By Brady Rhoades
If you sat down with Sofia Vergara over coffee, where would you start?
What’s it like to be a judge on America’s Got Talent? What’s next on Griselda? Or… can she repeat some famous Gloria lines from Modern Family?
Eventually, though, you’d have to get down to business.
Was she really the highest-paid actress on television? Is it true she made $500,000 per episode in the final years of Modern Family (which ran from 2009 to 2020)? Has she actually made more as a businesswoman than as a performer?
The business of Vergara, a pioneering Latina in Hollywood, is complicated. But at the heart of this cultural icon and, yes, starlet, is an entrepreneur who’s never forgotten her roots.
“Listen, I’m not afraid of anything. I’m Colombian,” she has said.
And if you happen to share a cup of joe with Vergara, chances are you’re drinking ¡Dios Mío! Coffee, her latest business venture that serves as “a tribute from Latina women to the world.” She employs female growers from Colombia.
“I just don’t want to give them my name and say, ‘Do whatever you want.’ I am trying to create my brand,” she said.
A Global Superstar
Vergara was born in 1972 in Colombia. She studied dentistry for three years at the National University of Colombia, but changed her career course to modeling and TV. She was introduced to the public in a Pepsi commercial on Colombian TV.
In 1998, her older brother, Rafael, was murdered during an attempt to kidnap him. Not wanting to be caught in the vortex of more violence, Vergara emigrated to the United States, settling in Miami, Florida, and earning her citizenship.
After early success in modeling, Vergara rose to prominence while co-hosting two television shows for the Spanish-language television network, Univision, in the late 1990s. She appeared in Four Brothers and two Tyler Perry comedies, Meet the Browns and Madea Goes to Jail, earning an ALMA Award nomination for the latter.
Vergara also acted in New Year’s Eve, The Three Stooges, Machete Kills, Fading Gigolo, Chef and Hot Pursuit. She has had voice-over roles in the animated films Happy Feet 2, Escape from Planet Earth, The Emoji Movie and 2024’s Despicable Me 4.
She sustained early tragedies and hardship. After losing Rafael to violence, she lost another brother after he spiraled into drug addiction. Then she survived thyroid cancer; she continues to take medication to prevent hypothyroidism.
But it seemed nothing could quell her magnetism and work ethic. She became a global superstar as Gloria Delgado-Pritchett in the ABC sitcom, Modern Family, and Griselda Blanco in the Netflix miniseries, Griselda (2024). She received a combined five primetime Emmy award nominations for both and four Golden Globe Award nominations for Modern Family.
More than a decade after Modern Family ended, people still quote Gloria. Here are three memorable lines:
—“In my culture, mothers are very clingy to their sons. In fact, the leading cause of death among Colombian women is when their sons get married, but I’m not like that.”
—“The quinceañera is very important in the Latin culture. The moment the father dances with his little princess—I remember my own father holding my hand. There wasn’t a dry eye in the cartel.”
—“Do you know how frustrating it is to have to translate everything in my head before I say it? To have people laugh in my face because I’m struggling to find the words? You should try talking in my shoes for one mile!”
A Coffee Aficionado
Since 2020, Vergara, a mother of one, has been a judge on America’s Got Talent.
And then there’s Griselda Blanco. Vergara has wowed fans (she’s an executive producer of the show, as well) in her role as Griselda, AKA La Jefe, or The Boss. She became the first Latina actress from a Latin American country to receive a primetime Emmy nomination.
The series is inspired by Griselda Blanco, a savvy and ambitious Colombian businesswoman who rose from obscurity to become “The Godmother” of the underworld. Griselda tells the story of how she created one of the most profitable cartels in history. As the series dramatizes, her lethal blend of savagery and charm helped her to navigate between the worlds of underground business and family.
“There has never been a woman who came close to achieving the power, wealth and respect that Griselda did. And no trafficker, woman or man, ever elicited the same level of fear,” show creator Eric Newman told Tudu. “Griselda is a rise-and-fall story like none we have ever seen before. It’s thrilling, emotional, funny, scary and tragic. Griselda is an antihero of the highest order and a series of contradictions at odds with herself.”
In the early years of Modern Family, Vergara began to develop her brand, designing her own fashion line for Kmart and signing with Pepsi and CoverGirl. She launched her first fragrance, “Sofia by Sofia Vergara,” in 2014 and has since released four more fragrances.
Which gets us back to ¡Dios Mío! Coffee. Vergara is a coffee connoisseur. In a series posted on Netflix’s Instagram account, she blindly identified the brand and brewing process of five different coffees, from Folger’s drip to Café Bustelo. She’s an enthusiastic American, but she was also honest about an American espresso disguising itself as high-end Colombian: “I think somebody messed up. Definitely made wrong by an American.”
Vergara’s coffees offer three roasts, all blended by a team of female coffee growers. The name is derived from the popular Spanish expression that Vergara says “is used by Latinos when discovering the perfect taste and flavor.”
Vergara describes her light roast as an abrazo de abuela, or a grandmother’s hug. Sweet, with a hint of fruit and acidity. The other roasts feature notes of nuts, white chocolate, brown sugar, cocoa, caramel and smoke.
“I love coffee,” she said on a YouTube post. “You don’t mess with Colombians and their coffee.”
An American Icon
Vergara has been called the Sophia Loren of her generation. The Pamela Anderson. The Salma Hayek.
Vergara, who graced the cover of People Magazine’s Beautiful Issue in May 2024, has never shied away from her glamour and beauty. The Los Angeles resident loves to eat fried fish at Tar & Roses in Santa Monica, vegan pizza at Craig’s on Melrose Avenue, cheesy potatoes at Avra in Beverly Hills and Mexican food from taco trucks on the streets. She dines with her son Manolo, and there are usually family and friends gathered around a large table.
PHOTO: PASADENA, CALIFORNIA – SEPTEMBER 17: Actress Sofía Vergara attends the “America’s Got Talent” Season 19 Finale Performances Red Carpet at Hotel Dena on September 17, 2024 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Amanda Edwards/Getty Images)She performs Spanish dancing to stay in shape but has no interest in being skinny.
“In Latin America, women are supposed to be voluptuous. They don’t believe that you have to be skinny to be attractive.”
In many ways, Vergara is the embodiment of her motherland. In Colombia, there is great range to the culture, probably because it’s one of the most ethnically diverse countries in the Western Hemisphere. How do you incorporate African and European traditions into one nation? The Carnaval de Barranquilla would be a good place to find out. The annual pre-Ash Wednesday celebration involves dances such as the Spanish paleo, African Congo and Indigenous mice y mica’s.
And yet, she’s about as American as it gets. On any given Independence Day, she can be seen wearing red, white and blue (and sometimes a cowgirl hat). She regularly exercises her First Amendment right.
She knows American history, having aced her citizenship test by achieving a perfect score on the 100-question exam. “You know what? It was a very emotional moment for me,” she told Time Magazine.
To boot, she’s a capitalist to the core.
“I like business, and the truth is, I save way more than I spend. I invest. I plan for the future. I have a special eye for opportunities and work harder than anyone might expect.”
Read more articles for the Hispanic Community here.
This article was originally published on diversitycomm.net.
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