Latino Protestors Fight Back Against Exclusion in Hollywood During Oscar Luncheon

Academy Award nominees attended the annual Oscar luncheon on Monday and were greeted with Latino protestors who demand representation in Hollywood.

The Oscar luncheon, which takes places before the Academy Awards in order to recognize all the nominees, took place at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles. But the real show was outside where protestors held signs and spoke about the lack of Latinos in the arts.

@NHMC BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE. #HireUSLatinos#HireBrownTinseltown #actorslife #Latinosplayinglatino pic.twitter.com/NFSGBOQj54

— Patricia Rae (@thePatriciaRae) February 5, 2018

“Unless something changes very fast, we are going to start boycotting individual studios this year and calling executives out by name,” Alex Nogales, president of the National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC) said according to The New York Times. The NHMC watchdog organization organized the protest held on Monday.

Deadline reports that more than 50 people attended the demonstration, which also included an online protest campaign on Twitter with hashtags #OscarsSoWhite #LatinosLeftOut #HireUSLatinos #HireBrownTinseltown #actorslife #Latinosplayinglatino.

“Latinos, although we have been the largest minority group in the country…for over a decade, we have the lowest representation of any major racial/ethnic group in front of the camera in movies,” Thomas A. Saenz, president and general counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, said according to Southern California radio station 89.3 KPCC. “And that can no longer be tolerated.”

We're calling out @TheAcademy! Hollywood is STILL so white. #Latinos, #Hispanics, #Latinx are still grossly underrepresented in front of and behind the camera. Real change needs to occur. We're protesting on: February 5th and March 3rd. #OscarsSoWhite #LatinosLeftOut pic.twitter.com/ZiFC8yEQFB

— NHMC (@NHMC) January 24, 2018

The USC Annenberg School released a report last year titled “Inequality in 900 Popular Films” which showed that out of the 100 top-grossing films of 2016, 54 films showed Latino characters. It goes even further by stating out of those films, the characters that could be determine as Latino was only 3.1%.

“The reason we’re here is because the heads of all the studios are inside, and they’re not utilizing Latino talent, neither in front of nor behind the cameras,” Nogales told Deadline. “Enough is enough. Only 3.1% of the speaking roles in Hollywood movies go to Latinos, and we make up 18% of the population.”

What do you think about Latino representation in Hollywood? Let us know in the comments below.