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I came from a middle-class family in Mexico, from a household full of women, in a country that is very machista.

My grandmother was energetic and fearless - a talented poet and songwriter. She was also interested in chemistry and history and medicine, taking care of the people in her hacienda in Mexico, delivering babies. She could have become anything, but this was the 1930s, and she was forced into an arranged marriage.

New Mexico is full of brave men and women who have dedicated their lives to service.

First of all, just knowing people who grew up in the movie business at that time, no one had Mexican maids.

Unfortunately we - and I'm speaking not for Latin America but for Mexico because that's where I come from - we still, I think, are a little bit macho. Not that we only live in a macho world, but we also think as a macho world; even the women, you know? The women in Mexico, because that's the way we were raised.

I always thought of my mother as a warrior woman, and I became interested in pursuing stories of women who invent lives in order to survive.

My grandmother was a huge influence on me and the fact that there was this very strong, rather formidable presence of women in my life has been an enormous value.

My grandmother was a very tough woman. She buried three husbands and two of them were just napping.

I've always known that my father's father and grandfather and grandmother were from Mexico. I've never denied it. I've always said it.

I would never call people that are born in this country who are from Mexico 'terror babies.'