"It's about being able to control the narrative. That's why they were always going to lose."
Rafael Agustin on the parallels between the WGA strike and the immigrant rights movement
Rafael Agustin, author of the memoir Illegally Yours and writer for the hit TV show Jane the Virgin, was knee deep in the Writers Guild of America’s (WGA) strike activities when he found time to talk to La Cuenta last week: “Right before we connected, I was getting calls from journalists going, ‘They're negotiating right now! What are you hearing?’”
Less than a week after our conversation, a tentative agreement between the WGA and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) was reached. In our conversation below, Rafael pinpoints the unique challenges that organizers and artists alike face in this current moment.
If you haven’t had a chance to read Illegally Yours, grab a copy today. Better yet, we are giving away an autographed copy of Rafael’s memoir to one reader that likes or comments on this story.
ALIX DICK: As we talk today, we’re nearly five months into the WGA strike. How has this shaped your work?
RAFAEL AGUSTIN: Hollywood is a mess right now, but it's been a mess for a while. All of my projects are on hold. It's heartbreaking because the people who feel it the most are always the entry level and the emerging writers. The higher ups are fine. What's scary is what industry will we come back to? There's going to be less buyers. There's going to be less development money. There's going to be less opportunities.
In this new world, it's going to be even harder for people to break in, and that's so heartbreaking because how do we still support and create programs to bring much needed diversity into the industry? Those are the first things that get cut and go away. So, I'm a little concerned about what's going to happen post the strike to tell you the truth.
ANTERO GARCIA: There will be unintended consequences even with a WGA victory?
RA: Absolutely. The great irony is that the real excitement of this strike compared to previous strikes comes from all the younger, diverse writers out on the picket lines. These are the same people who keep the fire going on social media. Those are the people who are going to have the hardest times finding work after this strike.
The real excitement of this strike compared to previous strikes comes from all the younger, diverse writers out in the picket lines. Those are the people who are going to have the hardest times finding work after this strike.
AG: I want to share the good news that all of our interview questionswere written by ChatGPT to keep our costs low.
RA: Oh, Lord Jesus. Let's not get into the AI of it all! I wrote an op-ed for Mother Jones about how this is the fight of our generation. When you take a step back and look from a macro level, tech companies have taken over Hollywood. Tech companies are dictating how we move forward in Hollywood. Whether you look at Airbnb or Uber or Spotify, what tech companies do best is get into an industry and turn all those workers into a gig economy to maximize profits.
But what the tech companies didn't expect when they came into Hollywood was that Hollywood is one of the last bastions of a union town. So, they have to deal with the Writer's Guild of America, the Screen Actor’s Guild of America, the Director's Guild of America, and that's why I think the studios lost the PR war.
AG: They've done an absolutely terrible job.
RA: It's unbelievable. As a writer on the picket line, when people honk, when they drive by, it's never the fricking expensive Teslas that honk and support. It's always like the MTA bus drivers, it's the electrical workers, it's the construction workers, it's the county utility workers, it's the union workers of Los Angeles who see us and go, “We support you” and hardly anyone else.
AG: I don't want to make a false comparison here, but are there lessons from this strike that might inform the immigration rights movement or vice versa?
RA: For me, it's not just about unionizing. It's about being able to control the narrative. That's why they were always going to lose. They're taking on writers. They were going to lose from the get-go, but that's what I feel other labor movements don't do as well. They're not always able take control of the narrative to share their story. That's why the only tool we have is social media.
AD: This makes me think about some of the immigration raids and anti-immigrant settings you describe in your book, growing up in San Clemente. Do you feel like anti-immigrant attitudes have gotten worse today?
RA: I do think it's gotten worse because of the scapegoating. Brexit happened because they scapegoated their immigrants, “Look, our social systems are falling apart because these immigrants are coming in.” They weren’t realizing how rampant capitalism is really extorting the middle class. When the middle class shrinks and they want to point a finger of somebody, it always seems to be immigrants. And the same thing happened to us with the last president with the whole “build the wall” mantra.
The beautiful thing about social media, and this is the only positive that I see, is that when I discovered I was undocumented, I was very afraid and I thought I was the only one in the world. And the only person on TV that I remember talking about immigration was this uber racist Lou Dobbs talking about the invasion of undocumented immigrants into our borders. But because of social media, I feel like this new generation of undocumented students, they began the “undocumented and unafraid” hashtag. I think that's beautiful. There's a sense of community, there's a sense of family, there's support. There’re beautiful things that have happened to provide support systems for undocumented students that didn't exist when I was coming up. But in the national narrative, it's gotten worse. Which is why I wanted to write the book. That's what I told my publisher. After this last president, I think we really needed to heal, and part of the healing process is us taking back our narratives. And that's kind of what I wanted to be a part of.
Propina
** We are excited to give away a signed copy of Rafael Agustin’s memoir, Illegally Yours, to one reader who likes or comments on this post. **
Even with the WGA strike over, the lessons in Rafael’s Mother Jones essay about the movement remains a timely read.
Next week, we conclude our conversation with Rafael where he shares his writing process and breaks our hearts in the process. Stay tuned!
Hi-thank you for picking up this topic and showcasing the narrative of artists!