Eva Longoria and Friends Launch Initiative to Double Latino Representation in Hollywood

It is undeniable that Latinos are growing in terms of numbers in different fields. Their contribution to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics have been recognized by thousands of college students during the Hispanic Heritage Month. Not only that, Latinos are also becoming significant in other fields like entertainment, where some of the Latino actors, actresses, and performers receive different awards from different award-winning bodies, just not the Oscars.

Meanwhile, Latinos in Hollywood are becoming rare as reported last year. The roles of Latinos are also stereotyped as a villain, a housemaid, a drug cartel member, or other minor roles. And only one Latina director was included in the national registry of films. This is something that needs to be changed.

Now Mayor Eric Garcetti, Eva Longoria, and other Hollywood stars launched an initiative to empower the next generation of Latino leaders and hope to double Latino representation in Hollywood by 2030. Garcetti released a statement in the LA Collab on Monday, "The Latino community is a growing force across L.A.'s economy, and our trademark industry should tap into that diverse pool of talent in our own backyard."

Moreover, Mayor Eric Garcetti's influence is also remarkable. He co-founded LA Collab with Beatriz Acevedo who is also the founder of Latino digital company Mitu and Acevedo Foundation. Meanwhile, Ivette Rodriguez who is the founder of the marketing and communications firm AEM also joined the group. The group said that their main concern is to boost the presence of Latinos in Hollywood due to the recent study released by the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative at the University of California. The study revealed that only less than 5 percent of the nearly 50,000 named or speaking characters in the film industry were Latinos.

The LA Collab founder said that this is very troubling because Latinos are only comprised of a quarter of movie theater audiences despite their growing population. Acevedo said: "The radical decline of Latinos in Hollywood was the catalyst to rally Hollywood behind this crisis to create change together and by facilitating unprecedented collaborations between the creative community ... and other influential allies, LA Collab will ultimately drive exponential growth for the industry and our community."

The group has laid out already its plans for Latinos in the entertainment industry. They made deals with several media companies such as Endeavor Content, WarnerMedia's 150, Shine Global, and Southern California Public Radio's LAist Studios. They also found supports from different personalities and got initial funding through Annenberg Foundation and Warner Media.

Longoria told the NBC News, "As a Latina, I want to see more actors who look like me on screen and behind the camera and I started my own production company to create content from our community, and I became a director and producer to be in a position to hire people who look like me," Longoria added that she hopes that through the LA Collab it will open doors to young Latinos and help create a more diverse culture in the entertainment industry.

The LA Collab works with a national organization that helps reshape the perception of Latinos in advertising and media, the Latino Donor Collaborative (LDC).