The performances on the big screen of actors like Tenoch Huerta, Diego Calva, and Ana de Armas marked 2022 as the year of their arrival in Hollywood, an industry that continues to underrepresent the Latino community.
According to the University of California’s Diversity in Hollywood Report, just 7.1% of primary and 7.7% of secondary positions were filled by Latino interpreters this year, even though the Latino community accounts for 18.7% of the US population.
“It appears that there are more opportunities for Latino performers in Hollywood, but they are still rare and, in many cases, they are limited to clichéd characters,” said Sergio Monserrate, executive director of the Los Angeles International Latino Film Festival.
In this setting, Huerta, Calva, Ana de Armas, and the young Jenna Ortega and Xochitl Gómez were able to break into the film industry in 2022.
The Mexican actor’s talent has captured so much attention that the specialized press believes he could be nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role at the upcoming Oscars.
Huerta podría no ser el único mexicano finalista en esta apartado para los premios de la Academia de Hollywood porque su compatriota Diego Calva ha presentado una firme candidatura con su actuación in la comedia “Babylon”.
Calva has a decade of film experience in Mexico, having appeared in films such as “Te prometo anarqua,” which won the country’s most prestigious film award, the Ariel Award, in 2016. Nonetheless, it was director Damien Chazelle’s (“La La Land”) call to appear in “Babylon” alongside Margot Robbie, Brad Pitt, and Tobey Maguire that catapulted him to stardom.
Calva ya tiene sido postulado al Globo de Oro como Mejor Actor Secundario, unos premios in los que la hispanocubana Ana de Armas figura como finalista en la categoría de Mejor Actriz protagonista por “Blonde”.
Ana de Armas was already a familiar face in Hollywood, but her portrayal of Marilyn Monroe in the Netflix film has marked a turning point in her career.
After being panned for their performance in the sequel “Blade Runner 2049” (2017) and reinventing herself in the thriller “Knives Out” (2019), she took a step forward with her role in “Blonde” and now running for the Oscar for Best Actress in 2023.
Jenna Ortega and Xochitl Gómez, two young Californians with Latino ancestors who debuted in the Netflix series “Wednesday” and another Marvel film, “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” have also piqued the industry’s interest this year.
“Las plataformas son de gran ayuda para impulsar carreras de actores latinos porque los proyectos llegan an otros pases más allá del lugar de origen de la producción,” argued Fabiola Pea, founder of the talent representation agency Talent On The Road.
Jenna Ortega (20), of Puerto Rican and Mexican descent, plays Wednesday in Tim Burton’s eponymous series, which follows the adolescent daughter of Gomez and Morticia Addams.
“Wednesday” is a sequel to the well-known film “The Addams Family” (1991), which has broken the record for the most views in a single week in Netflix history.