Lisseth Chavez Immigrant Family Roots Relates To Ximena From 'The Fosters'

Lisseth Chavez is a Latin-American actress who is from a family of immigrants. She portrayed a DACA student named Ximena Sinfuego on The Fosters, which is a show about a couple who take care of foster children. 

Having acted in the television series and portrayed a character from an immigrant family, the talented actress feels humble enough to have gotten the opportunity to progress in life.  

Who Is Lisseth Chavez? 

ActressLisseth Chavez is best known for her role as Vanessa Rojas in Chicago P.D., which is a famous American police drama show. She left the show in September 2020 to join Legend Of Tomorrow.

How Old is She?

As disclosed by a post on her Instagram, Chavez was born on May 25, 1989. The actress stepped into her thirties in 2020. And, just like her age, her career seems to be aging like a fine wine.

According to her IMDb page, the stunning actress began her career on-screen with a minor role as a cheerleader in the 2009 TV series True Beauty. In the decade since, she appeared in numerous supporting roles in quite a few TV shows, including Lucifer, Rush Hour, The Night Shift, One Day At A Time, and Grey’s Anatomy. 

Finally, Chavez’s career took shape in 2017; she was cast as Ximena Sinfuego in ABC’s The Fosters.

Who is Xemena Sinufego?

Chavez is a recurring character on The Foster. She is an audacious USCD art student known for her efforts to ensure rights for herself and others. She is the head coach of the junior derby group called The Traumacitas. She is also an important member and the founder of the roller derby team called The Chulas Vistas. 

She exists in the United States because of her Mexican parent’s arrival to the dreamland based on the Dreamer act. She was only two at the time.

Although she is a vocal personality and successful student, she gets in problem with authorities and ICE because of her ethnicity and activism. 

Lisseth Chavez is Proud to Play the Mexican character Ximena

For Chavez, Ximena is not only the role. The character’s story is representative of the hardship she has witnessed in her community.  

Taking to OMFGTV about her experiences playing Ximena on The Foster, Chavez expressed her dissatisfaction with the news that stated the Trump presidency would send the Salvadorans with temporary immigration permit Back to El Salvador. 

She explained that she got the strength to fight for her rights from Ximena. She then went on to talk about her immigrant roots and touched upon the struggle her people had with the current DACA policy.

I come from humble beginnings of an immigrant family and even though I’ve been privileged to be a US citizen, I am surrounded by loved ones who don’t have that same luxury. I’ve seen them be affected by DACA first hand. There’s nothing more rewarding in my career than having the opportunity to play role I am proud of, especially a role that relates to my culture.

Although the DACA policy gives the immigrant children born in the US a path to pursue quality education and career, it doesn’t completely protect these children’s parents from the troubles brought upon by immigration authorities.

Lisseth Chavez concerned about immigrants' children in 2019 (Photo: Facebook)

Recently, the Trump administration won a ruling in the court that allowed them to end the Temporary Protection Status for 300,000 immigrants from Sudan, Nicaragua, Haiti, and El Salvador.

Chavez defends Hollywood with love   

Like any industry run by the majority, Hollywood also tends to stereotype minorities and their culture. But still, Chavez is optimistic about the industry. She told OMFGTV that she couldn’t identify Hollywood as a fake or overly dramatic place because of her positive experience on The Foster.

Instead, she felt that the production team of The Foster cared about the issues of the minorities. 

Lisseth Chavez leaves ‘Chicago P.D.’ for ‘DC’s Legends Of Tomorrow’

After her role with The Fosters, Chavez went on to play a few more characters on TV before she landed her breakthrough; she joined the Chicago P.D. cast as Vanessa Rojas in 2019. While in the show, she also appeared in Chicago Fire and Chicago Med in crossover episodes. 

However, the journey with the Chicago P.D. ended in 2020. The stunning brunette then signed on as a series regular in the upcoming sixth season of CW’s DC’s Legends Of Tomorrow, a superhero drama in the shared Arrowverse.

In the show, Chavez is set to personify Esperanza “Spooner” Cruz, a tough and self-sufficient woman who lives off the grid. Her character is an inventor specialized in devising smart tech for the detection of — and defense against — space aliens.

Chavez’s Character “Distinctly Different From The Other Protagonists”

Now joining Caity Lotz’s Sara Lance and Jes Macallan’s Ava Sharpe in Legends Of Tomorrow, Chavez’s character Spooner seeks revenge with aliens after they kidnapped her. For good, the encounter helped her to gain the ability to communicate with extraterrestrial lifeforms telepathically.

Grainne Godfrey, the show’s executive producer, spoke about Chavez’s character on the Legends DC Fandom panel in September 2020. Godfrey stated that Chavez’s character is distinctly different from other protagonists of the show.

“She is a young Latinx woman from Texas, who was kidnapped by aliens and has a third for vengeance. She’s not going to be the loveable losers that we normally have, she’s going to be pretty tough and gives it to the other Legends and they’re going to have to react to her and I think it’s going to throw them off their feet a little bit.”

Is Lisseth Chavez’s Mexican?

Two of Chavez’s most queried aspects of her fans query on her biography are her ethnicity and nationality. Because she gave such a convincing performance as a lesbian Mexican character Ximena, fans have been querying if she is a Mexican.

But in reality, her parents are from El Salvador. So that makes her an American Salvadoran.