Word: latinos
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...equivalent Latino surge is reaching the higher cultural circles. The art world is opening its eyes to Hispanic artists whose work, sharp and full throated, owes its strength to aesthetic intelligence, not ethnic scenery. Meanwhile, Latino playwrights are supplying off-Broadway and the regional theaters with new voices. And while the great Hispanic-American Novel is still waiting to be written, the splendid figures of Latin American literature -- Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Mario Vargas Llosa, Carlos Fuentes -- are being translated straight into the American literary fabric, not to mention the best-seller lists...
...north-of-the-border sensibility. As in La Bamba: its story of Chicano life is told through myths of immigrant struggle and showbiz martyrdom that were born in the U.S.A. Increasingly, too, Hispanic artists and entertainers are courting the mass audience in English. Many of the nation's Latino theaters perform in English only. "I don't want to be a good Hispanic theater," says Max Ferra, Artistic Director of Manhattan's predominantly English INTAR Hispanic American Arts Center. "I want to be a very good American theater." After writing two books in Spanish, Novelist Roberto Fernandez has just published...
...greatest luxury in not being hemmed in by any preconceptions at all. Consider the Los Angeles artist known as Gronk. He has impeccable Chicano credentials: born in 1954 in mostly Chicano East Los Angeles, he was a co- founder in his younger days of an ad hoc group of Latino artists who brought their art to the streets. But all of that was the forcing ground for a talent that resists ethnic labels. His paintings carry echoes of Mexican symbolism, but they also wear the signs of European expressionism, new-wave imagery, old- fashioned camp. And he recalls...
Food, fashion and network attitudes have changed since then -- but, oddly, not that much. Several Hispanic stars have made it to the medium's mainstream, among them Jimmy Smits, of L.A. Law, and A Martinez, the Latino heartthrob of NBC'S soap opera Santa Barbara. And a few prime-time series, from Chico and the Man through I Married Dora, have featured Hispanic characters and themes. But in contrast to their achievements in the other arts, Hispanics are still waiting for their La Bamba breakthrough...
...lone Latino breakthrough on the networks for next season: Benjamin Bratt, the part-Hispanic actor who starred in Juarez, will play one of the leads in Knightwatch, a new ABC series about a community crime-fighting group. "It's absurd that we don't have one half-hour of Hispanic-themed programming on network television," complains Marin. "We can make stuff as bad as the stuff that's on." Says Rodriguez: "There is no lack of talent in our community, but we are waiting for gringos to toss us a crumb...