She is best known for her roles in Stand and Deliver, for which she won an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female,[3][4] and in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country as Azetbur, the daughter of Klingon Chancellor Gorkon.
[5][6] DeSoto's other film roles include La Bamba (1987) as Ritchie Valens' mother Connie Valenzuela;[7] and Family Business (1989) as the wife of Vito McMullen (Dustin Hoffman).
[10] She has made guest appearances on many television series, including Cannon, Kung Fu, Barnaby Jones, Barney Miller, Melrose Place, Murder, She Wrote, The Bold and the Beautiful and Law & Order.
[4] DeSoto graduated from San Jose State University, double majoring in Spanish literature and drama.
[4] DeSoto won the Golden Eagle Award for Best Actress for her performance in The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez (1982).
[1][4] That same year, she portrayed waitress Diana Olmos in the short-lived sitcom The Redd Foxx Show.
In that film, she portrayed Connie Valenzuela, the mother of Ritchie Valens, played by Lou Diamond Phillips.