When 25-year-old "Roma" star Yalitza Aparicio walks the red carpet before the Academy Awards on Sunday, she will already have made history.

She's the second Mexican actress and the first indigenous actress nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. In December, she became the first woman of indigenous descent to appear on the cover of Vogue Mexico in the magazine's 20-year history. Should she win the Oscar on Sunday, she'll make history again.

But when Aparicio auditioned for the film in 2016, her professional goals were different.

Aparicio earned her teaching degree from teachers' college Escuela Normal Experimental Presidente Lázaro Cárdenas in 2016. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, she explained why her decision to become a preschool teacher was so significant, saying she dreamed of helping a child, "really love what they do, and then when I meet him again, he says, 'Hello, Teacher, I'm a doctor,' or 'I'm an engineer. It would bring tears to my eyes to know that I was part of that process."

She says her identity as in indigenous woman also drove her decision to pursue teaching.

"People would tell me, 'Why do you study? One, you are a woman. Two, you don't have the right color. Three, your economic station doesn't help. You'll end up getting married and becoming a servant," Aparicio tells the Times. "I could stay in this jar where they say I belong, where they tell me, 'You can only be a servant,' that you can't aspire to more."