What Is Truly a Fair Share for Latinos in Hollywood?

Imagine a hypothetical situation: I just secured funding for a film about the collapse of communism. It is not a documentary; it will be an epic in a Hollywood style. The movie takes us to a shipyard in Poland where young Lech Walesa forms the Solidarity union and to the halls of the Kremlin, where a few years later Mikhail Gorbachev prepares perestroika. Whom am I going to hire for the roles of Walesa, Gorbachev and other leading characters?

Using Del Zamora logic (“Where Are the Latinos in Films, TV?,” Calendar, May 20), I should look for Russian American and Polish American actors. After all, almost all leading characters in my hypothetical project are Russians and Poles. But is there any good reason why ethnicity should play a role in selecting actors for the movie? I don’t believe so.

An actor, by definition, is one who portrays others. In one movie it will be President Nixon, in another it is a psychopathic killer, still in another it could be Pablo Picasso. Anthony Hopkins, whose example I am using here, doesn’t have a real-life experience of being a president, a painter or a killer. Further, he is neither a Spaniard (as Picasso was) nor an American (as Nixon was). But that doesn’t prevent him from portraying these people. And, I bet, Hopkins could as well play Gorbachev or Walesa.

I agree that if there is a discrimination in the entertainment industry, it should certainly be dealt with forcefully. However, another quota system will not solve anything. To the contrary, it may typecast many talented Latino performers forever in ethnic roles. I believe that Latino actors and actresses should and can compete for all roles. I would not mind at all if a Latino actor played Walesa in my hypothetical project, just as I wouldn’t mind if, for example, an Irish actor played the role of the former Mexican President Salinas--as long as both do an excellent job.

MARIUSZ OZMINKOWSKI

Pasadena

I would appreciate not being patronized by the casting of completely unbelievable actors in roles for which they have little qualification. It hurts me to think that the majority of producers of entertainment projects refuse to see what so plainly speaks for itself--it’s no longer acceptable to smear some Italian American actor with reddish-brown body makeup and pretend he’s a Native American. Who says it’s still OK to do the same with Latinos?

Of course, in a perfect world, any actor should be able to play any role. But we’re talking realism here. C’mon, don’t give us some bogus painted surfer dude with an accent like the Frito Bandito and not expect the audience to howl in derision! We’d much rather see one of the many talented, sexy and credible Latino actors out there get their cut at stardom. I think they deserve at least a chance, don’t you?

MARCIA HARLAN

Encinatas

I am a native of California, born in Los Angeles, and a Latino. I work in the motion picture industry as a cinematographer and am a member of Local 659, International Photographers. I have worked on numerous motion picture films, TV shows and many commercials. It does not take both hands to count the number of Latinos with whom I have worked.

I believe that it is time that the Latino be given a little respect. Do TV executives think that the Latino can only be portrayed as a gang member or a laborer in the fields? Do they not know that we, too, have doctors, teachers, scientists? That we, too, can be seen with a different image, if only they would give us the chance. It is time that the entertainment industry let us be seen as we are in the real world.

ROBERT A. TORRES

Van Nuys