Lack Of Latinx Representation At The 2020 Emmys By: Rose Heredia

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This year’s 72nd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards were held virtually due to COVID-19 this year. I watched, you noticed celebrities and even some nominees opted out of the ceremony this year. I mean, can you blame them? With the ongoing protests around Breonna Taylor’s wrongful death, how can anyone care about an awards show? Valid but as they say in showbiz, the show must go on. And alas the show did go on.

The last time a Latinx actor won an Emmy award was in 2019. Jharrel Jerome made history as the first Afro-Latino and Dominican actor to win an Emmy for Outstanding Actor in a Limited Series in When They See Us. The first time any Latino actor won an Emmy was in 1964 for Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series. An Ecuadorian by the name of Albert Paulsen was awarded for his performance on a Bob Hope anthology series in 1964.

These are the facts. While I understand why John Leguizamo decided to boycott the Emmys this year (y’all know he won an Emmy too for his filmed one-act play, Freak), the conversation hasn’t changed. Remember #OscarsSoWhite five years ago? This year at the Emmys was “the blackest Emmys ever” according to Anthony Anderson and that is progress. Because when the African-American community wins, so does the Latinx community. The browner the skin of content creators in the writing rooms and producers, the more opportunities will open up for the Latinx community.

But honestly, the Latinx community is thriving on-screen and off. There has been so much programming snubbed by the Emmys that are audiences’ favorite shows apart from the ones that receive recognition. Schitt’s Creek sweeping the Emmys this year was a surprise to me. Maybe there’s something to this show about privileged white people who end up living in a shit show of an island? Hmm…I don’t know.

If I wanted to plug one show that had a great evening at the Emmys, I would say Watchmen. Great performances and adapting this graphic novel to the contemporary landscape reaped all the awards. Watch that and maybe watch the other shows? But really, just Watchmen.