Millions of viewers took notice of Diane Guerrero in Orange Is the New Black, as she portrayed inmate Maritza Ramos for the first five seasons of the series.
But it wasn’t easy work for Guerrero to stand out from the cast of the Netflix hit for two big reasons: First, the long-running prison dramedy has one of the biggest collections of regular characters in TV history, and, second, every single one of those nuanced roles is played by a remarkably talented actress. But Guerrero still managed to steal scenes, many of which were opposite Jackie Cruz, who played Maritza’s best friend Flaca.
But after the fifth season of Orange is the New Black ended in chaos (with the end of a riot and a hostage situation at Litchfield Correctional Institution), the show started anew, set in a cold and frightening maximum security facility. Some characters even suddenly disappeared from the show — most notably Maritza Ramos. So why is Diane Guerrero’s character missing from the series?
Goodbye, Litchfield
Orange is the New Black was never a simple, straightforward show. When it first hit Netflix in 2013, the action centered around Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling), a privileged woman sent to a minimum security prison for a drug offense from a decade earlier. It was a comedy laced with drama, with most of the laughs deriving from the dark fish-out-of-water premise. Then the show aggressively evolved into an ensemble series, as well as a searing drama about race, gender, politics, and the criminal justice system. And because it’s set in a prison, there are lots of characters … and those characters come and go, just as as inmates do in real life.
Orange is the New Black was never a simple, straightforward show. When it first hit Netflix in 2013, the action centered around Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling), a privileged woman sent to a minimum security prison for a drug offense from a decade earlier. It was a comedy laced with drama, with most of the laughs deriving from the dark fish-out-of-water premise. Then the show aggressively evolved into an ensemble series, as well as a searing drama about race, gender, politics, and the criminal justice system. And because it’s set in a prison, there are lots of characters … and those characters come and go, just as as inmates do in real life.
After the fifth season, which took place entirely in the few days after the riot that capped season four, a large number of fan-favorite inmates were narratively unaccounted for. Among them: Brook Soso (Kimiko Glenn), Yoga Jones (Constance Shulman), Brandy Epps (Asia Kate Dillon), and Maritza Ramos (Diane Guerrero). The action of the show shifted to Litchfield’s maximum security sister prison, while there have been mentions that other notable characters were moved to other prisons. That’s probably where Maritza is … and why Guerrero was absent from the sixth season.
She’s tackling big issues
Immigration — or, rather, the different political approaches to immigration reform — is one of today’s most intensely debated issues, particularly in light of high-profile raids and deportations by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the separation of immigrant families at the U.S.-Mexico border. These are issues that are very important and personal to Diane Guerrero. According to The Washington Post, in 2001, 14-year-old Guerrero came home from school one day to find that her parents had been arrested by immigration officials for staying in the U.S. after their visas expired, and their efforts to obtain citizenship hadn’t been fruitful. Guerrero’s family was deported back to Colombia, while she got to stay — she was born in the U.S. — and lived with friends and neighbors until she finished high school.
Guerrero spends as much time as she can at speaking engagements, discussing the plight of immigrants and detainees. In 2016, she wrote a memoir called In the Country We Love, and, in 2018, she adapted it into a book for children called My Family Divided. And, of course, being politically active and outspoken about the issues of the day doesn’t leave much time in one’s schedule for acting in quirky streaming dramedies.
(Excerpt) Read More at: NikkiSwift.com
