Chicago’s Gina Rodriguez urges Latinos to support Latinos in TV, movies

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By Kelly Lawler | Gannett News Service

Gina Rodriguez isn’t just speaking out about diversity in Hollywood. She’s trying to start a movement.

The Chicago-born “Jane the Virgin” actress shared her plan for “Movement Mondays” in a WhoSay post on Monday, where she hopes to highlight and support “all the various Latino cultures in the media.” She explained:

With all this Oscar talk and lack of diversity I decided to start a movement and speak from the perspective of a Latina American who desires to see more Latinos on screen. There are 55 million Latinos in this country and although we all come from various backgrounds our unity can make a movie explode at the box office or a TV show [soar] to the highest viewers possible. The better these projects do financially, the more money they will spend on putting Latinos in blockbuster films, as leads in TV shows etc. My solution is this, support is needed.

She encouraged people to speak with a voice that movie studios will listen to: money.

Right now there isn’t one Latino that can greenlight a movie. … The industry sees money, the excuse can’t be racism. We can make a difference in a very powerful way if we unite our support as one Latino community. … Let’s start making noise with where it matters most, where we put our dollars. Go support these films, watch these shows (mine is on tonight by the way, shameless promotion feel free to watch on the CW) and we can take making a change into our own hands.

She kicked off the first Monday with support for Guatemalan American actor Oscar Isaac’s performance in “Ex Machina.”

Oscar Isaac, in my opinion had an Oscar-worthy performance in this film. Each Monday I will highlight a Latino actor we can support. Let us use our numbers and powerful voices to prove we support one another, to prove we can make a box office hit, to prove they need to support all the various Latino cultures in the media. That can be one part of the solution, so next year we have many movies that are worthy of Oscar contention! #MovementMondays Pick any Latino currently working we can support!

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