can you make peace with both worlds? So I love "The Wheeze." And "Pippin." I love "Pippin" so much. I love that story of how it is to start as a little young kid with some kind of dreams, but not sure about what do you want. So you go and live life and then you find out how it's the real world. And then you make peace with all those dreams in order to keep living your life. I love "Pippin." I love them. I love them.

[20:28] Martín Acuña: Thank you so much, Flo. Honestly, thank you. This has been a dream having you here on Backstage Talk. Thank you so much for your kindness, your openness, for sharing your story and for your work. I know that you are inspiring a lot, a lot, a lot of Latin thespians that want to someday work in the theater industry anywhere. So thank you so much for everything.

[20:56] Florencia Cuenca: Thank you, Martín. Thank you also for all the work you do. Thank you for highlighting our work and for the people who's listening to this. Thank you.

[21:03] Martín Acuña: Thanks everyone for listening to this new episode of Backstage Talk. Remember to follow us on Facebook and Instagram at Backstage Talk Podcast.