Kennedy Center Honors: What a difference a year makes for Hispanics!

voxxiBy Grace Flores-Hughes, Voxxi

It’s been a little over a year that then president of the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, Michael Kaiser brashly told Felix Sanchez, to “go f… yourself” and quickly hung up. At the heart of their conversation was the inclusion of Hispanic artists.

Felix Sanchez is the Executive Director and co-founder of the Hispanic Foundation for the Arts , and its main mission is to ensure that Hispanics are fairly and equally represented in the arts.

Mr. Sanchez called Mr. Kaiser to express his concern over the lack of Hispanics recognized by the Kennedy Center’s Honors. For over 35 years, the Kennedy Center has been honoring those in the arts that have contributed a lifetime achievement be it as composers, dancers, actors, musicians, etc.

During all those years, and 187 honorees later, only two Hispanics have been so honored, Placido Domingo and Chita Rivera. To add more insult to injury, the Kennedy Center’s Board of Trustees has also been lacking in Hispanic representation since day one.

Last year television personality Giselle Fernandez was the lone person of Hispanic background to sit on the prestigious and powerful board.

It’s no secret that Hispanics have for the most part been ignored in many quarters of this country’s elite and powerful institutions especially in the arts and media.

Yet on the other hand, we Hispanics have pretty much taken whatever crumbs are thrown at us and gone about our business, not wanting to raise a raucous and risk alienating the powers that be.

And it hasn’t helped our plight any when some of our own kind that are in positions to help, haven’t gone out of their way to keep the ladder to success in place for others to climb. But that attitude among Hispanics is fast becoming history.

Last year showed that “coming together” can produce significant benefit for not only our community but the country at large. Mr. Kaiser didn’t know that when he so boldly insulted Felix Sanchez he did more to bring us Hispanics together.  Ya basta–enough is enough with the insults, the discrimination, and the lack of regard for hard working people.

Five outstanding Hispanic artists

At least twelve Hispanic advocacy organizations teamed up with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus in support of Felix Sanchez’s unfortunate experience with the Kennedy Center’s Kaiser. And it proved once again that a “squeaky wheel gets the grease,” and that coalitions do indeed bring power.

This year’s Kennedy Center Awards honored five outstanding artists, two of whom were Hispanic, musician Carlos Santana and opera singer Martina Arroyo.

Not only that, there were several Latino artists present that paid tribute not only to their fellow Hispanics but to other artists such as Broadway star Karen Oliva who  paid tribute to actor Shirley MacLaine.

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor paid tribute to fellow Puerto Rican and friend, Martina Arroyo and singer Juanes and Fher Olvera of the Mexican rock band Mana joined in on a tribute to Santana.

And the two new Latino board members recently appointed by President Obama to the Kennedy Center’s Board of Trustees were also visibly present. Walter F. Ulloa, the Chairman and CEO of Entravision and business owner Amanda Perea Mahoney joined Giselle Fernandez and all the other guests for a night of celebration honoring five deservingly talented artists.

And even Felix Sanchez who only a year ago had been treated with contempt by the Kennedy Center president was among the guests. As for Mr. Kaiser, he is no longer with the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

The time of Hispanic pride and celebration is here! But there is more work ahead for those of Hispanic background to ensure that our community is indeed treated equally and fairly.

The lack of Hispanics in television talk shows is troubling to say the least – instead of gaining more Latinos in television we are losing them by the minute.

Recently the talented Ray Suarez the only Latino at PBS resigned while long time anchor and equally talented Soledad O’Brien and producer David Puente both recently left CNN.

One of the morning talk shows that is obviously lacking Hispanics, whether as guests or as regular commentators ,is the Morning Joe show on MSNBC. You’d think given their low ratings that the show’s producers would try anything to capture more viewers especially the fast growing Hispanic community but not so.

I recently met one of the show’s co-anchors Mika Brzezinski and mentioned that the show should have Hispanic representation. Her response, “I know, I know.”

It’s a good sign that she recognizes the problem but it’s going to take a lot more folks like Brzezinski and a lot more of me to complain.

Nothing is going to change for the lack of Hispanic inclusion whether it’s on corporate boards, media, academia, Wall Street or immigration reform unless we push for change. We cannot sit idle and get frustrated by the day…we engaged our community a year ago and we can do it again and we must.

This article was originally published in Voxxi.

Over 3 decades, Grace has served in the administration of three presidents, including that of President George W. Bush who appointed her to the Federal Service Impasses Panel. In 2011 she published her memoir, A Tale of Survival.

[Photo/Screenshot courtesy The White House]

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