WILSON
CRUZ
INTO THE
FUTURE:
BOLDLY CHALLENGING
INJUSTICE FOR LIGHT
YEARS TO COME.
Written by Alan Uphold
Photographs by Paul Robinson
Critically acclaimed Los Angeles photographer, Paul Robinson, has created a 12-part series of photos and articles featuring twelve LGBTQ individuals who have used their notoriety, their celebrity, or their downright chutzpah to affect change in the LGBTQ+ community.
The series, named “Twelve Soldiers,” will feature Paul’s photographs and a profile of a different social justice warrior each month.
In addition to Paul’s incredible photos of the twelve featured soldiers, his company, NEFT Vodka will donate $1,000 to the charity of choice for each of the featured soldiers.
Throughout his life, Wilson Cruz has managed to incorporate three distinct essences of his being into virtually everything he has done—being Latino, being gay, and being a performer.
As an openly gay Latino, Cruz has been able to use his platform as an actor, singer, dancer and producer to promote positive portrayals of both of his communities.
Born to Puerto Rican parents in Brooklyn, NY, Cruz’s birth name was Wilson Echevarría, and he was the first person in his family to be born stateside. At age six, his family moved to Michigan, where they lived only two years before seeking warmer climes in Southern California.
By the age of 9, Wilson and his family had settled in the Los Angeles suburb of Rialto, California, and that’s where his love of the arts really flourished.
“So much of my childhood was about the arts,” he says. “I had always been involved in the arts from a young age. I started playing the alto sax when I was in elementary school.”
Cruz thought that music was going to be his career path. He was in the school orchestra, and he always thought that music performance was going to be the path he would follow.
“I mean, let’s just face it. I was a band nerd. I always thought I was going to be a student conductor and drum major. Basically, I always knew that the arts were a part of who I was. It was always who I wanted to be.”
Things took a slight turn in junior high school when each of the three junior high schools in his Rialto
“Basically, I always knew that the arts were a part
of who I was. It was always who I wanted to be.”
school district performed programs in competition with each other. Cruz’s junior high chose to do a performance based on Frank Sinatra’s “Young at Heart” with Cruz singing the lead.
It was Wilson’s first time acting in a show, and he never looked back.
To be sure, music was, and still is, an integral part of his life, but not long after that performance, his Mom paid for him to take a commercial acting class.
“I was 16 years old, and she maxed out her credit card to allow me to take this class. To be honest, it was kind of a rip-off. I would never let her do that today.”
Wilson never did get cast in a commercial.
“My Mom would drive me into Los Angeles for these auditions. The problem for me was that there were not a lot of people in commercials that looked like me in the 1980s. Commercial casting directors and their clients were looking for All-American actors. And even when they did hire Spanish speaking actors, they looked like Europeans, not Afro-Latinos, like me.”
All of those auditions, however, did get him in front of a lot of casting directors, and finally, at the age of 18, Wilson was cast in an episode of Unsolved Mysteries.
That episode qualified him for a Screen Actors Guild (SAG) card, which is the first step in getting larger roles in Hollywood. That SAG card allowed Wilson to be cast in a short-lived television series called Great Scott, starring Tobey Maguire. That meant that Cruz could go out on auditions for series television roles.
The very next pilot season, Wilson got his big break by being cast in the ground-breaking role of Enrique “Rickie” Vasquez in My So-Called Life. By the end
of the first season, Rickie would come out as openly gay.
That character was a life-altering role for Cruz, but the alterations were not entirely positive.
“The entire arc of Enrique’s story in My So-Called Life was his journey of self-acceptance. I knew once I booked the part that I was going to be asked about my own sexuality. I knew that I couldn’t lie about it, and I didn’t want to lie about it.”
Wilson knew he would have to tell his parents before the show started to shoot, because he knew he would have to start doing press to promote the show.
“My parents had previously hinted around about my sexuality, but I always managed to be evasive and avoid ever talking directly about it. So I decided that the next time they asked me, I would just admit it.”
His Mom brought it up first, and Wilson confirmed that he was gay. It took a couple of days for his Mom to come to terms with the news, but she did eventually come around—with one condition.
“She said, ‘I’m not telling your Dad. You’re going to have to tell him yourself.’”
A few months later, his Dad brought up the subject around Christmas time.
“He brought up the topic, and I was just honest with him. It did not go well.”
Wilson’s father kicked him out of the house.
My So-Called Life wasn’t scheduled to begin production for three more months, so he had to figure out where he was going to live until he started to receive a salary and could afford a place of his own.
“Through the grace of God and my friends,
I made it through”.
“Through the grace of God and my friends, I made it through.”
At the age of 20, Wilson found himself couch surfing at friends’ places and sometimes sleeping in the back seat of his car.
“I spent a lot of time at the 6th Gallery coffee shop in West Hollywood. I felt like I was being babysat by the entire queer community in West Hollywood.”
“The thing about it was, yes, technically, I was homeless. But unlike other homeless LGBTQ youth, I knew my time was finite. I knew I would be making money as soon as the show started shooting and would be able to get my own place. But knowing that didn’t make it hurt any less or make it any less traumatizing that my father had rejected me.”
When My So-Called Life premiered, it was something of a phenomenon. It received critical acclaim for portraying adolescent life in a realistic and moving way, and has since been called one of the best teen dramas of all time by multiple publications such as Time, TV Guide and Rolling Stone.
Cruz’s character, Rickie started the show identifying as bi, but by the end of the season, he came out as gay. It was seen by many fans and critics alike as one of the most important episodes of television ever made.
Cruz became the first openly gay actor to play an openly gay lead character on an American television show.
Despite all of the praise and critical acclaim, the show only ran for one season.
Immediately after the run of the show ended, Wilson found himself in all too familiar territory—searching
for roles to play in an environment where very few series regular roles existed for Afro-Latinos.
“There weren’t a lot of opportunities for roles as a series regular for people who looked like me, so I was able to cobble together a career from guest starring roles and indie films.”
During the late 1990s and early 2000s, Cruz guest starred in some of the hottest shows on TV—from ER to Grey’s Anatomy, from Ally McBeal to Sister, Sister and from The West Wing to Party of Five—in which he appeared in eleven episodes.
Cruz points out that the period after My So-Called Life also happened to be the height of the queer independent film scene.
“I did films like Johns, starring David Arquette and Lucas Haas which was a movie about hustlers working on Santa Monica Blvd. in West Hollywood.
And I also was in All Over Me, starring Alison Foland, Tara Subkoff and Cole Hauser about a lesbian coming out story that I’m very proud of.”
Through all of these roles, Wilson worked to try to make the characters he portrayed less stereotypical.
“I mean I took on some roles that I knew might be potentially problematic from a stereotypical point of view. But I would use my charms and my wiles to persuade directors and producers to look at things in a different way. I would say, ‘You know, what if I said this or what if I did it this way?’ And they were always open to it.”
It was also in the late 1990s that Cruz was offered a role that was the kind he had always dreamed of taking on.
“I don’t see a delineation between my art and my activism.
I used both for the same purpose—to expand people’s
perception of our community.”
Just after My So-Called Life was cancelled, he was offered the role of Angel in the Los Angeles production of the Broadway smash hit Rent. Angel’s character is an openly gay drag queen living with HIV/AIDS.
“They actually wanted me to come in for the role in New York, but I couldn’t because I was shooting the show at that time. So when they asked me to do the role in LA, it was everything I had ever hoped for.”
After running in Los Angeles for a few weeks, Cruz was asked to move to New York and join the Broadway cast. He played the role of Angel on Broadway for two years.
“It was all I had ever dreamt about. Those people are still in my life. It was the hardest I have ever worked, but also the most gratifying. There is nothing like live theatre, and it opened up multiple doors for me.”
In addition to taking on roles in which he has tried to present positive portrayals of Latino and LGBTQ people, Wilson has given a tremendous amount of time and effort to the LGBTQ community.
“I don’t see a delineation between my art and my activism. I use both for the same purpose—to expand people’s perception of our community.”
GLAAD approached Wilson in 1997 and asked him to serve on their board of directors. He later went on to become a staff member in 2012 in which he served as a National Spokesperson, Strategic Giving Officer and Director of Entertainment Partnerships.
“When you’re an actor, there’s a lot of downtime between auditions and roles. I can’t sit on my ass. I want to go where can I be useful—someplace where
I can help move the needle. GLAAD came to me first, and I’ve been happy to work to help them achieve their mission.”
Later, Cruz worked with GLSEN where he consulted on a public service announcement for the organization. Later he began to serve on its board of directors, and currently serves as chairman of the board.
“I’m proud to serve on this board at a time when our students are under attack by Christian nationalist extremists. What’s more, their teachers and their parents are under attack simply for supporting these young people. Every young person has a right to a safe and supportive educational environment in which they are allowed to live up to their potential. GLSEN works every day to create that safe environment for ALL students.”
In 2001, right after 9/11, there was a writer’s strike in Hollywood, so there were not many acting jobs. Wilson used his downtime during this period to work with the National LGBTQ Task Force. He learned how to work as an activist and a field organizer. During his work with the Task Force he helped defeat ballot measures in communities all across the country where local governments were trying to strip away LGBTQ rights.
“I’ve always felt like if I’m not working on a project as an actor or an artist in some way that I need to be working within the LGBTQ community to help move the needle forward in terms of progress for our community.”
Wilson has served as the grand marshal of pride parades in West Hollywood, Chicago and Montréal.
“I just want to be of service. If they think I can help, then I
say, ‘Yes, Let’s do that!’”
He also donates his time to advocate for LGBTQ youth—especially young people of color. In the years following My So-Called Life he traveled the country and visited nearly 150 colleges and universities where he heard from many students about what an impact his character had on them.
“I just want to be of service. If they think I can help, then I just say, ‘Yes, let’s do that!’”
In more recent years, Wilson has gained attention and praise for his role as Hugh Culber in Star Trek: Discovery. His character is the ship’s senior medical doctor who is in a gay relationship with his friend and former Rent co-star, Anthony Rapp. The show, which ran for five seasons, was the first in the Star Trek franchise to feature an openly gay couple.
In spite of all of the amazing opportunities that Wilson believes he has had throughout his career, he worries that Hollywood is reverting back to a time when fewer roles were available for people like him.
“There was this big expansion in terms of streaming, and that opened the door for a lot of communities. They were willing to take more risks in terms of casting people like me. My fear is that now that these streaming services are struggling, and the industry is retracting, we will go back to having limited opportunities.”
Latinos make up nearly 20% of the U.S. population, but according to a media report from the Latino Donor Collaborative, they make up only 3.3% of lead roles in television.
“I’m exhausted because we’ve been asking for representation of the Latino community for as long as I can remember. I’m not saying there has been no change for Latino actors, I’m just saying that there
has been very little change. Latinos are as American as apple pie at this point. Yet when we look at the number of Latinos in lead roles, it’s the same as it was when I was growing up in the 1990s.”
Cruz says he will continue to advocate for both the Latino community and LGBTQ community through the arts and through his activism.
“I’m part of two communities that are being attacked by the people in power. So I feel as part of those communities it’s part of my responsibly to engage my audience in changing their minds and their perspectives.”
Through it all, Wilson maintains mindful of the importance of the work he is doing, and to whom he owes a debt of gratitude for allowing him to do that work.
“I’m acutely aware that I could not have experienced the opportunities and level of success that I’ve experienced had it not been for the LGBTQ community. I would not be where I am today if the community hadn’t embraced me and protected me in the way that they have.”
Wilson has never forgotten the people in the LGBTQ community that adopted him back at 6th Gallery coffee shop all those years ago.
Today, he is gratified and proud to be able to repay the favor.
