The tone was lively while also sobering at TIME’s second annual Latino Leaders celebration in Los Angeles on Thursday, as guests acknowledged both the strides made and the challenges that remain in amplifying Latino voices, perspectives, and power across industries.
Latinos—the fastest growing ethnicity in the U.S.—make up nearly one-fifth of the U.S. population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. But they also face barriers, from under-representation in media to harmful stereotypes about the community, which honorees mentioned throughout the night.
Latinos—the fastest growing ethnicity in the U.S.—make up nearly one-fifth of the U.S. population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. But they also face barriers, from under-representation in media to harmful stereotypes about the community, which honorees mentioned throughout the night.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Wow, we are here, our second year in a row,
00:04recognizing and celebrating our Latino leaders.
00:07And they're reshaping America.
00:09Audiences are frustrated
00:11with the lack of originality in Hollywood.
00:13They're desperate for novelty,
00:15for new, exciting ideas, authentic storytelling.
00:18And I think this is where we,
00:20as an underrepresented community, can really step in.
00:23We know our stories are not risks.
00:26This oversaturation in the entertainment industry,
00:29the lack of originality everyone's so upset about,
00:32it's actually an exciting opportunity for us.
00:36What an amazing time to have a unique perspective.
00:39We have the chance to tell stories
00:41that haven't been told yet,
00:42to hire talented artists that haven't been discovered yet,
00:45and to help bridge the gap of the human experience.
00:49We shouldn't stop until everybody in this country,
00:51not only Latinos, until everyone in the country
00:54knows that Hispanics are positive contributors
00:57to the country, that we are the economic driving force
01:00of America, and I think that we should all join forces
01:03to change the perception of Latinos,
01:05because perception is reality.
01:08And we need to change the reality to reflect what we are.
01:10Within you, working its way through your veins,
01:14and in your DNA, is the power of a people
01:18who do not just survive, but thrive.
01:23Who do not stop, only know how to press on.
01:29Who only fall in order to get stronger by getting back up.
01:36Who achieve greatness, not despite any obstacles,
01:39but because those obstacles inspired us to conquer them.
01:45And so your job, future generations,
01:50is to take our dreams, build on them,
01:56make more love, make bigger dreams,
02:01so that you can inspire a new generation to do the same.
02:05Latinos sometimes think they won't succeed,
02:08especially in a leadership position.
02:11They think if they're too authentic,
02:13if they're too passionate, I hear that a lot, by the way.
02:17Oh, I have to tone down my passion.
02:20I don't wanna be too Latino.
02:24And I have really now started to make it
02:29a real part of my journey to help those young Latinos
02:33erase that from their mind.
02:37I believe that authenticity is our superpower,
02:41and that we cannot succeed without this superpower.
02:45I believe my superpower is my passion.
02:49I don't wanna tone it down.
02:51My passion is how I live my life.
02:54Time Magazine has always meant a lot to me.
02:57And when I think about when I was starting out,
03:00I think you have to be really poor,
03:03because I was a huge fan of Eddie Murphy's,
03:05and in the early 80s, he was on the cover of Time.
03:09And I didn't steal the magazine,
03:11I went and made a Xerox copy.
03:15Of the article, and then I stapled it together.
03:18And that was my Time Magazine at that time.