When Karla Souza arrived in Hollywood, the Latino explosion in the movie industry was just beginning.
The Mexican actress landed in Los Angeles in 2014 sheltered by the triumph of
Nosotros los Nobles
, a comedy in which a millionaire businessman simulates a crisis in the family economy to teach his spoiled children a lesson.
The tape was a box office success and became one of the most viewed in the country of it.
Her fair complexion and green eyes began that same year to become known among the American public with the television drama
How to get away with murder.
A few days ago, the actress caused a controversy by referring to herself as a "person of color" in the country where she works.
On the
Creativo
podcast , Souza described his first few months at the mecca of the industry.
Her inexperience led to what she now considers a poor salary negotiation on a series starring Viola Davis that was a hit for ABC, which ran it for six seasons.
Her experience alerted her to the next opportunity, another series for the same station, called
Home Economics
.
"When I began to smell that the white actors were being paid more than the two women, me, the Mexican, and the African-American, I made a fucking fart [scandal]," she confessed to the driver, Roberto Martínez.
Souza raised the complaint to production.
“They should rectify so that women of color in the series are paid the same as white people,” she told the producers.
“I am aware of my skin color and the privilege that comes with it.
The segregation of certain groups based on race or nationality is a social construct that varies from the region of the world in which you are”, Souza assured EL PAÍS in a telephone interview.
The actress believes that her words were taken out of context.
“In the United States, Latinos are included under the term people of color, and this goes beyond skin color, since it takes into account cultural heritage and nationality... It may sound ridiculous, but that is how it is He considers me here”, adds the actress, who has promoted
La caída
, a low-budget and more intimate film that touches on sexual abuse in sports.
The actress talks about the recent rules of an industry that struggles to become more diverse in a global consumer environment.
But these rules are not clear even for the most veteran.
Variety
generated a similar controversy to Souza's when she said that Anya Taylor-Joy was the first "person of color" to win the Golden Globe for a miniseries.
The magazine was forced to rectify the label she used for the unclassifiable
Queen's Gambit protagonist
,
who has British, Argentine, Spanish, Scottish and Zimbabwean blood (even though she defines herself as a white Latina).
The same thing happened with
Deadline
and
Vanity Fair
who used the same category for Antonio Banderas after his Oscar nomination for
Pain and Glory
.
The publications backed off when they saw the negative reactions.
Anya Taylor-Joy has described herself as a white Latina.
She unintentionally starred in a controversy after the press considered her a "person of color". VALERIE MACON (AFP)
In Poder Prieto, a movement that fights to give more visibility to racialized people, considers Souza's words "problematic."
"What causes confusion in this specific case is that she is Mexican and here in Mexico she, her phenotype, origin, and economic and social position place her in a privileged place over people who do live at a disadvantage," says Aleida Violeta Vázquez Cisneros. , an Afro-Mexican poet and activist.
“She had to encounter this dynamic of racism in the United States so that she could then protest.
And she does it by appropriating a discourse of people who have been objects of oppression, ”adds the member of the collective, who does not take away weight from Souza's claim.
The wage penalty suffered by Latinos in Hollywood is real.
“What Karla brings to light is that the percentage of people of color or minorities is minimal in the industry,” says Diana Luna, president of the National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP), a organization that estimates that there are some 20,000 Latinos working in the industry.
Inequity is not exclusive to those who appear in front of the camera.
“They don't pay the same when there is a female director of color.
The projects have less budget, ”she adds.
Luna calls the state of diversity in the industry “devastating”.
His pessimism is illustrated by the most recent report from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) on the subject.
The document ensures that despite the fact that Hollywood had shown signs of opening up to minorities in the last two years, the pandemic once again pushed the studios to caution.
“Studios banked on surefire hits based on nostalgia and old intellectual property rather than moving forward with more inclusion and new narratives,” the report states.
The report has become a highly consulted take on the temperature of the entertainment capital in the United States since the #OscarSoWhite controversy.
Its authors, Darnell Hunt and Ana-Christina Ramón, coordinate a team that each year reviews some 170 films released on screens and thousands of television series.
The conclusions put an end to the myth of progress and meritocracy.
Only 21% of the protagonists of films released in 2022 were carried out by people of color (blacks, Latinos, Asians, etc.).
This despite the fact that 43% of the country's population is part of these minorities.
Latinos are among the least represented groups on the screen, despite being one of the groups that consume the most audiovisual products.
The situation does not improve for those who lead.
"Although the film industry has advanced in recent years, at its core, it remains an exclusive club of white male directors," the authors write.
And they add: "Women and people of color must be exceptional to survive in the industry, while white men have many more opportunities to prosper."
Karla Souza believes that the system can only be broken when there are more women and Latinas in leadership positions.
Only 4% of Hollywood executives are of Hispanic origin, indicates an official report.
“He is being challenged more and more.
They are obstacles that have to be pushed or fought so that my characters are not stereotyped, so that I am paid the same as other colleagues and that nothing else is taken as a quota and that I am seen as a multidimensional person.
If I were a racialized woman, I would have even more segregation and discrimination," Souza said.