America Ferrera
(Photo : Reuters)

America Ferrera vows to bring more projects to Latinos and Latinas in Hollywood during her speech in the National Hispanic Media Coalition's 2020 Impact Awards.

The entertainment industry is now becoming more diverse by accepting more people from underrepresented or marginalized groups like Latinos. In a previous report of Latin Post, it was mentioned that Mexico is the new haven of the biggest online video streaming in the world, Netflix. It was found that just in 2019 alone there were more than 31.4 million Latin American subscribers.

The booming industry of Netflix in Latin America is a clear manifestation of the influence of films that are starring Latinos and use their original languages, either Spanish or Portuguese. This helped the younger generation of skilled Latin artists become recognized around the world.

During the National Hispanic Media Coalition's 2020 Impact Awards night on Friday in Beverly Hills, America Ferrera gave a fiery speech as she received the award as the Outstanding Series Producer of Gentefied and Superstore. She said that Latinos have now become visible in the Hollywood industry and Latino talents are also becoming more recognizable. She also added that her role as a producer is to bring more diverse projects to the audience.

People applauded her a couple of times while she gave her speech. She explained that for a very long time, she felt alone and isolated as a Latina in the entertainment industry. It can be remembered that in a study published by the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative last year, that Latino films are still underrepresented in Hollywood and their portrayals remain stereotypical.

However, this is expected to change this year as America Ferrera vows that she will bring more Latino projects. This will also open doors to the younger generation of Latin actors and actresses. She said that she plans to create a pipeline for Latino stories "to be seen and to be celebrated." 

There have been many Latino films that dominated the film industry most especially on Netflix. Few of these are Gentefied, Starz's Vida, Freeform's Party of Five, and One Day at a Time which America Ferrera praised because these feature the talents of Latino in acting.

Ferrera also thanked the Hollywood community because of the growing number of Latino-projects focused that give pave a way for their younger generations to be recognized. She said: "Thank you to our allies in the room - those of you who are not particularly from the Latino community - and yet, you have the capacity to see the value of our lives, of our stories; you invest your money in our storytellers and give real creative power to our voices," She also added they will continue to empower the Latino community in the entertainment industry, they will also continue to give beautiful content.

The speech of Ferrera gave an assurance that she will bring more talents from the Latino community in the entertainment industry most especially in Hollywood. Moreover, the Impact Awards have been celebrated over the past few years by the Latino community who made progress in media. Ferrera also made an announcement that she will be exiting in NBC's Superstore after five seasons.