Generally, Se Fija! doesn’t cover “reality shows”–those awful psychodramas with nasty people doing ugly things to each other. But there’s a separate category of reality–the competition shows–that are a little more tempting, we’re talking The Glee Project, The Voice, and the granddaddy of the competitions, American Idol. And the good news is, extremely talented Latinos are part of virtually all of the best competition shows–the ones where they show off their abilities and still manage to keep their dignity intact (and their clothes on).
Just the last few months have shown us some pretty amazing Latino talent. Two of the Final Four contenders on The Voice, NBC’s surprise hit of the early summer, were Latinos—Javier Colón and Vicci Martinez–and Colón actually took home the first Voice trophy. Meanwhile, two of the fourteen contenders on the surprisingly high-quality show The Glee Project were
Latino as well–Emily Vasquez and Mateus Fernandes–and though they’ve both been ‘voted off,’ the work they did while there was nothing short of amazing. Even The Next Food Network Star has a strong contender in Susie Jimenez, who has managed to make it past Week 7 (as of last night) and has a real shot at the prize (though we won’t know for sure until August 7. (To be fair, TNFNS has had Latino participants almost every one of the seven seasons–kind of odd on a network that has one line Latino host in its entirely current line-up, the spice-lovin’ Aarón Sanchez.)
The best thing about seeing Latinos in these competitions is how admirable each of them is. These are smart, gifted, hard-working people, young or old. There’s a blessed lack of attitude or drama, and an enviable abundance of maturity and class with a capital “K”. Exactly the kind of Latino personalities we want to see on TV, week after week. You can see Emily Vasquez’ backstory right here…and catch some of Colón and Martinez on NBC…
