One might think with the lack of Latinos nominated for an Oscar each year, the Academy might think it was a good idea to at least send out an invitation every so often to those few Latinos in the industry who have actually landed nominations in the past. Apparently not.
In an interview with Variety, actress Rosie Pérez, who landed an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her 1993 film Fearless, said she has never, not once, been invited back to the Oscars since she attended the ceremony as a nominee on March 21, 1994.
“Not even to sit in the audience, not to present, nothing–and I’m a member,” Pérez says. “I love the Academy Awards. I cheer on my peers, but it hurts. It’s like when your home team doesn’t ask you to come back into the stadium after you got up to bat and hit the home run.”
Pérez added: “The biggest struggle has been navigating through other people’s shortcomings. Other people’s bigotry, racism–and specifically the ones that don’t understand that they are bigots or racists.”
This year, no Latinos were nominated for an Oscar in any of the four acting categories. Since Pérez was nominated, four actresses in the last 27 years have been nominated for Best Supporting Actress. Kenyan Mexican actress Lupita Nyong’o won for the 2013 drama 12 Years a Slave.
During that same time, three Latinas have been nominated for Best Actress, one Latino for Best Actor and Benicio del Toro twice for Best Supporting Actor, winning for his role in the 2000 drama Traffic.