ABC's 'Cristela' captures comic quest for American dream

It's hard to resist a force of nature.

ABC executives found that upon meeting Cristela Alonzo, a stand-up comic whose buoyant personality put her on the fast track to becoming a series star.

The result is the semiautobiographical "Cristela," premiering Friday, Oct. 10 ... and casting her as a law-school student who works several jobs to pay her tuition while sharing too-crowded quarters with several relatives. The brightest spot in her life is the unpaid internship that a lawyer (Sam McMurray) gives her at his firm.

"Everything that happens, I always believe it happens for a reason," Alonzo says of landing her own sitcom, "so for me, I expected that whatever the outcome was, that was the outcome it was supposed to be. I don't try to put any expectation on this show except (that) I want the show to portray me as me.

"The name of the show is 'Cristela.' The character in the show is very much who I am in person, and I just want to show people the real me because when you try to pretend that you're someone else, people can tell."

The San Juan, Texas-raised Alonzo appeared on such programs as NBC's "Last Comic Standing" and TBS' "Conan" while making her name on the comedy-club and college circuits.

"My mom raised us," she notes. "She was a single mom, and actually for the first eight years of my life, my family, we were squatters in an abandoned diner. Watching TV was my escape from having that childhood."

In a very real sense, it also inspired Alonzo in her own life and with her new character. The fictional Cristela's mother (played by Terri Hoyos), sister (Maria Canals-Barrera) and brother-in-law (Carlos Ponce) are skeptical about her achieving her personal and professional dreams.

"I always knew I had to go out and do it," Alonzo reflects of becoming a comedian, "because I loved it so much that it would bother me if I didn't try and live with the regret of not trying my entire life. And that's why I'm here right now.

"My mom and I didn't speak for a long while when I left home to pursue this," adds Alonzo, "because she couldn't understand it. Unfortunately, she passed away before she ever saw any of this ... but even now, I feel like she's helped me get to this point. And I would like to think she's very proud of what I've accomplished."