Ariana DeBose

During her acceptance speech, the actress thanked the film's director Steven Spielberg and Rita Moreno, who originated the role in the 1961 movies, saying they ...

“After West Side Story “I couldn’t get a job except in gang movies, lesser ones.” Moreno made history 60 years ago when she became the first Latina to win an Oscar, which she won for the same role of Anita. But Moreno told “60 Minutes” last year that it wasn’t the starting off point for her career as she hoped. Actress Ariana DeBose made history Sunday as the first Afro Latina and openly queer actor of color to take home an Oscar with her win for Best Actress in a Supporting Role in “West Side Story.” In her acceptance speech, DeBose said “dreams do come true.”

DeBose is also only the second Latina woman to win an acting Oscar... after Rita Moreno, for West Side Story.

Rita Moreno for West Side Story. (She’s also only the second actor born in the 1990s to win, after Jennifer Lawrence, but that’s more just weird, and not “deeply infuriating.”) Tonight’s ceremony is actually only the first time in 20 years that an openly queer performer has even been nominated for an acting award (Kristen Stewart, who’s up for Best Actress for Spencer, is in a similar boat to DeBose). The most “recent” was Ian McKellan’s nomination for his performance in The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King. And while we’re cataloguing baffling information, let’s also consider that DeBose is now only the second Latina to have won an acting Oscar, after... DeBose won, of course, for her performance in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story, where she took on the role of Anita. (DeBose was quick to namecheck both fellow Anita Rita Moreno in her acceptance speech, as well as Spielberg, who she reminded was now “stuck with her.)

Ariana DeBose lived up to Oscar predictions and followed the path of her “West Side Story” predecessor Rita Moreno.

DeBose is a groundbreaker in her own right, the first Afro-Latina and openly LGBTQ actor to win in the category. Largely unknown in film circles before landing the coveted role, the 31-year-old North Carolina native became the clear Oscar favorite after an awards season full of victories. She’s not alone anymore.” “I am so grateful your Anita paved the way for tons of Anitas like me,” she said. “Now you see why Anita says, ‘I want to be in America.’ Because even in this weary world that we live in, dreams do come true. And that’s really a heartening thing right now.”