'Roma' actress says she is proud of her roots after fellow actor uses racial slur

Oscar-nominated Mexican actress Yalitza Aparicio, who stars in the critically acclaimed film “Roma,” said on Saturday that she was proud of her indigenous roots after a soap opera star used a racial slur to describe her.

“I am proud to be an Oaxacan indigenous woman, and it saddens me that there are people who do not know the correct meaning of words,” Aparicio, who became the first indigenous woman to be nominated for a best actress Oscar, said in a statement.

On Friday, video surfaced on Twitter in which Mexican actor Sergio Goyri, 60, can be heard criticizing the film community for nominating “a f*cking Indian who says, ‘Yes, ma’am, no, ma’am’.”

Goyri quickly apologized for his remarks.

“It was never my intent to offend anyone. I apologize to Yalitza, who deserves (this Oscar nomination) and much more,” he said in a video posted on Instagram. “For me, it is an honor to see a Mexican be nominated for an Oscar.”

Aparicio, 25, starred as a domestic worker in director Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma,” which chronicles the life of an upper middle class family in the Mexico City neighborhood where Cuaron was raised.

The film, which was released by Netflix, has been nominated for 10 Oscars at the Academy Awards, to be held on Feb. 24.

Reporting by Julia Love in Mexico City; Editing by James Dalgleish