AN L.A. NATIVE COMES INTO HIS POWERS

He's not an actual sun god, but 'Kiss of the Spider Woman's' Tonatiuh is making his name a household one

- BY CARLOS AGUILAR

A MID BRIGHTLY colored stands selling spices, candies and imitation Labubus in all shades, the mono-monikered actor Tonatiuh sips on a hibiscus agua fresca at El Mercadito in Boyle Heights.

The indoor market has been a staple of Latino life and commerce since it opened in the late 1960s. Not far from here, his aunt still runs the business that she and Tonatiuh's mother, an immigrant from the Mexican state of Guanajuato, opened decades ago. "My mom cut hair for a long time, so I grew up in a beauty salon," he says, casually dressed in a light blue button-up shirt. "That's why I talk so much." The school Tonatiuh attended as a kid, Our Lady of Lourdes, is also in the vicinity, as is the place where he learned to ride a bicycle, Hollenbeck Park. To say that the streets of Boyle Heights, where he was born, nurtured his worldview would be an understatement.

"These last few months have been really difficult," Tonatiuh tells me, referencing the recent ICE raids that have ravaged the fabric of the city. He calls them vicious: a "PR cycle against people with dignity, taxpaying individuals who are feeding their families and running businesses, quite literally living the American dream, as cliché as that may sound."

Even as his own dreams are beginning to materialize, Tonatiuh, 30, remains tethered to these places and people. His career is about to launch into Hollywood's firmament with a dual role in director Bill Condon's screen adaptation of the stage musical version of "Kiss of the Spider Woman" (in theaters Oct. 10). The rising Mexican American actor shares dramatic space with superstars Jennifer Lopez and Diego Luna.

Reviews out of the Sundance Film Festival, where the movie debuted in January, praised Tonatiuh's performance as a breakthrough. His electrifying turn is equal parts heart-wrenching, deliciously irreverent and technically impressive.