Getting to know Los Angeles Tongva Actress — Tonantzin Carmelo
After landing the lead Thunder Heart Woman role in Steven Spielberg’s TNT’s Emmy and Golden Globes-winning epic miniseries Into the West, Tonantzin’s career as an actress emerged. Today she has starred in more than 28 films (IMDB source) and serves as a mentor for the Los Angeles-based theater group Native Voices at The Autry, where she has acted in numerous plays. Tonantzin started her career as a traditional dancer/singer and now is a sought-after actress.
Tonantzin is a descendant of the Tongva and Kumeyaay tribes of Southern California. She grew up in a North Orange County neighborhood within a diverse community, where she describes having Samoan, Vietnamese, Korean, Mexican and Middle Eastern neighbors. North Orange County is much more diverse than what we see in television reality programs. Her step-father, a well-known Aztec dancer, taught her to dance when she was a young child. Her family traveled throughout Indian county as Aztec dancers, performing during the annual Navajo Nation and Apache Tribal Fairs and the near eight-decade-long annual Standing Rock Indian Ceremonial at Wisconsin Dells. Tonantzin loves dancing and has transitioned into choreography, serving as director of cultural dance performances in Southern California. She studied ballet and modern dance while attending UC Irvine. Although her major was in…