‘We are tired’: Read the open letter 270 fed-up Latinx writers just sent Hollywood
Lin-Manuel Miranda, John Leguizamo and “One Day at a Time” co-creator Gloria Gloria Calderón Kellett are among 270 showrunners, creators, television and film writers who are calling for systemic change in the entertainment industry in regard to Latinx artists.
The group of writers and producers outlined their concerns in an open letter to Hollywood written in conjunction with Hispanic Heritage Month, which ends today. “We are tired,” they write.
In the letter, the signatories contend that “Hollywood power brokers are complicit in our exclusion,” noting that just 4.7% of feature writers and 8.7% of TV writers are Latinx, despite making up 18.3% of the U.S. population overall. Among the five demands laid out in the letter, the writers note the importance of hiring more Latinx talent, including in in decision-making roles like creator/showrunner: “No stories about us without us.”
The letter is part of an initiative started by the Untitled Latinx Project (ULP), an all-Latina advocacy group founded by Tanya Saracho, showrunner of the Starz drama “Vida,” to increase representation of Latinx-created stories for television.
Read the full letter […]