Terry Gross

If you're just joining us, my guest is comic and actress Cristela Alonso.

Her new Netflix comedy special is called Upper Classy.

We'll talk more after a break.

I'm Terry Gross, and this is Fresh Air.

Your mother taught you that when you're poor, as you were, there's no time for pleasure and there's no time to relax.

And she felt that you were just relaxing while she was around.

She would give you projects to do.

So what were your responsibilities at home when you were growing up?

You know, we were talking about TV before and how, you know, you learn so much about America.

You learned to speak with an American accent from television and you love Murphy Brown and you were wondering, like, why did you love it so much?

So it was either in one of your specials or in your memoir that you mention that you love the Mary Tyler Moore show because Mary Tyler Moore was this like independent woman.

Yes.

And she didn't have children.

She didn't have a husband, but she had a really interesting life.

And that affirmed the kind of life you wanted to have.

You wanted to be independent.

You wanted to have a job.

You wanted to have an interesting life, a more worldly life.

And maybe Murphy Brown, maybe that was the same kind of thing.

So your mother told you that dreams were for people with money and you didn't have any.