Something’s Missing From Latino Arts Awards

Benjamin Bratt, Giselle Fernandez and John Leguizamo were each honored twice Sunday at the 1999 American Latino Media Arts Awards at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, but the most significant awards may have been the ones that weren’t presented.

There were no winners for either best picture or outstanding actress in a comedy series, organizers said, because there weren’t enough nominees.

“We were not able to have a category of Latino-themed films . . . and we think that’s unconscionable,” said Lisa Navarrete, spokeswoman for the National Council of La Raza, which presents the awards. “The situation with Latinas on television is [another] one that we’re particularly concerned about. It’s a situation that we find needs to be changed very, very quickly.”

The ALMA Awards, formerly known as the Bravo Awards, are designed to recognize films, TV programs and performers who present positive portrayals of Latinos. But they’ve also come to highlight the underrepresentation of Latinos in television and motion pictures.

A recent study by the Screen Actors Guild found just 4% of TV and movie roles went to Latinos, who make up 11% of the U.S. population. Not surprisingly, five of Sunday’s TV acting-award winners--Bratt (NBC’s “Law & Order”), Nestor Carbonell (NBC’s “Suddenly Susan”), Jimmy Smits (ABC’s “NYPD Blue”), Rita Moreno (HBO’s “Oz”) and Mark Consuelos (ABC’s “All My Children”)--also won the same awards last year. In addition, “NYPD Blue” was named outstanding drama for the second year in a row.

Even Placido Domingo repeated for his performance on PBS’ “The Metropolitan Opera Presents.”

In the film category, director Gregory Nava (“Why Do Fools Fall in Love”) and actress Jennifer Lopez (“Out of Sight”) won awards for the second year in a row.

“The pool of people who are household names is fairly limited in the Latino community. And that’s one of the reasons why we have the show. We want to sort of expand that pool,” says Navarrete.

In addition to his award for best actor in a drama series, Bratt was honored for his role in the NBC movie “Exile,” while Fernandez was named outstanding host in a national information program (the syndicated show “Access Hollywood”) and outstanding correspondent in a prime-time news magazine (NBC’s “Dateline”). Leguizamo was honored twice for the HBO comedy special “Freak.”

Other acting awards were presented to Antonio Banderas (“The Mask of Zorro”), Kirk Acevedo (“The Thin Red Line”), Andy Garcia (“Desperate Measures”) and Elizabeth Pena (“Rush Hour”) for film work, and to Bruno Campos (NBC’s “Jesse”), Maria Conchita Alonso (“My Husband’s Secret Life” on USA), Edward James Olmos (ABC’s “The Taking of Pelham One, Two, Three”) and Socorro Santiago (ABC’s “All My Children”) for television.

Sunday’s event was taped for broadcast June 3 on ABC.