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Latinos in Hollywood’s top-grossing films continue to face an “epidemic of invisibility,” underrepresentation compared to their share of the population, and portrayals often steeped in stereotypes, a new report says.
Hispanic/Latino actors made up just 5% of speaking or named characters in 1,300 popular movies released between 2007 and 2019, according to the report by the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative published Wednesday. In 2019, Hispanic/Latino actors were just 5.9% of all speaking or named characters.
Over the 13-year period, 3.5% of films starred Hispanic/Latino actors as leads or co-leads, and 2.2% of lead and co-lead roles went to Latinx actors (defined as U.S.-born Latinos not of Spanish descent). And 567 out of the 1,300 films were missing Hispanic/Latino characters altogether, with women, LGBTQ characters, and characters with disabilities particularly underrepresented.
The paltry numbers amount to onscreen “erasure,” the authors said, and show that Hollywood fails to represent Hispanic/Latino populations at the city, state and federal levels — including in the filmmaking epicenter of Los Angeles, where close to half the population identifies as Hispanic/Latino.
In fact, nearly 79% of all U.S. states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have a higher share of Hispanic/Latino residents than their prevalence in Hollywood movies, according to the report.
“The lack of representation means that nearly 20% of the U.S. population does not see their stories reflected in some of the biggest films of the past decade,” the researchers wrote.
But on-screen erasure “is less surprising when the identity of filmmakers is considered,” they added, noting that only 4.2% of directors, 3% of producers and 3.3% of casting directors across the 1,300 films were Hispanic/Latino.
“‘Storytelling can be a vehicle for empathy and one that promotes positive intergroup relations. Hollywood has yet to deploy its work as such for Hispanic/Latinos.’”
Also read: Latinos are sorely underrepresented in film
Hispanic/Latino people also continue to be portrayed in movies as “dangerous outsiders,” according to a qualitative analysis by the researchers. Many are still stereotyped as criminals, depicted as temperamental or angry, shown in roles showing lower social class or poverty, or “otherized” as non-native English speakers or foreigners. Girls and women are sexualized more often than male characters.
“This is at best irresponsible and at worst pernicious,” the researchers wrote. “Storytelling can be a vehicle for empathy and one that promotes positive intergroup relations. Hollywood has yet to deploy its work as such for Hispanic/Latinos.”
The authors of the present report used “Hispanic/Latino” to mean people “affiliated with a variety of Hispanic, Spanish-speaking or Latin backgrounds or countries,” noting that people identifying as Latino, Hispanic or Spanish may be of any race, consistent with the U.S. Census.
The Annenberg researchers teamed up for the report with UnbeliEVAble Entertainment, an Eva Longoria-founded production company that selects projects “accurately” telling Latino and other underrepresented groups’ stories, and Wise Entertainment, a studio that produces film and TV projects “in the U.S., Latin America, and beyond.”
Previous research, including by Annenberg, has drawn similarly dire conclusions. One 2014 study co-commissioned by Columbia University found that “with few exceptions, Latino participation in mainstream English-language media is stunningly low.”
“Even further, when Latinos are visible, they tend to be portrayed through decades-old stereotypes as criminals, law enforcers, cheap labor, and hypersexualized beings,” that report’s authors wrote.
Latinos made up close to one in five people in the U.S. in 2020 and are one of the fastest-growing populations in the country, with buying power expected to exceed $1.9 trillion by 2023, according to one 2019 Nielsen projection. Hispanic/Latino people in 2018 made up 24% of “frequent moviegoers” who go to the movies at least once a month, according to a report by the Motion Picture Association of America.
How can Hollywood’s systems overhaul Latino storytelling to be more accurate and inclusive? Talent agencies can create consideration lists in line with Hispanic/Latino population proportions, studios and production companies can ensure representation when casting roles and considering new directors, and casting directors can cast a wider net to find up-and-coming talent, the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative researchers said, among other proposed solutions.
Corporations can also hire Hispanic/Latino creatives for ad campaigns, and lawmakers can create tax incentives for films with Hispanic/Latino people in “above the line” roles, such as directors, lead actors and screenwriters.
The analysis was published on the first day of National Hispanic Heritage Month, which was established in 1988 and runs from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, during which the independence days for several Latin American countries fall.
The observance was launched to celebrate the cultures, histories and contributions of Latinos in the U.S., though some critics today say it should be modernized, starting with greater inclusion of Latinos with Black and Indigenous identities.
