Lin-Manuel Miranda says we should stop complaining about Sofia Vergara and write our own roles in Hollywood (video)
The “Twitterican” also rapped for us. Bring it on!
By NURIA NET
Forbes magazine recently pointed out on its cover that Latinos are a trillion dollar market waiting to be exploited by the media and that Sofia Vergara is the highest-paid TV actress today. But where are the rest of Latinos on the small and big screen? I don’t see too many of them around who truly reflect the country’s growing and diverse Latino population.
As the New York Times notes in a recent piece, networks don’t know how to “appeal” to Hispanics without recurring to stereotypes. Not exactly a newsflash, but big ups to Latino Rebels for getting quoted in the piece!
Writer-actor-lyricist-composer Lin-Manuel Miranda agrees it takes more than Sofia Vergara to get respect in Hollywood. We need to write our own roles and stop complaining. “The more Latinos can get into positions of power, the better things will be, honestly,” says the 32-year-old Nuyorican wunderkind, “‘cause we can complain about the lack of roles, but unless we get to write our own roles, we’re always going to be complaining.”
Lin-Manuel Miranda says it and means it. The creator of the Tony Award-winning musical In The Heights is now back on Broadway (behind the scenes) co-writing the music and lyrics to Bring It On: the Musical, based on the cult Kirsten Dunst movie from the year 2000 (whoa, I feel old). And yes, he included a Latino character in the musical, and he rapped some of the character’s lines to Univision News to prove it.
From one Twitterican to another, I appreciate his talent and honesty.
