Although the Spanish and Latin cultures have infused and enriched the roots of this country since its inception, their presence in mainstream American media is a fairly new development. With the success of movies such as Julian Schnabel’s Before Night Falls and Marilyn Agrelo’s Mad Hot Ballroom, audiences are taking a greater interest Latin-American stories—though the journey is at times uphill. “Latinos are the largest minority in the United States with a swift growing economic presence but have remained sorely underrepresented in media,” says Kathryn F. Galan, the executive director of the National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP).

Instead of viewing this representational gap entirely as a negative, NALIP looks at growing the Latin community in media programming and moviemaking as a challenge, and an exciting one at that. Through various outreach efforts, from hosting a national conference to running workshops for screenwriters, producers and documentarians, NALIP plays a large role in supporting and developing the Latin voice. “Our organization grows as the field expands. We see more young artists attending film school and pursuing entertainment careers; we see Latino/a writers and directors accepted into industry training programs… and we see Latino/a television programs, production companies and other signs of health in the industry,” Galan enumerates. With a roster of more than 1,000 members, NALIP shows signs of exponentially increasing its presence in the film world, playing a major part in bringing the Latin-American voice to mainstream cinema.

For more information—or to join the NALIP ranks—visit their website.

Sound Off: In the Summer 2006 issue of MM, Darlene Caamano Loquet, the president of NALA Films, told journalist Lily Percy, “We need to stop classifying stories as ‘Latin’ or ‘African-American’ or ‘urban’ and instead just call them what they are—great stories… We need to focus on making universally-themed stories with our people at the center.” What do you think about this idea with regards to the development of film from the Latin-American community?