The Critics Choice Association held its 5th annual Celebration of Latino Cinema & Television in L.A. on Friday, coming at a particularly fraught time for a community that is being specifically targeted by the Trump administration.
That was the subject of several of the luncheon’s acceptance speeches, as America Ferrera, Andy Garcia, Oscar Isaac, Anthony Ramos, Camila Perez, Dolores Huerta, Frida Perez, Gabriel Luna, Kleber Mendonça Filho, Dolores Fonzi and Tonatiuh were all recognized for their work.
Ferrera — presented her Trailblazer Award by The Lost Bus producer Jamie Lee Curtis — had a standout moment as she closed out the event by noting how “in a day and age where discourse and conversation are failing to create connection and empathy and understanding, the storytelling we do becomes more vital,” as TV and film “has the power to transport people outside of their entrenched logic and into their hearts.”
The star, who is also heavily involved in political activism, later explained how she was recently talking to a scholar on the history of authoritarianism who said the U.S. is “barreling towards a crisis point in our country and therefore in our world. And we [in Hollywood] are not a cute little side note to civil society — we are civil society. Artists and the stories we tell have a role to play in this moment.”
“We have an obligation to point not only to what we are against, but to create and to demonstrate the world that we are for and the world that we want to live in; and to not depict one another as charity cases, as people who need us to have dignity. We are born with our dignity, and no one will take that away from us,” Ferrera passionately continued. “Our opportunity as storytellers is to lift each other up, to give each other our humanity, to reaffirm the dignity that we all deserve — and in this moment, we have an obligation to preserve our rights as storytellers, as artists. And make no mistake, we are there, and it is time for us to find our courage, find our heroism, be as brave as the characters we write and as brave as the characters we play and stand up and use our voices and use our art — make art that inspires and calls forth the world we want to live in.”
Cristo Fernández, Anthony Ramos, America Ferrera and Tonatiuh
Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Critics Choice Association
That call to action was present from the early moments of the event, which began with giving activist Huerta the Icon Award. She celebrated the entertainment community for creating “stories that are going to let the world know we are not criminals,” but rather “the people that really feed and really nourish this nation, the United States of America. And the other thing that we have to say — the majority of the people right now that are being harassed and tormented, they’re not immigrants, they’re the indigenous people of the continent.” To finish her speech, she led the room in a chant of her signature rallying cry “sí se puede.”
Throughout the event, Garcia was presented with the Vanguard Award, The Secret Agent filmmaker Filho with the Director Award, The Studio’s Frida Perez with the Showrunner Award (accompanied by a speech from Seth Rogen) and Ramos with the Supporting Actor, Film Award for A House of Dynamite. Isaac virtually accepted the Actor, Film Award for Frankenstein while Luna was presented the Supporting Actor, Film Award for Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy, Dolores Fonzi with the International Film Award, Camila Perez with the Breakthrough Actress Award and Kiss of the Spider Woman‘s Tonatiuh with the Breakthrough Actor Award.
Frida Perez and Seth Rogen
Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Critics Choice Association
In his speech, Tonatiuh revealed how when the Jennifer Lopez musical came out two weeks ago, they gave away tickets across the country to people in financial hardship — including kids at the high school he had gone to, who he brought to a screening at The Grove.
“They got to see themselves on screen, and I held them in my arms as they cried and they said that they have never seen anything like this,” Tonatiuh said. “Some of them came out to me, some of them told me that they were carrying their passports in their pockets just in case, and that this film helped them process their pain.” He concluded with echoing Huerta’s call of “sí se puede” and adding, “Fuck ICE.”
