Joaquin Castro Writes Letter to Hollywood Calling for More Latino Representation in the Industry
Last week Joaquin Castro released an open letter directed toward Hollywood, urging entertainment moguls to expand on Latino representation in the industry and calling on movie-goers to include Latino films on their winter watch lists.
A member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Castro has long been a champion for efforts to increase diversity in U.S. media, and has used his voice and platform to shine light on the specific lack of representation among Latino charged narratives in U.S. entertainment industries. In 2020, he published an essay titled “Latinos Love Hollywood, but Hollywood Hates Latinos,” where he commented on the historic exclusion of Latin American people within the industry, despite Latinos accounting for over a quarter of box office ticket sales. Castro also recently (in August) nominated a list of 27 Latino-driven films to be added to the National Film Registry, including “Blood In Blood Out” and “Frida.” The National Film Registry is a collection of films selected for preservation based on their historical, cultural, and/or aesthetic contributions to the country, and, since its creation in 1988, only 24 of the 850 films in the registry are classified as Latino films. Less than three percent.
Castro’s letter to Hollywood comes in response to and directly references the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative Report, which outlines demographic representation in the most popular Hollywood films from 2007-2022.
Castro notes that, according to the USC report, in 2021 and 2022 there were only 10 major Hollywood films with Latino leads, out of the respective 109 and 118 leading roles listed for each year. While this does mark a marginal increase in representation over the past decade, Castro highlights the fact that the Latino inclusion in Hollywood still doesn’t translate to the level of impact that Latino Americans have on the social and cultural framework of our country. Latinos make up over 19 percent of the U.S., yet account for only about 5 percent of leading roles in Hollywood.
In his letter, though, Castro also seeks to emphasize the increased involvement that Latino actors and filmmakers had in the industry in 2023. He mentions the various Latin American stories that have dominated Hollywood box offices this year, citing films like “Spiderman: Across the Spider-Verse,” “Blue Beetle,” and “A Million Miles Away.”
Castro ends his letter with a hopeful nod to the future, compelling the bigwigs of the industry to consider greenlighting more Latino American centered films in 2024 and drawing attention to the necessity in carving more space for Latinos in Hollywood.
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