- For the IDW comics character, see Raya (comics).
| “ | All I've ever wanted is a chance. | „ |
| ~ Raya |
Carmen Alonso, most commonly known as Raya, is the newest member of The Holograms. She took over on drums after winning a drum duel in a talent search The Holograms organized when Shana temporarily left the band in order to pursue a career as a fashion designer.
She was voiced by Linda Dangcil.
Personality[]
Raya is a beautiful, modest and kindhearted young woman who projects a warm and friendly attitude toward others, although she can also be a bit shy and unassertive. Her insecurities make her project a naive personality, although she has also been shown to possess a volatile temper when provoked. When she found out Shana was returning to the band, thus making her own staying redundant, she was in a position to betray Jem by revealing her true identity. However, she remained loyal to her principles and kept the secret, allowing her to continue performing with the band.
History[]
Carmen is a young Latina woman whose parents emigrated to the United States from Mexico. Her family owns and works their own nursery of domestic and tropical plants. She has been playing drums since she was a child and is also very talented when playing other percussion type instruments. Her father, Miguel, constantly encourages her to overcome her insecurities and frequently gives her pep talks, as he's firmly convinced of her true potential. She also has three brothers: Aurelio, Enrique and Roberto.
When Shana left The Holograms after being offered a job as a fashion designer for actress Liz Stratton, the remaining band members held a nationwide talent search to find her replacement.[3] After auditioning many candidates, the competition eventually narrowed down to Raya and Craig Phillips, Stormer's brother. Unknown to the band, the day she came to audition, Raya accidentally saw Jem changing back into Jerrica, as well as Synergy speaking with them. Eric Raymond attempted to use both Craig and Raya to unveil Jem's real identity, but when Craig refused to cooperate, Eric turned his attention to Raya, to whom he offered promises of fame and fortune. Despite being tempted by Eric's overtures, Raya was unwilling to betray Jem's trust.
Things came ahead when Jetta had the idea to have the Alonso's nursery vandalized in order to force Raya to come to Eric for help. After the final part of the talent search was over, in which Craig and Raya competed against each other in a drum duel, the thugs Jetta hired went to destroy the nursery, causing massive damage to it and destroying nearly all the plants inside. Desperate to help her father, Raya returned to Eric and was about to tell him Jem's secret, when she noticed one of her father's orchids in Jetta's hair. Enraged, she physically assaulted Jetta and berated Eric and The Misfits for their cruelness, calling them "a pack of jackals". She then stormed out from Eric's office, declaring they would never learn Jem's secret from her. Unknown to Raya, Craig, who witnessed the whole incident, entered the office right afterward and forced Eric to pay restitution to Miguel for the damage the gang caused. The next day, after Raya was declared the winner of the talent search, she intervened to keep Jem from changing back into Jerrica in front of a room full of photographers, confessing that she had known the truth since the day she came to audition.
When Raya accompanied the group back to Starlight Mansion, they discovered from Anthony Julian that Shana had quit her job, unable to put up with Liz Stratton's egotistical behavior. As Shana was warmly welcomed back, a heartbroken Raya felt that there was no more place for her in the band, so she abandoned The Holograms and returned home.
Shortly afterward, Miguel told Raya that he had received enough money from an anonymous benefactor to repair all the damage the gang had caused. Realizing something was wrong, he asked her why she was not with the group; Raya then explained that Shana had returned to the band and that they didn't need her anymore. But at that moment Jem, Kimber, Aja and Shana paid her a surprise visit and they then settled that she would remain as the main drummer for the band while Shana would take on the bass guitar from then on.
Gallery[]
- Main article: Raya/Gallery
Trivia[]
- She is the only member of The Holograms who uses a nickname ("Raya"), the rest of the band members use their own names as stage names as well (Kimber, Shana, Aja, and technically even Jem).
- Her father, Miguel, almost always calls her "Raya" (much to her mother's disapproval), hinting on it being a pet nickname which he probably even came up with, and which she continued using as her stage name after becoming part of The Holograms.
- She is the only member of The Holograms who comes from a traditional family and whose parents are still alive.
- She is the only member of The Holograms who wasn't a foster child before joining the band.
- She is the only member of The Holograms that never grow up with the group in any way.
- She is of Latin American origin and her family originally came from Mexico.
- While in the animated series, Raya has three brothers, there is no mention or sighting of birth sisters in the show like the Jem Bible originally mentions.
- While Raya has blue eyes, the rest of her family has brown eyes.
- In some episodes, presumably due to being animated by a different team, Raya appears with fair skin, brown eyes, and her facial features are much different (almost Caucasian) to her regular ones.[4]
- Raya is a bit insecure.
- While Raya accidentally discovered Jem's secret identity, she wasn't aware of Synergy's existence at the time.
- She is the only member without a love interest. She does form some sort of fling with The Holograms' tour guide Luis Geraldo in the episode Aztec Enchantment, but it wasn't explored past the episode.
- Raya is a skilled archer.[5]
- She usually wears the original outfit she first appeared in, compared to the others who were shown in many different outfits.
- Toy company Hasbro was unhappy about the way the Raya doll's face turned out, so very few dolls of her were produced.
- Raya is the only member of The Holograms who doesn't appear or is even referenced in some way in the 2015 live-action movie.
References[]
- ↑ JemCon 2020 - Special Guest Panel: Christy Marx at Jem Con's official YouTube channel.
- ↑ Temporarily and only in the episode The Day the Music Died.
- ↑ The Talent Search (Part 1)
- ↑ Known episodes with this different type of animation are The Presidential Dilemma, The Middle of Nowhere, Journey to Shangri-La and Video Wars.
- ↑ Renaissance Woman