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SNL’s Diversity Issues Include Excluding Latinos
Saturday’s Night Live’s (SNL) diversity issues just got a little bigger with Latinos chiming in that they aren’t represented enough on the iconic show.
The show’s diversity issues became center stage when two current male cast members that are African-American derided the lack of black women on the show and their unwillingness to dress-up as black women. Latino advocacy organizations in turn used the controversy as an opportunity to note the lack of Latino inclusion.
The show created by Lorne Michaels was facing growing criticism that it did not have a female African-American character since 2007 when biracial cast member Maya Rudolph was on the show. Now several high profile Latino advocacy groups, that include the U.S. Hispanic Leadership Institute, Cuban American National Council, National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts among others, have sent Michaels a letter urging Latino inclusion. 
The letter notes the “the historic lack of Latino diversity” on SNL, noting that the 39-year-old show has only had one Latino cast member in its history, Horatio Sanz. Sanz left the show in 2006. Fred Armisen, another former cast member, whose mother is Venezuelan was never positioned as a Latino cast member. Latino organizations also point out no Latina cast members have ever been hired by SNL. The organizations have asked for a face-to-face meeting with Michaels to see if there is a way to get around the fact that improv and the comedy club circuit that feeds SNL its talent is very white and male.
Click here to read the entire letter.
Michaels has acknowledged the lack of African-American females and promises he is working “on it” but has not addressed the lack of Latinos on the show.
Google+ Author: Estelle Gonzales Walgreen
Published in Latino Daily News
Source: http://www.hispanicallyspeakingnews.com/latino-daily-news/details/snls-diversity-issues-include-excluding-latinos/27923#When:05:15:14Z
