"I hate to go in with the mentality on the next film thinking, 'It's not going to be another "Quinceanera,"'" she says. "People wait their entire lives for a role like this, and I got it first with 'Quinceanera.' It's amazing."

In the film, written and directed by partners Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland, 14-year-old Magdalena (Rios) can't wait to dance with her boyfriend at her upcoming Quinceanera, a Latin girl's traditional 15th birthday/coming out celebration. When Magdalena mysteriously becomes pregnant while remaining a virgin, her teenage dreams are upended when she's kicked out of the house by her religious father Ernesto (Jesus Castanos Chima) who's a community leader in the Echo Park area of Los Angeles.

Showtimes Showcard In one scene, Ernesto angrily demands that Magdalena admit that she had sex, but she refuses. The filmmakers bowed to Rios' better judgment when it came to how a teenage girl would argue with her dad in that particular situation.

"Initially when the directors wrote it, it was like, a self-pitying type of thing, like 'Oh, poor me,' and I was crying and trying to tell my dad that I hadn't been with a boy," recalls Rios. "But when I read it, I wasn't feeling it. I was like, 'You know, if I was going to get into an argument with my dad, I'd be lashing out. If he didn't believe me, I know how mad I'd get.' So that was a really fun scene to shoot because I was able to give my input. I kind of wrote that part of the scene."

Although her family has been supportive of her acting endeavors, Rios sympathizes with Magdalena's feelings of betrayal, especially now that the actress is gaining recognition for starring in an award-winning film.

"Some of the people who got you started in the business or some of the people are supposed to be your closest friends all of a sudden are looking for a paycheck other than just, you know, be there and be a cheerleader and to be your biggest support system," says Rios with more than a hint of bitterness. "They're more in it for themselves or they're more in it for the money, the complete opposite reason I got into this business."

Abandoned by her immediate family, Magdalena sets up house with her great-great-uncle Tomas (Chalo Gonzalez) and cousin Carlos (Jesse Garcia), who's also been rejected by his own father for being gay. This impromptu family is put to the test when an unexpected source threatens their happy home.

The film's set took on a family atmosphere since the directors, Echo Park residents themselves, invited their local friends and their families to play supporting roles. One friend, Araceli Guzman-Rico, was a natural and became Magdalena's Aunt Maria, while Guzman-Rico's real-life niece became the film's Quinceanera consultant after celebrating her own 15th birthday before shooting began.

Even though Rios was 15 during the film's production, she never had her own Quinceanera because she was raised in the Jehovah's Witness religion, which doesn't approve of birthday or civil holiday celebrations. In fact, the actress received her first ever birthday cake when she turned 16 on the set of the film. Despite her upbringing, Rios wasn't completely unfamiliar with the film's themes.

"I grew up in a city very similar to Echo Park," she says. "I grew up in the city of El Monte which is out in the San Gabriel Valley. So [Echo Park] was kind of like a second home. Regardless of my religious background, I'm Mexican. I know about these traditions."

And like the Evangelical Magdalena, whose concerns run from the religious to hiring a Hummer limo for her big day, Rios is just a normal teenager who can't escape the influence of pop culture.

"I hate to say this, but oh my God, Paris Hilton's new song ['Stars Are Blind'], that's my guilty pleasure," she confesses. "I'm really into reggae and she has that reggae beat in it. And she has the money to pay those producers because I know that's not her voice. I've heard her sing Happy Birthday, and that's not even how she sounds."

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