Latino Representation in Hollywood Low: Study
A study shows that Hollywood has been a bit reticent about casting Hispanic and Latino actors in major films.
In 2013, in 100 movies only 4.9 percent Hispanic actors were cast. In 2008 the percentage was the same even though the population has increased since, said University of Southern California's Annenberg School in its research.
The study says Latinos are a marginalized group among American moviegoers. They represent 16 percent of the population and purchase a quarter of all movie tickets. "Sadly, I'm not surprised. This has been a constant for some time now," Brooklyn-bred actor Esai Morales told the Daily News.
"Part of the problem is conditioning. When you hear the names De Niro or Pacino, you automatically know it's an American movie. But the minute you have a Nunez or a Vasquez as the lead, people wonder if it's a foreign-language film with subtitles. That worries people," he said. "It's a mindset that's very accepted in Hollywood. It's about categories that are easily identified."
"With few exceptions," the report said, "Latino participation in mainstream English-language media is stunningly low. A review of the top movies and television programs reveals that there is a narrower range of stories and roles, and fewer Latino lead actors in the entertainment industry today than there were 70 years ago. Likewise, whereas the Latino population grew more than 43% from 2000 to 2010, the rate of media participation behind and in front of the camera, and across all genres and formats, stayed stagnant or grew only slightly, at times proportionally declining."
The representation of Hispanic women is also stereotyped.
"Hispanic women are always portrayed as hoochie mamas. They're stereo-typical prostitutes, drug addicts, cleaning ladies, maids, and I feel insulted most of the time." said Maria Espin, 38, a senior buyer for a clothing company.
The study conducted by Annenberg found that 74 percent of whites were cast in the top movies but 63 percent of the U.S, population is non Hispanic white. Around 14 percent of the characters were African American compared to 13 percent of America's African American population.
In 2013, many top grossing films with black directors had a predominant black cast like Lee Daniels' "The Butler," Steve McQueen's "12 Years a Slave," and Tyler Perry's "A Madea Christmas"
"The voices heralding that 2013 was a banner year for black characters in film must be thinking of a few salient examples," said Professor Stacy L. Smith, who authored the study. "In reality, we saw no meaningful difference in the representation of characters from underrepresented backgrounds across the six years we studied. " reports Variety.com.
The report from Columbia University, called "The Latino Media Gap: A Report on the State of Latinos in U.S. Media" was a collaboration of the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race's Media and Idea Lab at Columbia University, the Hispanic Foundation for the Arts, and the National Association of Latino Independent Producers.
