'Roma' actor Yalitza Aparicio hoping to inspire change for Indigenous Mexicans

Academy Award nominee Yalitza Aparicio is hoping that her newfound success can serve as a source of inspiration to other Indigenous Mexicans who suffer inequality.

Yalitza Aparicio, mexican actress Source: AAP

SBS Spanish spoke exclusively to the actor, who shot to fame for her role as housekeeper Cleo in the highly acclaimed Netflix film Roma.

The film is up for 10 gongs at the 91st Academy Awards on February 24, including a nod for Aparicio in the Best Actress category, where she'll be up against Glenn Close, Olivia Colman, Lady Gaga and Melissa McCarthy. 

She is only the second Mexican women ever nominated in that category, after Salma Hayek in 2002, and the first Indigenous person from that country up for an Academy Award.

While life has changed significantly for the 26-year-old from Tlaxiaco, who has graced the covers of Vogue, Vanity Fair and The Hollywood Reporter, she says addressing inequality within Mexico involving her Indigenous Mixtec people was a major source of inspiration.

This image released by Netflix shows Yalitza Aparicio, center, in a scene from the film "Roma," by filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron. Source: AAP

She says "many people consider that because they are Indigenous, they do not have the same capacity as any other person".

That's a stigma she's looking to tackle by persevering in the industry, where she can "transmit messages to society".

"I think it's good to take advantage of the fact that you can inspire people," she says.

In Mexico, Indigenous people make up at least ten per cent of the population.

Of them, almost 72 per cent, which is equivalent to 8.3 million people, lived in poverty, according to government data. 

A recent study by the Latin American Public Opinion Project at Vanderbilt University found that people who have darker skin tones in Mexico tend to have lower levels of education and are worse off economically than their lighter-skinned counterparts.

Yalitza Aparicio (2nd L) with cast members, and director Alfonso Cuaron, at the premiere of the film 'Roma' at the 75th edition of the Venice Film Festival. Source: AAP

Aparicio says she's been racially abused on Twitter - and that there is clear inequality on Mexican TV. 

"I do not know when it was the moment I stopped watching TV shows and movies because I thought that the characters never looked like the women around me or me," she says. 

Before she took the role in Roma, Aparicio says she was a struggling actress who helped her sister make piñatas to make ends meet.

Aparicio won the new Hollywood award at the Hollywood Film Awards. Source: AAP

She remembers the bitter moments while on the trail to secure stable employment. 

"On one occasion I had to ask for a job, and they looked at you from head to toe, telling you that we have nothing for you at this time," she says. 

She says the inspiration for her career came from her mother, who overcame economic hardship and made sacrifices to provide for the family.

Aparicio admits that curiosity led her to take the role of Cleo, a character who spends her days tending to the four children of a wealthy family.

Roma is also nominated for Best Picture, Best Foreign Film and Best Director for Alfonso Cuarón.