With a roster of a who’s who of Hollywood stars like Salma Hayek, Pedro Pascal, Jennifer Lopez, Penelope Cruz, Avatar star Zoe Saldana and so many other Latinos making news in tinsel town, how is CAA going to go wrong with their newly established division CAA Latino dedicated to Latino talent? They’re not. With their new initiative, announced today exclusively on Deadline, the agency is staking their claim in the future of Hollywood, and betting Latinos will take them to the #1 talent agency spot.
Rudy Lopez Negrete, who leads brand partnerships for CAA’s Latin music division, also takes the lead on this initiative along and more than “30 colleagues across the agency businesses and offices” according to Deadline.
“Latino and Hispanic talent and creators have a large and ever-growing impact on culture globally,” said Negrete and Toby Borg (Head of Global Client Strategy) in an exclusive statement to Deadline. “Our top priorities are to change how the diverse community is depicted on screen, give greater voice to the work of Latino and Hispanic artists and storytellers and drive new revenue for clients.”
This good news comes on the heels of the recent study conducted by the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative which found that Latino representation in the film behind and front of the camera remains stagnant with no improvement in the last 16 years. Even when movies did feature Hispanic or Latino characters, the study found Latino characters were represented on-screen with depictions that were often rampant with stereotypes. Included under the new manner of CAA Latino are America Ferrera (Barbie), Andy Garcia (Father of the Bride), Comedian Gabriel Iglesias, Director Angel Manuel Soto (Blue Beetle), Ariana DeBose (West Side Story), Jenna Ortega (Wednesday), Anya Taylor-Joy (The Menu), Ana de Armas (Ballerina, Blond), Rachel Zegler (Snow White), and Edward James Olmos (Mayans).