-: Hi, I'm Roxann Dawson and I play Balada tourist,
Or I played Balada tourist.
I didn't know anything about Star Trek really
until I got this role.
And then I did some pretty fast research,
but this was really my first contact
with the whole franchise.
Oh my gosh, there was so many wonderful moments that we had!
Probably the best times were when we were
in the break room when all of us were together
and we hadn't seen each other in a while
and we would just talking, shoot the breeze, you know,
and it was just so great to all be together.
Of course, the director wasn't so pleased
because we would take way too much time,
but we loved each other so much.
It was a really great cast.
I don't know if I'm at Liberty to say
what I took from the set,
but I do have a couple of things.
In fact, I was just thinking of going through
my attic to see what they were and if I should
still hold onto them or not.
I think I have a tri-quarter, think I have my costume.
Don't tell anybody though (laughs).
Voyager is the first time that I directed.
I let them know early on that I wanted to direct.
And they gave me Paramount as my school,
which is not too shabby.
And I would follow around directors, I would go to meetings.
I would kind of shadow on other shows,
but I learned so much from Paramount
and so much from all the different departments
who were so willing to share with me and to teach me.
And I am profoundly grateful for that.
It really started
what is now over 20 year career for me in directing.
And it's just been a wonderful ride for me.
I am Puerto Rican.
You know, it's very interesting being sort of
fourth generation Puerto Rican
and that my parents didn't speak Spanish
and I didn't grow up with any real role model,
except for me, maybe Chita Rivera
and West Side Story (chuckles) you know,
who is still my idol.
And there wasn't a lot for me to look to.
And I didn't identify actually honestly very much
with being Puerto Rican as I was growing up.
And it isn't sort of where I worked.
I didn't get cast in roles that were
stereotypically Hispanic, I just didn't fit those.
So I was often caught right in the middle of all of that.
But it's interesting because even now having children,
I'm starting to sort of re-examine
especially with all the politics
that are happening right now in Puerto Rico,
really examining my roots and wanting to go back
and study it more and figure it out.
So I'm probably becoming
more Puerto Rican now than I've ever been.
Voyager, really if you look at the whole cast
is very diverse.
And I think that it was a time that people really
weren't formally trying to do that.
You know, Voyager just did it without a lot of accolade
without a lot of show.
They just did it, they just cast it this way,
which was such a credit to them
to do that at a time when
it wasn't even being demanded of.
And I think that we made some real strides in diversity
in terms of casting on network television.