The bleak reality that the Latino community is underrepresented on the big screen has been a known issue for quite some time.

Back in 2014, a report asserted that despite making up 17.1% of the total U.S. population, Latinos made up only 5.8% of speaking roles on TV and film. In 2016, we learned that Latino actors played only 2.7% of roles in the top movies of the year. In 2018, Latinos didn’t even merit a breakdown in a graph that showed how many nonwhite directors helmed the top 1,100 box office hits of the last decade. A new report is building on those aforementioned and finally going granular on the specific issue of Latino representation.

“Latinos in Film: Erasure On Screen; Behind the Camera Across 1,200 Popular Movies,” from Dr. Stacy L. Smith and the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative in partnership with National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP) and Wise Entertainment, is the most comprehensive and in-depth analysis of Latinos in film since Columbia University’s 2014 “Latino Media Gap” report. “At a time where Latinos in our country are facing intense concerns over their safety,” said Dr. Smith, “we urgently need to see the Latino community authentically and accurately represented throughout entertainment.”

 Read more at Remezcla