cover story
Tony Plana
A Role Model in a
Multi-Cultural Community
—Carolina Saucedo
T
he Cuban born actor, Tony Plana
came to the United States as a
child with his family following the
Cuban Revolution. The war made it diffi-
cult for anybody to practice their faith;
religious schools were beginning to close
in order to provide for the war. Pepe and
Conchita Plana decided that feeing the
country would be best for their three
young boys. Pepe worked for the Nation-
al Bank and had to resign to Che Guevar-
ra in hopes of leaving Cuba. The family
was taken in by a refugee center in Miami
then moved and settled in Culver City,
California about a year later.
Growing up in the Plana household,
the boys learned that they must go to
school, do well and that college would not
be an option. As the eldest of the three
brothers, Jose Antonio Plana had to set the
example and was programmed to think
college. The straight ‘A’ student attended
Loyola High School, a college-preparato-
ry high school in Los Angeles, California.
There, Plana did a few plays but never
really considered acting as a career. When
Plana began college at Loyola-Mary-
mount University he studied English Lit-
erature, Philosophy and Spanish at the
college level, thinking that he would go
into law. He soon found out that rather
than becoming a lawyer, he would pursue
his attraction for acting and play a lawyer.
Now, years later, Tony Plana stars in
ABC’s hit television show Ugly Betty as
father to America Ferrera’s role of Betty
Suarez. The talented Tony Plana plays the
©PATRICK HARBRON /ABC
Continued on page 48.
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