11 Latina Actresses Who Have Spoken Out on Hollywood Stereotypes and Lack of Diversity

It is no secret that Latinos have been grossly underrepresented in Hollywood. And when Latino actors are included, they are often portraying criminals and domestic workers. Back in the earlier days of film and television, we were “greasers,” “banditos,” immoral and/or angry women, and comedically dim-witted individuals.

Today, however, the tides are changing, with a variety of roles being interpreted by Latinas, and people of our ethnicity and culture(s) are creating those projects which are absent. But we still have a long way to go. Here are 11 actresses in Hollywood who are holding it down for Latinos everywhere have spoken out about both the stereotypes assigned to us as a people, as well as the notion that all we look, act, and are the same.

5Luna Lauren Velez

Hollywood has a hard time wrapping its head around the idea that women — a lot of them — are both Latina and black. Latinas are portrayed as one way — dark hair, dark eyes, olive skin — and anything outside that ideal is not accepted or represented (in fact, many Italians have been hired to play Latinos on screen for decades). Luna Lauren Velez, an Afro-Puerto Rican actress, has represented Afro-Latinas (and Latinas) in film and on television since the nineties. But she had to change perceptions first. “When I first came out to L.A., Hollywood’s idea of a Latina was Mexican,” Velez shared. “It was almost like they had never seen or heard of an Afro-Latina before.

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