Latinos in TV

Dana Calvo echoes the tired whine du jour about the absence of Latinos both in front of and behind the television cameras (“Applying the First Light Coat,” Nov. 20). If she wants to know where they are, I can tell her: They are on Spanish-language television, thousands and thousands of them. I would also venture to guess that the percentage of non-Latinos on Spanish-language television may be unacceptably low.

P.S.: “Mistress to King Leopold during the 1950s in the Congo” should have read 1850s.

ROGER E. GOULET

Los Angeles

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The reason that diversity isn’t cast on television and in feature films is that although most writers, producers and casting directors live in the most diverse city in the country, they have not been able to humanize the people they see around them into characters. The only “humans” are those like themselves, who exist in their comfort zones.

It takes real effort to see beyond one’s own filters, and that is why we have so many of the same “types” on TV and in films. It’s easier to crank out “types” and then clones of those types. If you’ve ever seen casting notices, you’d know. Every character is pigeonholed.

CHRISTINA WALDECK

Torrance