Rosanna DeSoto brings weight to family roles that could easily become dutiful support for the leading man. In La Bamba, she makes us wish the script would stop moving so efficiently and give her more time.
Fi1m perspective
As Connie Valenzuela in La Bamba (1987), Rosanna DeSoto gives Ritchie Valens's mother enough weight to compete with the film's interest in its leading man. Lou Diamond Phillips makes the musical biography worth watching, but DeSoto makes us want it to slow down. We felt frustrated when the story hurried on, because Connie had become someone we wanted to stay with. Beside Esai Morales's rougher Bob Morales, she helps make the family worth attending to in its own right. Luis Valdez has better actors here than his dutiful storytelling quite allows for.
Her early work moved between mainstream films and projects associated with Chicano theatre. The In-Laws (1979) was her film debut; The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez (1982) followed among the early supporting parts. Wider notice came with La Bamba and Stand and Deliver (1988), in which she played Fabiola Escalante, wife of the teacher Jaime Escalante. Such family roles can leave an actor supplying reassurance while someone else gets the decisions and the speeches. The achievement in La Bamba is that DeSoto makes the limited attention given to Connie feel inadequate.
Her preparation for Connie gives a more useful clue to her work than the broad label of a strong mother. DeSoto paid attention to the real woman's concern with her appearance, including set hair and lipstick. Those details suggest a person with preferences, not simply someone available to worry about the leading character. It is that respect for Connie as a person that we respond to in the performance, even when the script seems more interested in getting Ritchie's story told.
Her subsequent parts included Elaine McMullen opposite Dustin Hoffman in the crime comedy-drama Family Business (1989), and Azetbur, a Klingon chancellor's daughter, in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991). The maternal casting describes only part of the work, though Connie remains our clearest reason to recommend her. Start with La Bamba for Phillips and the music as well as DeSoto. Do not expect it to give her all the time she deserves.
Biography
Rosanna DeSoto is an American actress. Born on 2 September 1950 in San Jose, California, she graduated from San Jose State University with degrees in Spanish literature and drama.
She is known for her role as Azetbur in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991). Other film credits include La Bamba (1987) as Connie Valenzuela, Stand and Deliver (1988) as Fabiola Escalante, for which she received an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female, and Family Business (1989). She has made guest appearances in television series including Quantum Leap, Law & Order, Murder, She Wrote and Miami Vice.
