• Newsfeed

Gina Rodriguez Launches a Diversity Movement for Latino Actors in Wake of Oscars Backlash

3 minute read
Actress Gina Rodriguez attends the 67th Emmy Awards at Microsoft Theater on September 20, 2015 in Los Angeles, California.
Actress Gina Rodriguez attends the 67th Emmy Awards at Microsoft Theater on September 20, 2015 in Los Angeles, California.Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for TNT LA
By Megan McCluskey

Gina Rodriguez has started a campaign on Instagram to support Latino actors. Using the hashtag #MovementMondays, the 31-year-old Jane the Virgin actress plans to highlight various Latino members of the television and film industry. Rodriguez spoke about the problems facing Latinos in Hollywood in a post on WhoSay Monday, nodding to the backlash over the Oscar nominations’ lack of diversity.

“There are 55 million Latinos in this country and although we all come from various backgrounds our unity can make a movie explode at the box office or a tv show sore to the highest viewers possible. The better these projects do financially, the more money they will spend on putting Latinos In blockbuster films, as leads in tv shows Etc. My solution is this, support is needed. Right now there isn’t one Latino that can Greenlight a movie. That means no studio will put their money behind a Latino face as a lead of a movie because they don’t believe we can make their money back. I am told time and time again ‘Latinos dont watch Latino Movies. Latinos don’t support each other’ and sadly that is true. I’m not saying go and see a movie you don’t like to blind support, im saying if you want to see us represented on film and tv, if you want to see Latinos nominated for Oscars, we NEED to support one another. The industry sees money, the excuse can’t be racism. We can make a difference in a very powerful way if we unite our support as one Latino community.”

Read More: See the Entire History of the Oscars Diversity Problem in One Chart

Rodriguez went on to say that the first person she had chosen to feature in the movement was Oscar Isaac and explained that she believed the Guatemalan American actor had an Oscar-worthy performance in Ex Machina. She then encouraged all Latinos to stay strong and keep supporting each other. “Each Monday I will highlight a Latino actor we can support,” she said. “Let us use our numbers and powerful voices to prove we support one another, to prove we can make a box office hit, to prove they need to support all the various Latino cultures in the media. That can be one part of the solution, so next year we have many movies that are worthy of Oscar contention!”

More Must-Reads from TIME

Write to Megan McCluskey at megan.mccluskey@time.com