Deploying Latinidad: The Politics of Contemporary Media Activism

FAIN: HB-289299-23

Arcelia Gutierrez Velazco
Regents of the University of California, Irvine (Irvine, CA 92617-3066)

Research and writing leading to a book about the ways Latino media activists challenged the  stereotypical depictions of their community and pushed for their employment in film, television, cable, and radio industries in the USA from the 1980s-2000s.

Despite comprising 18.7% of the U.S. population, Latinos only constitute 5.2% of film roles, 6.2% of broadcast scripted shows, and 5.3% of cable-scripted shows. This project explores how Latino media activists have contested stereotypical depictions of their community on screen and the airwaves, and how they've pressed for increased employment of Latinos in the media industries from the 1980s to 2000s. The book analyzes protests of stereotypes in film, uses of affirmative action policies to demand better employment practices at local broadcasting stations, consumer boycotts against commercial radio, advocacy surrounding cable channels, and the transformation of public broadcasting and independent producing for Latinos. It argues that media activism is a site of competing understandings of Latino status, power, and civic belonging. The book traces how activists weaponized and deployed Latinidad as a discursive device for leverage in their fight for inclusion in the media industries.