Through an open letter, John Leguizamo asks for more Latinos in Hollywood

Colombian actor John Leguizamo unleashed a wave of nonconformity against the film industry, especially Hollywood. Pointing out that the Latino community is subject to having far fewer job opportunities and that stigma and prejudice towards the community still persist.

“Even white Latinos are still stigmatized by their names and their culture. Óscar Isaac Hernández Estrada is still called Oscar Isaac. Bruno Mars dropped his Hernandez surname. And even though our actors can’t be cast, our stories are still used. Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata was portrayed by Brando in the 1950s with a dark face and flaring nostrils. Eli Wallach Brown faced as a Mexican in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly as Tuco, a grumpy and obnoxious bully, to fit the way studio executives thought a Mexican would act. In Touch of Evil, Orson Welles played the whitest actor in history, Charlton Heston, as a Mexican. A light-haired, blue-eyed man who plays a brown-faced Latino with dyed black hair and a fake mustache. Once again, the real Latinos were simply set decorators: extras in the Mexican border town,” the actor wrote.

“Now while we’re talking about that: Spaniards are not Latino. The Spanish are white Europeans. Latinos were born in Latin America or had ancestors who were born there. For the most part, we are mestizo peoples from all over Latin America. Well, all of Latin America except Argentina, which largely eradicated its indigenous peoples,” he noted.

Also mentioning success stories such as that of composer and producer Lin-Manuel Miranda, Bad Bunny, actress Jennifer López and Puerto Rican actor and producer Benicio del Toro, Leguizamo assured that there are “millions of Latinos,” including himself. — have been among the few who have had the opportunity to succeed.

“We all need to be counted, represented and valued. (…) We need a better channel for Latinos in movies, television shows and plays. We need a system for our stories and our projects. We need executives to give the green light,” he concluded.