The ravishingly beautiful, raven-haired actress Maya Zapata made a series of quick and seemingly effortless back-and-forth transitions between roles in her native Mexico and mainstream Hollywood parts. Though she began with youth roles -- as in the ill-fated 1989 adventure saga [[Feature~V36131~The Old Gringo~theoldgringo]] -- in time producers began casting her as sensual, impassioned Hispanic girlfriends or lovers, as in the 2004 drama [[Feature~V324912~Caribe~caribe]]. She also accepted bit parts that called for an ethnic typecast, as in [[Performer~P36238~Tommy Lee Jones~tommyleejones]]' acclaimed [[Feature~V327357~Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada~thethreeburialsofmelquiadesestrada]](2005). Zapata landed her first lead opposite [[Performer~P144649~Jennifer Lopez~jenniferlopez]] in [[Performer~P104121~Gregory Nava~gregorynava]]'s harrowing, shocking social-conscience thriller [[Feature~V326119~Bordertown~bordertown]] (2007) -- as a young factory worker who barely escapes from a rape and strangling and then joins forces with reporter [[Performer~P144649~Lopez~jenniferlopez]] to bring her aggressors to justice. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi