Latino Groups Protest Outside Paramount Studios Over Lack of Representation

Protestors gathered outside Paramount Pictures in Los Angeles Saturday to call attention to the film company's scarce and stereotypical representation hiring record of Latino talent.

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Image via Getty/Mark Ralston

latino protest paramount

At least 60 protestors gathered outside of Paramount Pictures in Los Angeles on Saturday to call attention to the film company's scarce and stereotypical hiring record of Latino talent. Leaders from the National Hispanic Media Coalition and the National Latino Media Council chose to spotlight Paramount as statistics from USC's Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, as well as their own research, shows that Paramount has the worst record when it comes to including Latinos in films, both on and off the camera. "Out of the top 100 grossing films of both 2016 and 2017, Paramount Pictures produced 20 films. Of the 20 films, there were only seven Latino actors, one Latino director, and zero Latino writers."

Alex Nogales, the president of the NHMC, said that after meeting with Paramount executives earlier this summer the film company failed to agree to a memorandum of understanding, which would have defined explicit goals for expanding Latino representation. Thomas Saenz, chair of the National Latino Media Council, echoed his colleague's grievances when explaining the correlation between the exclusion of Latinos from films and Latino civil rights. "Until Latinos are given the opportunity to tell our own stories, to write direct and act in all film, television and streaming media produced nun Hollywood, we will continue to be stereotyped, talked about and treated in the worst of ways as we are being treated presently.”

The protest comes after both organizations announced a boycott of Paramount just last month. After meeting with the civil rights organization, Paramount released a statement claiming that they “met with NHMC in a good faith effort to see how we could partner as we further drive Paramount’s culture of diversity, inclusion and belonging." 

While the organizations have targeted Paramount in particular, the exclusion of Latinos from mainstream media is an epidemic that spans across Hollywood. Nogales explained that this absence of representation directly correlates to our current political climate, as the way Latinos are depicted on camera affects the way they are then treated in their day-to-day lives. 

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