Composition

America Ferrera’s talk “My identity is a superpower – not an obstacle” is mainly constructed as a series of flashbacks which introduce some challenging topics. The main topics of Ferrera’s talk are the difficulties which minorities encounter in places like the film industry, as well as the importance of having racial diversity in film.

In the introduction, Ferrera uses a flashback to describe herself as a child and to suggest her desire to become an actress: 

On the red tiles in my family’s den I would dance and sing to the made-for-TV movie Gypsy, starring Bette Midler. “I had a dream. A wonderful dream, papa.” I would sing it with the urgency and the burning desire of a nine-year-old who did, in fact, have a dream. My dream was to be an actress....