Quotes from Diane Guerrero

Love yourself no matter who you are or where you come from.

While awaiting deportation proceedings, my parents remained in detention near Boston, so I could visit them. They would have liked to fight deportation, but without a lawyer and an immigration system that rarely gives judges the discretion to allow families to stay together, they never had a chance.

It is a huge myth that our voices don't matter, that our vote doesn't count.

It's important that we vote, because this is how we can bring about change and bring about reform, and, honestly, I don't see Donald Trump, anything that he's saying to be effective or comprehensive. Instead of really uniting our country - we are the United States of America - he is dividing us.

I definitely had to pave my own path, which wasn't always the easiest thing to do.

I grew up in Boston.

For me, picking a college was really difficult. I wish I had had my parents there kind of supervising me. But I chose well. I did OK.

When I've been asked in the past about my dream role, I always expressed how much I'd like to be a superhero.

I am here, a citizen of this country, and I'm saying, 'Hey, the system failed me. I am a good citizen. I contribute to this country, and here I am sharing my story. What are you going to do now?'

I've experienced colorism in that way: where if you're lighter, then you'll potentially be accepted into society better than if you were darker-skinned.

Neighbors broke the news that my parents had been taken away by immigration officers, and just like that, my stable family life was over.

My father was desperately trying to be a legal contributor to this society.