JOHN LEGUIZAMO: Uh…because it's exactly what I wanted to do with this character. I didn't need people to like me. I didn't want them to like me but they needed to understand the sickness.
ASUNCION CUMMINGS-HOSTIN: Yes.
LEGUIZAMO: That's what I wanted them to understand. What it takes to be a Latin man in a country and wanting to pass and believing that if you pass and you do everything right that the system is going to take you, but it doesn't. It spits you right back out.
WHOOPI GOLDBERG: That's right.
LEGUIZAMO: So here he is, like when you watch on Fox News, you know, you watch and then they- when they're taking down our democracy they'll put up all this border stuff and who is the people perpetrating, grabbing the children and the moms are Latino patrol officers.
MULTIPLE THE VIEW PANELISTS IN MINDLESS AGREEMENT: Yes.
LEGUIZAMO: So, that's the kind of character, that's how I related and got my --
JOY BEHAR: Important to tell.
HOSTIN: It is. I have to echo Sara. I started it last night and I was up till 1:00 in the morning.
LEGUIZAMO: Oh, you too? I'm sorry. My bad.
HOSTIN: I couldn't stop watching it. I couldn't stop watching it. And my husband was watching it with me and we were so enthralled by this. And the issue of being Latino in this country, right? And so you say people are going to despise you as a character. I did despise you.
LEGUIZAMO: Thank you, thank you. I want that.
HOSTIN: Yeah. I did. I did.
LEGUIZAMO: This guy is not a good guy.
HOSTIN: He's not a good guy. He’s doing everything he can to assimilate, but hide his heritage…
LEGUIZAMO: Yes.
HOSTIN: … while brutalizing others for their heritage, right? So, what was that like as a Latino to take it on?
LEGUIZAMO: Oh, it was -- it was painful, you know, to -- you had to take on all this rage.
HOSTIN: Yeah.
LEGUIZAMO: And then, you know, I'm snatching children from their parents and they're screaming and those screams would give me like PTSD when I would go home and be by myself, so it's hard to live with that, you know. You know, Latinos, I feel like Latinos are in a really good intersection right now in our culture because we're finally embracing and accepting that we're indigenous and accepting our Afro-Latino culture.
HOSTIN: Yes, yes.
(AUDIENCE CLAPS LIKE SEALS)
LEGIZAMO: Because we were ashamed…
HOSTIN: Yes.
LEGUIZAMO: …and in denial.
HOSTIN: Very anti-black for a long time. In our community.
LEGUIZAMO: And anti-indigenous. The majority of us are indigenous. You know, I'm 26% indigenous and 5% Afro-Latino but, you know, my family is all like the whiter you are, the prettier you are, if your hair is straight but not too straight because then it's indigenous and add then you gotta add those European features- then you're beautiful. Everybody else, not so much. But we’re finally getting over that. I feel like we’re really coming to a place where we’re rejecting that.