Pueblo-born creator of 'The Garcias' TV series hosts special screening in his hometown

Long before writing, producing and directing television series, Jeff Valdez was a Pueblo Central Grade School student putting on plays outside the housing projects he grew up in.

Valdez stopped in his hometown Friday to treat students from the Boys & Girls Clubs of Pueblo County to a screening of his new HBO Max series, "The Garcias," in Pueblo Community College's Fortino Ballroom.

"The Garcias" is a reboot of the "Brothers Garcia," which ran from 2000 to 2004 and was the first Nickelodeon series to feature an all-Latino cast.

Valdez was joined by cast members from the show, Bobby Gonzalez, who plays George Garcia, and Nitzia Chama, who plays George's wife, Ana Camacho Garcia.

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The original series chronicles the lives of three brothers, their sister Lorena, father Ray and mother Sonia in San Antonio. The reboot, which premiered April 14 on HBO Max, follows the family 20 years later on vacation at a beach house in Mexico.

"A lot of the stories from the original 'Brothers Garcia' came from growing up in my family in Pueblo... The new series came from my new family, my wife and two kids," Valdez said."

In the mid-1980s, Valdez opened a comedy club in Colorado Springs that saw the likes of Ellen Degeneres, Sinbad and Rosanne Barr perform. After watching Barr "make it big" in show business, Valdez decided to move to Los Angeles.

"I started doing standup comedy out there and used that as a way to get noticed then became a producer," Valdez said. "Producing led to writing and writing led to directing and here we are now 30 years later."

As a Latino in Hollywood, Valdez said he was "weirdly categorized" at the start of his career. He has used his work to push back against stereotyping and increase representation of Latinos in television and film.

"It's been going on for a half century and just from the business perspective, forget the social justice part, it's bad business," he said. "We don't want to watch that stuff. Give us what we want to watch⁠ — family things, funny things that are not just cookie-cutter stereotypes."

Chama, a native of Veracruz, Mexico, has auditioned for roles in Hollywood for about six years. Like Valdez, she experienced stereotyping in Hollywood after "always getting cast in the same roles," she said.

"Basically, I was the one who worked in the fields," she said. "I was the maid. Not because there was something bad about that...

"Now with this show, they gave us the opportunity just to be people."

Gonzalez, who was part of the original series, is the son of two Cuban immigrants who became doctors. He, too, wants to see more representation of Latinos in television and film.

"We run the gamut," he said. "We have so many scholars, so many scientists, so many heroes and I don't ever see it."

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Pueblo Chieftain reporter James Bartolo can be reached by email at JBartolo@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Pueblo-born creator of 'The Garcias' hosts special screening at PCC