Congressman Joaquin Castro (D-TX) and members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus have nominated 27 Latine films for inclusion into the National Film Registry (NFR) this year.
The NFR, which selected films for preservation based on their “historical, cultural, and aesthetic contributions,” was founded in 1988. Of the 850 films currently listed in the registry, only 24 – or less than three percent – are Latine films. These include Stand and Deliver, El Norte, and La Bamba.
“Given the film industry’s continued exclusion of Latinos, we must make a special effort to ensure that Latino Americans’ contributions to American filmmaking are appropriately celebrated and included in the National Film Registry,” Congressman Castro wrote in his nomination letter.
Castro added that excluding Latinos from the film industry “affects Latinos seeking opportunities” in Hollywood and “shapes how [they] are perceived, stereotyped, and misunderstood in American life.”
The films Castro and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus nominated this year are: My Family, Like Water for Chocolate, …And the Earth Did Not Swallow Him, Blood In Blood Out, Raising Victor Vargas, Frida, I Like It Like That, Walkout, Mosquita y Mari, The Milagro Beanfield War, Under the Same Moon, American Me, Tortilla Soup, Mi Vida Loca, Instructions Not Included, Maria Full of Grace, Girlfight, La Mission, Sleep Dealer, Our Latin Thing, Up in Smoke, A Better Life, Gun Hill Road, In the Time of Butterflies, American Experience: Roberto Clemente, The Longoria Affair, and Alambrista!
In the past, Castro and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus have helped usher films like Selena and The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez into the registry. Movies must be at least ten years old to be eligible for a nomination, so we’ll have to wait until 2033 to get Blue Beetle in.