PS: In an op-ed for Time, you and Stacy Smith wrote that the work of challenging "false and damaging narratives about Latinos" in the media is a work in progress. You emceed this year's Democratic National Convention, and I couldn't help but think, this is what that work looks like. And in your career, you've become a bastion of representation in showing Latinos like us as flesh-and-blood people who run the gamut of emotions and aren't only confined to stereotypes. What does it mean to you, to represent Latinos to so many people?
"Representation matters because it not only educates communities about us: it educates our community about ourselves!"
EL: You know, this is why I started my production company. Representation matters because it not only educates communities about us: it educates our community about ourselves! If we constantly see negative portrayals of ourselves in media, then we start to believe that that's all we can be. So I started my production company — directing, and producing, and writing — because I wanted to tell stories of the heroes of our community and show the success stories: the inspirational stories.
There was a study that came out by Stacy Smith at USC Annenberg Institute that said there is an erasure of Latinos happening. It's not a lack of representation: you are literally erasing us from media when we don't show up in front of and behind the camera. And so, that's a problem, because we need representation across all industries: we need it in government, we need it in corporations, we need it in business, we need it in communities, we need it on our school boards, we need it in our workplaces — and we need it in media.
