From the Vaults: Lupe Ontiveros

Lupe Ontiveros in "Real Women Have Curves"

News came this morning that Hollywood actress and El-Paso native, Lupe Ontiveros, died at 69 from liver cancer. Although Ontiveros never became a household name, the actress was widely recognizable for having played, in her words, "every maid in the book." Anglo audiences probably know her best as the housekeeper in The Goonies.

Mexican-American audiences, on the other hand, will probably remember her best for her co-starring role in Selena as Yolanda Saldivar, the woman responsible for the murder of the rising crossover music star. Oltiveros also has a ton of TV credits to her name, but her widest seen role was probably a recurring one on Desperate Housewives, as Gaby Solis' meddling mother-in-law.

My own favorites among her more than 100 credits listed on IMDb that I have seen are a couple of indie films: Real Women Have Curves and Chuck & Buck. In Real Women, Ontiveros co-starred with America Ferrara in this film about a new high school graduate in L.A.'s immigrant community who's determined to break free of that culture's traditional female life cycle of marriage and sweatshops. Ferrara and Ontiveros both received Special Jury Awards for Acting when the film premiered at Sundance in 2002.

2000's strange and intentionally uncomfortable Chuck & Buck by filmmaker Miguel Arteta (The Good Girl, Cedar Rapids) cast Ontiveros in a leading role. In a 2005 interview with The Austin Chronicle, Ontiveros quotes Arteta as saying that he had always wanted to work with her. "No one had ever said that to me before," Ontiveros observed. See what else the actress had to say in "True Hollywood Stories."