Orange Is The New Black actress breaks down recounting her parents' deportation

Orange Is The New Black actress breaks down recounting her parents' deportation
(Image credit: (CNN/Screenshot))

Diane Guerrero is best known for playing Maritza, a "tough Latina from the 'hood" on Netflix's Orange Is The New Black. But her real-life story is perhaps just as heartbreaking.

Guerrero, the daughter of Colombian immigrants, was just 14 when she arrived home from school one day to discover her parents and older brother had been deported. "I got home, and their cars were there and dinner was started and the lights were on, but I couldn't find them," Guerrero told CNN host Michaela Pereira. She grew up essentially alone, relying on the kindness of neighbors and friends.

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"It's tough, it's like we've been separated for so long, I feel like sometimes we don't know each other," she said. "It's difficult because I've grown up without them, and there's things about them that are new that I don't recognize, and it just — it hurts." Watch the segment below. --Samantha Rollins

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Samantha Rollins is TheWeek.com's news editor. She has previously worked for The New York Times and TIME and is a graduate of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.