America Ferrera
America Ferrera feels doubly proud at having succeeded precisely for those things that seemed to guarantee her failure as an actress. Being Hispanic and with a form more voluptuous than the skeletal shapes that dominate Hollywood’s idea of beauty, this daughter of a Honduran mother at 22 has shown how wrong they were, first in movies with her debut in “Real Women Have Curves” and now on television as the adorable “Ugly Betty” who has everyone in love with her. Q. What are you reading?
A. “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius” by Dave Eggers, a runner-up for the Pulitzer Prize and a real delight.
Q. What book has influenced you?
A. “Chronicle of a Death Foretold.” I read it very early on and it has stayed with me, it’s a story that touched me deeply.
Q. An author?
A. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, for this book and any other that he has written.
Q. How would you encourage people to read?
A. By making them see that it makes you more human, it widens your horizons at the same time it opens your mind. I think it’s wonderful to give yourself up to reading and be able to lose yourself in your own mind.
