There are people in this world, including some in the Rio Grande Valley, who are afraid to step out of the box. Yet, Sandra Avila, an Edinburg native, had no such problem doing that.
Avila is an accomplished TV and film producer and president and CEO of Avila Entertainment, which is based in Los Angeles, where she now resides.
Avila Entertainment, her startup production company, was in charge of “Endgame,” a movie based on true events and most of which was filmed in Brownsville.
“Endgame” is an inspiring film on centered deprived public school students from Brownsville who go on to become chess champions. The story tackles deportation, broken family bonds, as well as teenage death.
Rico Rodriguez, a cast member of ABC’s “Modern Family,” and Efren Ramirez, better known for his role as Pedro in “Napoleon Dynamite,” star in the film, as well as chess students from the Brownsville area.
“[The children] seemed to really love it,” Avila said. “We paid them, so they got to make their own money. We bought them little iPads and they had a great relationship with Efren and Rico.”
Although Avila’s journey to success seems far from reach, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Many people can relate to her story.
She grew up in Edinburg and graduated from Edinburg High School. Avila helped her grandmother, Jovita Garza, in her family’s bakery, Magnolia Bakery.
“That was my first job,” she said.
After graduating from Edinburg High School, she attended St. Mary’s University and received her bachelor’s degree in public justice pre-law and psychology.
Yet, after receiving her law degree from Loyola University College of Law in New Orleans, Avila said she wanted to figure out what she wanted to do with her life. So, she moved back to Texas and took five years to decide just that.
“I loved television,” she said. “I loved media [and] film. I just didn’t know how people worked in that business.”
Her concern was that she didn’t know anyone who worked in the business. Yet, her mind was set on following her passion.
While working in Dallas, she decided to move to L.A., but needed to get a second job. She waited tables to save money and rented a room from a lady in Burbank, Calif.
“Around the year 2000,” she said with a laugh while grasping the fact that it has already been 16 years since she made the bold move.
Avila said that explaining the move to her parents was the hard part.
“My parents were concerned, but I told them, ‘You know, I have a law degree. I’m 30. Like, I’ll figure it out,’” she said. “If it doesn’t work out, I’ll just come back.”
Avila’s father agreed and both made the drive. He helped her get set up and soon after, she signed with a temp agency.
She admitted to the agency that she really wanted to work with an entertainment company because she wanted to learn about the business and learn about the different jobs there are within the industry.
Two months later, she landed the job that would change her life.
“I land a job assisting a senior vice president of development in TV at Showtime Network,” she said. “And that’s how everything kind of got started.”
In her seven years there, Avila learned a lot while assisting the vice president of development. She assisted in the production of various shows, such as “Dexter” and “Resurrection Blvd.”
She then was promoted to coordinator. In that position, she oversaw the story department, which managed the scripts for all shows. She also ran the Latino Filmmakers Showcase for the network, which highlighted Latino filmmakers and would premier Hispanic Heritage Month on Showtime.
“I loved the culture there,” she said. “I loved the development and learned what that was. [It was] cultivating and creating shows.”
She said the network was so small, “it reminded me of school. It was like a family.”
Avila admits, though, that she should have left the network a long time ago.
“After you don’t see yourself moving, you should leave, but I was cultivating my skill sets with other contacts in different networks and studios, so you can kind of get to your next job,” she said.
Because of this, Avila was approached by Maya Entertainment, a feature film and TV distribution company that focuses on creating and acquiring content for the Latino/U.S. market.
“I got to practically meet many, [if not] all, Latino actors, writers, directors, [and] producers in Hollywood,” she said.
With Maya, Avila was able to do a film, “One Hot Summer,” for the Lifetime Network and an independent comedy, “Taco Shop,” with Tyler Posey from MTV’s “Teen Wolf” that will premiere next year.
The company, however, folded and Avila was at a crossroads. In 2012, Avila gave birth to her production company, Avila Entertainment.
Quickly after, while at a Best Buy in the Valley, she ran into the brother of a friend from high school. It turned out that her friend, Hector Salinas, was working on a script based on a true-life story of kids from a Brownsville school.
“Endgame” would become Avila’s first major production and the film premiered at Edinburg’s Carmike Theatre on Oct. 9, 2015.
Today, Avila is a board member of Edinburg’s South Texas Independent Film Festival (STIFF), pitches ideas to all the major networks and will work on a couple of films, including “Canaima,” an action adventure that is set to start production in Puerto Rico in April.
