Latinx Community Creating Diversity for the Fine Arts
With my passion for live theater and watching television, I never saw Latinx people represented properly in the entertainment industry. I’ve been keeping my eye on this subject for a few years. Since then I have had my passion for theater in elementary school, but it took a pause when the COVID-19 pandemic struck in March 2020. For the past 100 years, according to a timeline created by the LA Times, “The Brutally Honest History of Latinos in Hollywood,” showed the struggles that Latinx people have faced from 1908- 2021.
The Los Angeles Latinx community has faced many challenges in the entertainment industry since 1908, especially with the rise of sexist and racial stereotypes between men and women. Due to the Latinx community wanting to help change the audience’s perspectives, the past 100 years have been essential for artists expressing the importance of diversity in their respective art form.
Elizabeth Arias, 21, is a CSUN business management major and theater acting and directing minor, who expressed the importance of the fine arts since she became involved in middle school and was given the lead role as Alice in the play “Alice in Wonderland.” She has found that singing and acting has driven her to pursue a career in film rather than in theater, to do commercial work.
“My theater classes have been very fulfilling and have made me feel alive. I’m able to express who I am 100%,” said Arias. “I really want to grasp and learn as much as possible as I can, so that I can [be] able [to] apply it to auditions, work and just be able to perform and do what I love.”
The CSUN theater department’s professors Sonia Norris and Christine Menzies made an impact in Arias’ fine arts path. Professor Menzies’ theater voice class was “a spiritual experience” as Arias learned different vocal exercises that she currently uses herself as warm-ups before doing her YouTube covers.
To view her YouTube channel, visit:
From the survey Latinx people in the fine arts, 12 people responded and gave their input on how they got involved, began a journey and how they were introduced to the fine arts community.
“I just don’t like when actors try to mimic us, through wearing the stereotypical sombrero hats,” mentioned Daniel Anguiano, CSUN theater major. “For actors who are non-Latinos or Mexicans or whoever, to me it’s kind of offensive.”
Through the stereotypes of a Latin lover, having women portray maids and over- the- top depictions of drug lord’s, there are some people who find it difficult to see the fine arts as a career rather than just a hobby.
Alina Alvarez, a 25-year-old transfer Mexican American student, began her interest in theater when she was a senior in high school. “My mom is very supportive of me, but my dad, til this day, doesn’t take me seriously. He says I should be a lawyer or something that is more realistic,” shared Alvarez. Her mother continues to be her motivation as Alvarez does “not have to care what people think.”
As an actress, she is ecstatic to continue her passion of theater through overcoming the racial stereotype of using her “Mexican accent” to play the character of a fortune teller in a play where her director told her to use the accent to give her character some personality. From that experience, she has found herself to overcome this language stereotype through her transition to CSUN by not feeling stereotyped in other productions she has been a part of.
Yvette Lawrence Bishop, director and actress, shared her experience through her first auditions as a newcomer to the entertainment industry. Reflecting on her beginnings, New York acting coach, Jack Lee, believed in her and propelled Bishop to audition for her first Broadway show. Out of 683 people, “I waited and waited at the audition all day, brought my snack and my water… made sure my chords were good, and the rest is history,” mentioned Bishop. “Jack Lee was a mentor and a believer.”
The Latinx community has also been portrayed in different art forms. Latina photographer, Amy Zapata, expressed the challenges and barriers that she has faced with Latinx representation growing up, along with pursuing her passion.
From photographer Amy Zapata: Double exposed images are my response to uncertainty, they allow me to explore the duality in the spaces I inhabit. After a “post” pandemic world and the uncertainty of existence has informed and changed my current approach to photography. The process has been my focus, the pandemic has made me think of art in a different way and I am still exploring the process and my place within it as I wonder and consider my place in Mexico and the United States. This photo was taken after my residency when I came back to Puebla during the summer.
As for me, the fine arts has a place special in my heart. It has always brought me the sense of joy being able to build theater sets, play a character, sing and transport audiences into the story of what is being told. This is why Latinx representation is important to the fine arts community- it brings multiple assets onto the future careers for the upcoming generation of artists.
