Nice to see that the WGA’s nominations for outstanding writing in 2011 include some Latino names, including:
Matthew Montoya (story) for The Good Wife, “Death Row Tip”
José Arroyo for his work on the Conan talk show
Eric S. Garcia for Nickelodeon’s Supah Ninjas, Hero of the Shadows
Vivien Mejia for the Disney Channel’s Imagination Movies, The Prince Frog
Marcela Gaviria for PBS’ Frontline documentaries The Spill and Wiki Secrets (Gaviria is also a producer for this highly regarded doc series).
We confess, we’re not quite sure if Tom Casiello is Latino or not. He received a nomination for his work on The Young and the Restless, but our totally exhaustive research (we Googled him, basically) neither confirmed nor denied it. Still, he recently said something worth repeating on Henry Jenkins’ blog, Confessions of a Aca-Fan:
“Diversity is a major issue daytime needs to address. This isn’t just a Caucasian versus African-American issue. In a perfect world, these shows would also represent Latino characters, Asian characters, Jewish characters, homosexuals/bisexuals; there’s no end to the types of characters these shows should involve in their long-term stories–while always striving to find a balance between honesty and stereotyping, walking that fine line between truth and cliché. All of these demographics can play vital roles in front-burner stories and can present just as many interesting character dilemmas as a middle-aged, Caucasian, heterosexual character can…probably with an added layer of nuance, an original perspective that puts an entirely new spin on the storyline.”
Well said! And congratulations to all the nominees; we’ll continue to cover the WGA Awards in 2012.
