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Catalans Abroad
10 April 2022 2.00 h

Maria Brasero.

Gaduated in Communication and Publicity in Barcelona and in Film Production from UCLA

“The sky is the limit”

I’ve been blessed by working in many different areas of the entertainment industry you should live life with purpose, not just getting by
Why did you leave Cat­alo­nia?
I left Cat­alo­nia in 2009, right at the be­gin­ning of the cri­sis, be­cause it was very hard to find a job in the field I stud­ied, which was Media and Com­mu­ni­ca­tions. So I took a leap of faith and ap­plied to UCLA to do a Mas­ter’s in En­ter­tain­ment stud­ies and got in. My hope was al­ways to come back, be­cause I love Barcelona and I’m very at­tached to my fam­ily and friends. I never thought I’d be away for more than a year but life takes you to un­ex­pected places some­times and I’m still here. I’ve al­ways wanted to be in the en­ter­tain­ment in­dus­try, and Hol­ly­wood is the place to be.
Are you happy with the job op­por­tu­ni­ties you found in Los An­ge­les?
Ab­solutely. I’ve been here for 13 years and it was very hard at first be­cause I had no con­nec­tions at all be­fore mov­ing to LA and I had to build them from zero. On top of that, my Eng­lish wasn’t that great at that time and get­ting a work per­mit was ex­tremely hard. But once I got my foot in the door I’ve been blessed by work­ing non-stop and in many dif­fer­ent areas of the en­ter­tain­ment in­dus­try. I was an as­sis­tant at a top Tal­ent Agency [WME, that reps Keanu Reeves, Jared Leto, Bar­dem, Taran­tino] for one year, I worked at a film dis­tri­b­u­tion com­pany for al­most two and fi­nally I landed at LATV.
Tell us more about your job there.
It’s the first bi­cul­tural na­tional TV net­work in the US to tar­get mil­len­nial Lati­nos across the coun­try through bilin­gual con­tent. I started there as the Tal­ent Booker and within a year I be­came a re­porter and then after three years a writer and ex­ec­u­tive pro­ducer of our all-fe­male talk show Get it Girl. That would’ve taken me years to achieve in Cat­alo­nia. Here peo­ple are more likely to give you the chance if you’ve proven that you can and want to do it.
You also wrote and pro­duced the award-win­ning short, After Life Va­ca­tion, which is being adapted into a fea­ture film, and your first pilot, L.​A.​tinas is in pre-de­vel­op­ment in HBO.
After Life Va­ca­tion was a short I wrote a year after my dad passed away, which was the hard­est time of my life. My ther­a­pist sug­gested I should use writ­ing as cathar­sis and trans­form the pain into some­thing else. So the short started with the premise of what if dying is just the be­gin­ning of a new ad­ven­ture, and it soon be­came a sci fi, rom-com about who you would like to spend eter­nity with if you could choose. I shot it with my hus­band, who is a di­rec­tor, and it did very well on the fes­ti­val cir­cuit. There are four amaz­ing Cata­lan ac­tors in it: Jano San­vi­cente, Anna Vinyas, Sergi Cervera and Va­le­ria Gon­za­lez. As for L.​A.​tinas, it’s a pilot I wrote based on my group of LA girl­friends who are all Lati­nas. I was very upset that Lati­nas al­ways get the same type of sto­ries: the maids, the nar­cas, the cholas... but that was not at all my ex­pe­ri­ence, so I wrote a dram­edy in­spired by my amaz­ing group of friends who have been my rock all these years. It’s a love let­ter to our friend­ship be­cause with­out them I would prob­a­bly have come back to Barcelona many years ago. LA is a very tough city and if you don’t have a sup­port group it’s very hard to suc­ceed. We sub­mit­ted it to Warner Media, who were se­lect­ing just four pro­jects for a new part­ner­ship with HBO and we got in! Now we’re in pre-de­vel­op­ment and so we’ll see what hap­pens, but I’m very ex­cited. I al­ways say I lost my fa­ther but I gained an angel be­cause he’s al­ways look­ing out for me.
What do you think is the best thing about liv­ing there?
The weather is pretty amaz­ing if you like sunny days 360 days a year. And every­thing is pos­si­ble. If you work hard and are de­ter­mined you can achieve what­ever you set your mind to; the sky’s the limit, re­ally, and I never felt that any­where else.
What would you most like to change?
There are things about the sys­tem that clearly don’t work; for in­stance, health care is ex­tremely ex­pen­sive and flawed. Also, there are a lot of home­less peo­ple camp­ing around the city, some­thing you would never see in Cat­alo­nia. I wish the gov­ern­ment had bet­ter pro­grammes and shel­ters for them.
What do you miss most from home?
My loved ones, the food, and some­thing just as sim­ple as a good baguette. In the 13 years I’ve been here I haven’t found a bak­ery with good bread and in Barcelona there’s one on al­most every cor­ner! I took them for granted but now I miss them!
What do you take with you as a pre­sent from your new home when you go back to Barcelona?
Mo­ti­va­tion. Giv­ing 100% in every­thing I do and al­ways lift­ing oth­ers along the way. In Cat­alo­nia, the gen­eral at­ti­tude in life is just to get by whereas here it’s “do your best”.

CATA­LANS ABROAD Los An­ge­les (United States)

SOME SUGGESTIONS

Where are the best places for visitors to stay?
It depends on what you want. If you enjoy the beach, then Malibu, Santa Monica or Venice. If you want to have the Hollywood experience, then Beverly Hills and some parts of Hollywood (others are pretty ugly).
What do you consider the highlights for any brief visit for the first time?
If you’re coming for a few days, you probably need to visit Universal Studios, Hollywood Blvd (although it’s a tourist trap, everyone wants to see it), The Griffith Observatory, Beverly Hills and Santa Monica or Venice.
And if visitors have more time or make a return visit?
The Getty Villa in Malibu and the Walt Disney concert in DTLA.
Can you recommend a place to have lunch with friends?
Urth Cafe. It has the best coffees and quiches in town. Everything is sustainably grown and organic, and it has a beautiful patio.
Where would you have a special dinner for two?
Frida, in Beverly Hills, offers you a quiet, romantic spot with some of the best Mexican Food you’ll ever taste!
Whens the best time of year to plan a visit?
Anytime, honestly. The weather is always nice and there are always things to do all year round. However, if you are a basketball fan, you should come mid-January to mid-February, during the NBA playoffs so you can catch the Lakers.
What’s the best kept secret about the area?
The first Friday of the month, all the best food trucks in LA get together in Venice. You can have a five star dish for the price of fast food. And Self Realization Lake Shrine Fellowship, a beautiful hidden spot in Pacific Palisades where you can go and meditate in the middle of nature. Some of Gandhi’s ashes are scattered there.
What characterises your neighbourhood?
I live in Marina del Rey, which as the name hints, is by the ocean. It’s a family oriented neighbourhood and one of the few where you can walk around. That’s why we chose to live here.
Are there any places to avoid?
Skid Row. That’s an area downtown where all the homeless camp... it’s very easy to be walking around downtown and find yourself there. So watch out for that!
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