This Latino launches his film studio to finance the projects that Hollywood ignores: "I got tired of waiting"

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1. The topic to highlight: A new film studio is committed "to culture"

A Mexican-American launched a new movie studio this month designed to appeal to Latino audiences and fill what he sees as a hole for the Latino community that Hollywood has left behind.

Why it matters

: Latinos are huge moviegoers, both in the US and in the rest of the Americas, but they still represent a small fraction of the people who make movies in front of and behind the cameras in Hollywood.

News Push

: Albert Sandoval, with more than 15 years of industry experience, explained to Axios Latino that he launched Ultraísmo because he was fed up with Hollywood executives rarely endorsing and funding Latino-led projects.

• "I'm tired of waiting for the decision makers in Hollywood to give us the opportunity to represent our culture with something other than a negative stereotype," Sandoval says.

• "From a business perspective, I can't understand why Hollywood hasn't made a more concerted effort to invest in better understanding this market," he adds, "I think it's a combination of decades and decades and decades of misrepresentation, with a lot of ignorance about the nuances of Latino culture.

• Ultraísmo takes a different approach to financing its projects than traditional studios: it seeks corporate sponsors for the initial costs of the films. 

Illustration: Maura Losch/Axios

Ultraísmo announced its first project 

last week:

, a documentary about Mexican cinema from the 1930s to the 1950s.

• It is in production and is expected to premiere in September 2024. 

In His Own Words

: Michael Pachter, analyst and director of equity research at Wedbush Securities, says that movie studios are slowly getting used to creating Hispanic content, but progress is extremely slow.

● He believes that Sandoval will be successful with Ultraísmo and sees it likely that other filmmakers will follow his path.

• "I've never noticed [a study] focused on a particular culture, probably with the exception of Bollywood," says Pachter, referring to the Indian film industry.

  "I think that's why the approach is really smart," she adds.

2. Far from equal pay

Today the United States marks Equal Pay Day, which symbolizes how far into this calendar year women must work to earn the same as men last year.

• But for Latinas in the United States, that day where their salaries equal those of men is usually at the beginning of October.

• Internationally, the day is celebrated in September.

Illustration: Maura Losch/Axios

In numbers:

Latinas who work full time in the US earn 57 cents for every dollar earned by a non-Hispanic white man.

But recent data shows that a woman's ancestry also affects her salary.

• Female workers of Honduran descent earn 44 cents for every dollar earned by non-Hispanic whites, according to data from the National Women's Law Center (NWLC).

• Women of Guatemalan origin earn 47 cents on the dollar;

  the Salvadorans win 49 and the Mexicans, 52.

• Argentine (¢82), Chilean (¢75) and Panamanian (¢73) women earn the most in the United States compared to non-Hispanic white men, according to the data.

In her own words

: "I think companies could be doing more on hiring, they should be auditing their wages for these disparities. They might even take a step back to let workers unionize," says Jasmine Tucker, director of NWLC research.

"We need a multifactorial approach to tackle this."

3. A federal effort on a data problem

A federal initiative seeks to standardize the metrics used in the United States criminal justice system, since at the state and local level there are difficulties in accurately recording data on Latino, indigenous and Asian people.

Why it matters

: State authorities and law enforcement use different data collection systems to identify arrestees.

That leads to incomplete or incorrect statistics, especially for non-whites, and makes it difficult, experts say, to develop policies to address inequalities. 

Details

: An office of the Department of Justice and the Council of State Governments Justice Center launched the Justice Counts program last year.

• With the help of 21 other groups, it seeks to help criminal justice policymakers make better decisions with data that is "more timely, less disconnected, and as useful as possible."

• Justice Counts proposes that law enforcement use standardized methods to identify people based on their race, ethnicity, and gender at the same time.

  For example, for Latinos, both their race (broadly speaking, their skin tone) and their ethnicity (if they are of Guatemalan or Colombian origin, etc.) should be noted.

A Latino man arrested in Chelsea, Massachusetts, in May 2021Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images

In their own words

: Justice Counts wants to ensure that consistent data is collected for every point in the criminal justice system, from arrest or jail to release, according to Clementine Jacoby, director of Recidiviz.

This nonprofit organization seeks to improve data to reduce incarceration and participates in this government initiative.

To Watch For

: Justice Counts is preparing an educational campaign for state and local agencies to adopt standardized methods.

• Jacoby said the campaign will also target universities to educate criminal students, such as lawyers or forensics, about the need for standardized data.

4. A Latino driver in prime time

program

of NBC News, sister network of Noticias Telemundo, premiered this Monday in prime time, with Gadi Schwartz as presenter.

Why it matters

: Schwartz, born in Guatemala, is one of the few Latinos to host a national news program in the US, when the Hispanic television audience has continued to grow.

• Latino journalist Tom Llamas is another on that short list, as host of

  Top Story with Tom Llamas.

  His newscast airs right after Schwartz's.

Gadi Schwartz in front of the set of "Stay Tuned NOW"Courtesy of NBC News NOW

Details

:

airs Monday through Friday at 8 pm ET/5 pm PT via the

NBC News NOW

It seeks to give the latest news of the day but also has segments dedicated to the climate emergency and technological innovations.

In his own words

: "As someone who was born in Guatemala and raised in New Mexico, I am honored to add that extra perspective to our coverage of our communities," Schwartz told Axios Latino.

• He said he will also highlight reports from Noticias Telemundo.

• "Latinidad is a melting pot of culture and it gives me great hope that we are finding new ways to reflect that in our programming," he said.

5. Summary of key news in Latin America and the Caribbean

1. The Nicaraguan regime

of Daniel Ortega and his "co-president" Rosario Murillo threatened Sunday to break ties with the Vatican after Pope Francis compared the crackdown on the Central American country's opposition to the Leninist-Stalinist dictatorships of 1917. and with the Nazi regime.

• Nicaragua sentenced Rolando Álvarez, a Catholic bishop and outspoken critic of the government, to 26 years in prison in February. 

Prosecutor Garland points to two Mexican cartels as responsible for fentanyl trafficking

March 2, 202302:03

2. Mexico this week instructed its consuls in the US

 to place more emphasis on the security and combat campaigns against fentanyl of the Government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, in rejection of comments made from the United States about drug trafficking , which is produced mainly in Mexican territory but whose consumers are mostly Americans.

• The campaign was announced after Sens. Lindsey Graham and John Kennedy said they plan to introduce legislation to allow the US military to go after cartels "wherever they exist", suggesting they would support a foray by US security forces into Mexico.

• López Obrador called them "wimps" and "interventionists."

6. Tightrope Debut

A long Mexican acrobatic tradition has opened its doors to women for the first time. 

Details

: Yadira Mendoza, 17, made her debut last month as the first female member of the maromeros of San Sebastián and Santa Rosa, who perform dance and trapeze numbers that date partly to the 16th century.

La maroma de Santa Rosa: the Mixtec dance that refuses to disappear

Feb 26, 202301:43

• Maromeros perform during popular festivals and religious festivals in the Mixtec (ñuu savi) regions of Oaxaca and other Mexican states.

• The maromera tradition was lost for a few years since massive emigration meant that few were left to practice it, but a young group has been working to rescue it since 2018, inviting anyone who is interested to audition.

In her own words

: "It seems to me that it breaks the stereotypes of machismo that women cannot and that in dances that are supposedly usually impossible for women, yes, we can," Mendoza told Noticias Telemundo.

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