AN AMERICAN STORY

A respected actor/social activist reflects on how being the American-born son of two South American immigrants has influenced his life and career.

Born in Miami, Valderrama was 3 when his family moved to Venezuela. He spent time riding his horse, watching TV, and dreaming he was Zorro while his father worked the farm he had bought. After Hugo Chavez came to power several years later, Valderrama’s family fled to Los Angeles. "You'll need to learn English," the father warns his son, who was flunking that subject in school. In LA, his parents struggled financially while the author faced the daunting task of learning a new language as he navigated school, a part-time job, and an environment that sometimes judged immigrants unfairly. Yet these difficulties only made him more determined to succeed and to assist his parents. A straight-A student by high school, Valderrama poured his energies into acting and began auditioning for commercials and television bit parts. His junior year he unexpectedly landed the part of the foreign exchange student Fez on That 70s Show, a role that fueled his steady rise to fame and helped him support the family he loved. Yet even as Valderrama lived professional dreams of developing successful TV shows like Yo Momma and Zorro and starring in successful films like Fast Food Nation and Larry Crowne, he found himself equally drawn to activism in support of causes that empowered the Latinx community and that “creat[ed] a national celebration of democracy.” Recapping Valderrama’s star-studded accomplishments, this book is no different from other celebrity memoirs. Its greater interest lies in his presentation of his life as a demonstration of the fact that America’s greatest strength lies in its diversity and in the immigrants it at times underestimates or undervalues.

Candid and outspoken.