Trivia

Preschool teacher turned Oscar-nominated actress.

She is from a rural area, in Tlaxiaco, Oaxaca, Mexico, much like her character in Roma.

Yalitza had been studying to be a teacher and had just graduated when the acting opportunity arose related to Roma (2018). As she had 6-8 months to wait for her test results, she opted to blindly accept the role of Cleo at the suggestion of her very pregnant sister who had to bow out. She knew nothing about the film industry stature of fellow Mexican Alfonso Cuarón at the time. Without any acting experience whatsoever, Yalitza landed the part of Cleo over 110 other prospective actresses who'd been auditioning over a one-year casting period for director Cuarón.

Speaks so little English that when she appeared as a guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live! (2003), Jimmy's sidekick Guillermo Rodriguez had to act as her interpreter during the entire interview (Dec. 19, 2018).

Yalitza, in 2018, Catalina Sandino Moreno (for Maria Full of Grace (2004)), and Ariana DeBose (for West Side Story (2021)), are thus far the only actors of Latin American descent born after 1980 to have been nominated for an acting Oscar; Ariana won.

Is one of 20 actresses to have received a Best Actress Oscar nomination for a performance where they acted out a labor and/or birth; hers being for Roma (2018).The others in chronological order are Luise Rainer for The Good Earth (1937), Jane Wyman for Johnny Belinda (1948), Eleanor Parker for Caged (1950), Elizabeth Taylor for Raintree County (1957), Leslie Caron for The L-Shaped Room (1962), Shirley MacLaine for Irma la Douce (1963), Vanessa Redgrave for Isadora (1968), Geneviève Bujold for [link=tt0064030, Marsha Mason for Cinderella Liberty (1973), Ann-Margret for Tommy (1975), Ellen Burstyn for Same Time, Next Year (1978), Jessica Lange for Sweet Dreams (1985), Meryl Streep for A Cry in the Dark (1988), Samantha Morton for In America (2002), Elliot Page for Juno (2007), Ruth Negga for Loving (2016), Yalitza Aparicio for Roma (2018), Vanessa Kirby for Pieces of a Woman (2020) and Penélope Cruz for Parallel Mothers (2021).