Editorial Comment by Helen Hernandez, President & Founder, Imagen Foundation
This year’s Emmys were a disappointment to Latinos working in television. The Emmys process and Awards continue to exclude our Latino talent. One only has to ask why Norman Lear’s “One Day At A Time,” or Shades of Blue, or Queen of the South or American Crime, to name a few which have received rave reviews and have phenomenal casts and production teams, were excluded. Does the leadership of the Television Academy not understand that we are a trillion dollar market? That we do speak English and make up 57 million of the population? How many Latinos are members of the Television Academy? What has the TV Academy Diversity Committee done to reach out to Latinos in the industry? Clearly not enough.
This lack of inclusion is why the Imagen Awards exist: To assure that our talent is properly and respectfully acknowledged for their body of work. Imagen will continue to do this work until, one day, it will no longer be necessary.