Harbor Town Deep, Union Strong

All summer long, Random Lengths has been reporting on labor actions, from the Writers Guild of America, or WGA, and the Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, or SAG AFTRA, in Hollywood; to hospitality workers with UNITE HERE Local 11 at the San Pedro DoubleTree Hotel, near the Cabrillo Way Marina. During that coverage, we learned of Sara Portillo, a card-carrying SAG actor from San Pedro who has been on the picket line with fellow actors and creatives.   

Portillo joined the SAG picket line with her own picket signs, ones she credits the artist, Ismael Pedrosa, for designing for her. One sign features Angel’s Gate Lighthouse with a SAG-AFTRA symbol and the words, “Artist Town, Union Built, Port of Los Angeles, #Power2Performers.” 

The other picket sign is the traditional Rosie the Riveter but with an anchor tattooed on her forearm. 

“I told him ‘I’m probably the only San Pedro girl that’s going out to this picket line as an actor and not as a longshoreman.’ I told him, ‘I need something to reflect my strength and where I come from and to show that we’re here and we’re here to support [SAG-AFTRA] and hopefully we can spotlight our issues [at the port],” she said.

She said the Rosie the Riveter poster reminded her of all the strong women from which she came. She specifically noted that most of the women from her mother and grandmother’s generation in her family worked at the canneries. 

“Everybody has that story: That behind every great man, there’s a stronger woman,” Portillo said. 

So she asked Pedrosa to incorporate an anchor on Rosie the Riveter’s forearm to represent that extra strength.

“We’re here and I can’t not be that girl,” Portillo said. “They [the studio heads and bosses in general] don’t get it. These are first-generation Latinos out there that I respect. Some of them are not actors. Some of them are actors from other countries. I’m a proud Mexican American. I’m a proud Filipino-American, but I am an American first. So the timing of it is divine.”

Origin Story
Despite her family’s long-standing connections to the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, or ILWU, and the Inland Boatmen’s Union, Portillo hasn’t been in this fight long. Her journey began two and a half years ago when she and her husband started divorce proceedings and for the first time in nearly three decades, she had to decide which direction her life should take.

Portillo explained that her path in the entertainment industry was an unconventional one — a path that did not include working as an extra or star in multiple films.  

She was featured in the 2006 film, The Virgin of Juarez, with Esai Morales and Minnie Driver. 

Portillo said she owes her union membership to Mary Vernau at Betty Mae Casting. 

For decades, her company had an industry reputation for discovering new talent. Portillo said Betty Mae Casting is now spearheading the castings for many of the HBO shows and many of the Hulu shows. 

“She’s a gigantic casting agent. She discovered me when I was 22 years old. And because of her, I was Taft Hartley-ed into the union,” Portillo said. 

“Taft Hartley-ed into the Union” is a reference to whenever a signatory producer hires a performer that is not a member of SAG-AFTRA, they must report such hiring to the union in writing within 15 days from the performer’s initial work date (25 days on an overnight location) and include the reason for hire along with the performer’s headshot and resume.

During that time she taught acting classes in San Pedro. Her family operated a few businesses in town including a cafe called As Time Goes By next to the Warner Grand and managed to incorporate the arts.

Portillo recalled conducting script readings with her students at the cafe with 1940s-era radio props. There are news accounts of them reading a script for It’s A Wonderful Life in preparation for the production of the holiday classic.

The Society to Preserve and Encourage Radio Drama of Writing recognized their work and a professor from Marymount College learned of their work and invited them to the school to perform. From there, they became a traveling performance for a while. 

“I’ve always kept active but this means a lot to me,” Portillo said. “This is really where I got to start practicing on my own, [learning] how to direct and how to produce on a small scale.” 

By the time she was going through divorce proceedings, the dreams she had of being in the arts and the entertainment industry were just memories.

“I chose a different path,” Portillo said. “I chose to be a mother and a wife … and proudly.”

Portillo explained that at the time of the divorce, she was at a very low place in her life and questioned everything.

“My daughters were looking at me and I told them, “I’m going to show you what a leader does when they’re kicked down.” So she joined SAG-AFTRA, changed her last name to her maiden name, Portillo, and walked into a strike a year later. 

“Within the first three months of my filing, my mom said, ‘No, no, no, you’re going to school right now,’ because I had always wanted to but I didn’t finish. So I’ve done all this.”

A year and a half after filing for divorce, Portillo went back to school and achieved a bachelor’s in business management and paralegal studies focusing on entertainment law and contract law. 

Then she booked a small HBO gig as well as her first national commercial, the Pepsi x Bad Bunny x Apple Music, which was posted to YouTube two months ago.​

“I heard there were over three to four thousand other Latinas in my age group who auditioned,” Portillo said. “This was my first one out the door and I got it. So when that happened I realized I haven’t had to work very hard for this, other than have a very complicated life and marriage. 

“I have not had to put in my dues the way other actors have. I come from a privileged background that I know was handed to me,” Portillo continued. “Therefore, I’m not going to take it lightly. I’m also not going to be a hypocrite and expect the benefits of the union if I’m not taking my ass out there and fighting for what’s right,” she said. 

She said she had to remember she’s the daughter of a third generation Chicano military man; the youngest sister of two union brothers, one a tugboat captain in Hawaii with the Inland Boatman’s Union, and the other a longshoreman. She’s also the great-granddaughter of a longshoreman — she’s a sixth-generation San Pedro girl. 

At 44 years of age, Portillo felt she had much to prove both personally and professionally.

“There’s so much competition. I am not a native Spanish speaker,” she said. “I’m a San Pedro girl. We are a breed of our own. We have our own lingo, our own clothing, our own art. We have a lot of ego here and a lot of pride. but one thing I know about this city is we make stars and legends [here].” 

“And so I feel that with my name changed to Portillo, which literally means ‘little ports’ in Spanish and taking back what’s mine, my identity and looking at my daughters and looking at my family lineage, I’m like, I need to go speak up. I need to represent this town myself, my children, and my father,” she explained. 

Portillo began this process by reintroducing herself to her peers in the entertainment industry. She noted that 20 years ago when she first started, there wasn’t enough Latino representation.

“There still isn’t enough representation of Latinos. That’s for sure, definitely not Chicanos. Especially not third-generation, non-native Spanish-speaking people, I mean, we are a minority of all minorities and there is a lot of conflict.” Portillo said.

“So it’s more than just joining the movement and joining the fight for the greater good. I am going to represent and I don’t have to pretend to be anything. I’m just going to be unapologetically myself because before I was too old. I was too big. I was typecast with anybody who was of color, anybody that wasn’t super thin.” 

Portillo recalled doing one commercial in the early 2000s in which she was a character in a party scene. 

“I was put in a corner with an African-American girl who was about 400 pounds, a beautiful woman, and I heard the director say, ‘Put them in the corner.’ It was so discouraging that I think I turned my back on the business back then and focused on family life here.”

She said she avoided the business of acting all of this time. At the time, local community theater was enough for her.

Little Port Productions
“When my life changed and I was no longer a wife, a big part of my identity was lost and I had to really, really dig deep and ask, ‘God, what do you want me to do?’ Instantly, I heard my name, Portillo. My dad reminded me what it meant and I said, ‘this is my town.’” 

This was how Little Port Productions was born. 

“This is my city. Nobody can take this from me. My lineage is here and I’m going to go make a name for myself.” 

Her dad is Carlos Portillo. He is the quartermaster for Veterans of Foreign Wars Post #2967. He has been featured in the pages of Random Lengths for his work in curating the Banning Museum exhibit of Latinos in the U.S. Civil War and his work with veterans.

Her ultimate goal is to pull back the curtain more on San Pedro because of the bounty of talent in this harbor town. 

“This town is full of artists. But more importantly, it’s full of union members with a lot of grit and a lot of strength,” Portillo said. “We are our own breed. So that’s where I’m at right now.” 

She is planning on starting with family stories, particularly veterans’ stories and the Maui fires. Her sea captain brother, Carlos Portillo III, was in Hawaii at the time and saw firsthand the devastation. 

Portillo still recalls making scary videos during her childhood with her cousin Aaron, and her brothers Dominic and Carlos, using a VHS camera recorder. Today they are all union members. But that isn’t all.

“Starting there and then hopefully just promoting as many people from here as possible because, at this age, it’s not about greed. It’s not about selfishness. It’s not about fame. It’s not about money. I don’t need any of that. It’s about the greater good,” Portillo said. 

“Greed and selfishness and evil start at this level because the only thing that separates us from them is money and power. ‘This level,’ meaning us, the working class, the human beings that aren’t delusional about the way the world works. The ones that are not making billions of dollars from streaming and replacing humans with AI and [machines], and automation,” she explained.

“My entire family is filled with dancers, singers, [visual] artists, painters, musicians, actors. you name it, we did it. It’s already embedded in me. But it really kicked in when I started to audition and I saw the material being written and I couldn’t identify with a lot of It, I am not the East LA, Chicana girl, I am not the lowrider girl and that’s okay. I am different. We are different. Here, I need to tell my own stories. I need to make my own,” she said.

“I got my SAG card … I got my degree. I’m starting this production company … I got a Bad Bunny commercial and I’m happier than I’ve ever been. I make no excuses for who I am anymore. I’m going into that industry, exactly as is when they asked me, ‘Are you filming in Spanish?’ No, I’m not, but get to know me and I promise, you’ll write something for me. Because I am who I say I am and that feels great.”