Rediscovering Rita

As Hurricane Rita swept through southwest Louisiana, leaving behind a trail of destruction and despair among the affected communities, another "Rita" was sweeping through Los Angeles, carrying pride and hope for the Filipino-American community. As Hurricane Rita hovered over southeast Texas, carrying with it winds and rains of epic proportions, our very own Rita sashayed down a red carpet, carrying with her the golden statuette of a winged woman raising what seems like a representation of a globe.

It was the night of the 57th Annual Emmy Awards. And though she prefers to work behind the camera, Fil-Am producer Rita Nazareno was forced to take to the spotlight.

"I walked into the office one day and people were congratulating me. I said, ‘I’m sorry, for what?" Apparently, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences came out with a press release of the nominees and the jury prize winners. That’s how I found out," Rita said of her most recent feat that adds her to the growing list of Filipino achievers worldwide.

It was a 30-seconder promo spot showing the three hosts of Good Day LA with a monkey throwing lines at each other that won Rita an Emmy Jury Award. Unlike the more popular Emmy Awards, Jury awards are not contested by nominees that compete against each other. The entries to this category are judged according to a particular standard. A nominee either gets it or not. Because of this system, there have been years when there have been more than one awardees and years when there have been none. This year, only Rita got it.

"The awards are just really icing on the cake. It’s really how you work, each day," she said.

For six years now, Rita has been working for the Creative Services Department at FOX 11 and UPN 13 – a duopoly of the Fox Network Group in LA. The petite Filipina started with the company’s programming and publicity department. But one of her bosses saw her reel and advised her to make full use of her creativity.

Every day, she wakes up at ungodly hours to get to the editing suite by 7 a.m. to produce and write image for Good Day LA, an in-your-face daily morning show, to handle sweeps and radio spots and manage photo shoots, projects and events.

Though last month’s Emmy win was a first for Rita in the glamorous LA boobtube industry scene, it wasn’t the first time her works have been lauded. She has, in fact, taken home five Gold Promax Awards and two Silver Promax Awards. And according to her, these are actually more prestigious in her eyes since Promax is an international organization of promo professionals.

But at the end of the day, she stresses that neither these nor the recent Emmy achievement have or will ever change her life.

"I thought it was cool, but it was like any other night for me. It was really exciting to win one," she said of the Emmy Awards soiree and the fact that she was actually going up the stage in front of the who’s who in the glitzy LA-Hollywood circle to give an acceptance speech. "My brother asked if I was getting a new dress. But we were renovating a house and it was a choice between a new sink and a new dress. And it went with the sink."

For this particular interview, we caught Rita wearing a black polo top and jeans on a typical workday. Her clothes didn’t really give her artistic vision away. But her purple, Mohawk-styled hair certainly did. But apart from her creative skills, the best thing about this Communication Arts graduate of Loyola Marymount University in California is that years of US-living didn’t Americanize her. She remains true to her roots (cultural, that is). In fact, she said she shares all her awards with her fellow kababayans.

"For me, definitely, there are certain values and virtues of the Filipinos that I really adhere to. And it’s hard work. Filipinos work really hard. And they’re very passionate. And also they’re very loyal. I’ve been with Fox for six years and for a lot of people here, that’s an eternity. But I really like working for the same people and for the same company and really seeing it grow," she said.

Even back in the Philippines where she grew up, Rita was already very active in the broadcast media, working random jobs as a production assistant, assistant director, producer and even as a director. Her credits include directing Martin Nievera’s music video for the hit You are My Song. She also did camera work for a telesine and produced the movie Langit sa Piling Mo with stars Eric Quizon and Giselle Tongi.

She lists two accomplished Filipino journalists as her role models.

"A good friend of my mom, actually two very good friends of my mom have really been inspirations for me – Cheche Lazaro and Kitchie Benedicto Paulino. They’ve really been inspirations, ever since I was young. I’ve always wanted to be like them. And I still do. They’re women of integrity, very principled, very intuitive, very passionate and they work really hard," she said.

For now, Rita admits she’s happy working for FOX and living here in the US. But since her family is still based in Manila, she hopes to go back someday and contribute to the television industry there everything she learned over here.

And for those of you who missed her short Emmy speech, she’ll say it over and over again: "I’d like to thank the people here at work and I would like to thank also the Filipino people for being very supportive and also my family, they’ve been with me through thick and thin. It’s really great to have such a loving family. And also to Rachel, who’s my partner here who’s just amazing."

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To reach this writer, log on to www.jannelleso.net.