Cristina Escobar

As loud as we rightfully get when Hollywood execs cancel a Latino show, we should be just as vocal when our shows get renewed. So let’s take a moment to celebrate the fact that several Latino shows are getting new seasons!

Christina Vidal sits down with Latino Rebels to discuss Amazon Freevee’s ‘Primo,’ bringing that female energy to a largely male cast, and the ways in which Latino representation has changed since her TV debut more than 20 years ago.

Jennifer Lopez has more than earned the right to be the star, to put great men in supporting roles, and tell a story that unapologetically centers her. It’s a rare feat for a Latina, but hopefully one that becomes less so as J.Lo continues paving the way.

“I’ve always wanted to work with (writer-director) Robert (Rodriguez),” Brazilian actress Alice Braga told Latino Rebels. “He’s a Latino director that really, really believes in representation. And he supports a lot the Latin community. He brings Latin actors like myself to work on his films.”

“I wanted to write my own history, add a piece, and make it from the point of view of a woman, the anonymous woman,” says Manuel Martelli, co-writer and director of ‘Chile ‘76,’ which offers up a slice of bourgeoisie life under the infamous dictator Augusto Pinochet.

Produced by the largest grassroots immigrant youth rights group, United We Dream, ‘No Borders, Just Flavors’ features young immigrants battling it out in the kitchen to see who has the better dish while sharing what their recipe means to them.

A lot of people have accents. And with a little more respect and knowledge, Hollywood might finally portray them that way.

In ‘Chupa,’ a fun family film with an awkward title, we see a Mexican American boy go from shame to triumph, and all it takes is a little magic and a lot of love.

Puerto Rican director Kristian Mercado calls his sci-fi rom-com ‘If You Were the Last,’ which premiered at this year’s South by Southwest festival in Austin, a rare opportunity for a Latino filmmaker “to do things that are really outside the box.”

People of color being recognized for their artistic achievements shouldn’t be an outlier, and we shouldn’t still be celebrating “firsts” at awards shows.

“For the longest time, we were only thought of as side characters, the best friend, or the one that gets killed off first,” Melissa Barrera, who stars as co-lead Sam in the latest installment in the ‘Scream’ series, told Latino Rebels. “To have two final girls that are Latinas is powerful.”

Premiering March 10, ‘Righteous Thieves’ is essentially a Latino ‘Ocean’s 11,’ with our clever burglars stealing back paintings from Nazis that stole them from Jewish families during the Holocaust. There’s power and joy in this silly heist film that puts Latinos at its center but doesn’t spend time on their identity.

The Chilean American actor is currently starring in two of the biggest shows: HBO’s ‘The Last of Us,’ which has topped the charts every week since premiering in January, and Disney’s ‘The Mandalorian,’ now in its third season. But that doesn’t quite explain how he became the internet’s favorite obsession.

Essentially, Salma Hayek Pinault is in ‘Magic Mike’s Last Dance’ to give feminist cover to a debatable enterprise—while enjoying every minute of the spectacle. And there is something satisfying about watching Hayek Pinault take on the Richard Gere role in ‘Pretty Woman.’

During a recent episode of his podcast, Chicano icon George Lopez insulted up-and-coming comedian Ralph Barbosa by saying “nobody knows who he is.” Now that Lopez has apologized to Barbosa privately, can we go back to seeing him as the lovable TV dad who helps fellow Latinos?

Netflix’s ‘Against the Ropes’ is an unlikely love story. We’re talking a woman-centered wrestling show that’s primarily about the relationship between a mother and her 12-year-old daughter, plus a maximalist show that combines not just lucha libre wrestling, but also a drug ring, a bridal shop workplace, multiple romance plots, and more.

Writer-director Michelle Garza Cervera’s feature debut, ‘Huesera: The Bone Woman,’ exposes the Mexican cult of motherhood as a site of horror. The film follows Natalia Solián as Valeria, a young Mexican woman who’s convinced herself that she wants what society wants of her.

The Netflix series ‘On My Block’ was one of the rare high-school shows to center people of color. Now the show’s creators are back with a spinoff, ‘Freeridge.’ Set in the same L.A. neighborhood and the same school, the show follows a new set of friends, still four in number, still mixed gender, all people of color, and still fast-talking and mystery-solving.

Latino Rebels’ entertainment correspondent Cristina Escobar gives an account of her first covering the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah last month and discusses the gains made by Latinos in occupying such spaces and the need for more.

Latino Rebels speaks with Chilean filmmaker Christopher Murray, co-writer and director of ‘Sorcery,’ which is set on Chile’s Chiloé Island in 1880 and follows a 13-year-old Huilliche girl, Rosa, as she seeks revenge after a white man kills her father.

Latino Rebels speaks with Venezuelan director and co-writer Patricia Ortega, whose ‘Mamacruz’ is a subtle, complex comedy that never makes its aging protagonist the butt of its jokes, but instead invites us to sympathize with a woman who is finally learning how to be the hero of her own story in her third act.