Gina Rodriguez's 'Movement Mondays' Higlights 'Divergent' Actress Rosa Salazar
For her second "Movement Mondays" post on social media, Gina Rodriguez chose to feature actress Rosa Salazar.
On Feb. 1, the "Jane the Virgin" star posted a photo of Salazar on her Instagram account. Rodriguez cited the actress as an example of a Latino star making strides in big budget films.
A photo posted by Gina Rodriguez (@hereisgina) on Feb 1, 2016 at 8:32am PST
After introducing her followers to Salazar, who starred in both "The Maze Runner" and "Divergent" franchises in 2015, Rodriguez added a few statistics about Latinos in media from a study conducted by the Columbia University Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race.
The 31-year-old explained that Latinos make up only 4 percent of speaking roles in movies, yet Latinos are the biggest group of movie watchers in the United States.
"We watch the most movies than any other ethnic group, can you even fathom the power we have?!?! It's amazing!!" she said. "Yet, independent films led by Latinos haven't had the best luck Cesar Chavez (with Latino Lead Michael Pena) grossed 5.6 million. Yet, Latinos make up 25% of the box office! We could get that number up!"
Not only did Rodriguez urge fans to go watch movies with Latino actors in them to help make those films successful, but she also questioned why Latinos aren't cast as heroes in Marvel films and suggested doing something about it.
"My question of the week: what if we didn't watch these big marvel movies until they put us in them? What if we used our power to withhold until we are the leads in them?" she wrote.
Rodriguez's effort to spread the word about Latino actors began on Jan. 25, when she announced her social media initiative and highlighted "Star Wars" star Oscar Isaac. The actress revealed in her latest post that she will not only be highlighting actors in her Monday series, but writers, directors and studio heads as well.
The Puerto Rican-American actress has contributed to adding diversity on television with her role as Jane Villanueva on "Jane the Virgin" and will be starring in two films this year.
Subscribe to Latin Post!
Sign up for our free newsletter for the Latest coverage!
* This is a contributed article and this content does not necessarily represent the views of latinpost.com