Hispanic Lawmakers, Pushing for a Change in Hollywood, Start With ‘Selena’

Lawmakers and experts hope that by adding the film to the National Film Registry, more doors could open for Latinos in movies and television

First there was Selena Quintanilla-pérez, the pathbreaking Latina singer who inspired a generation of artists and was killed at the cusp of national fame. Then there was “Selena,” the film that burnished her legend and propelled another Latina artist to stardom.

Tribute albums, a Netflix series and podcasts followed, and now, more than two decades after the movie’s 1997 release, a group of lawmakers are pushing for “Selena” to be added to the National Film Registry, saying its inclusion could put pressure on Hollywood to increase Latino representation in the industry’s ranks. The lawmakers’ effort was welcomed by film and Latino studies experts, who called it long overdue.

“It’s a recognition of Chicana and Latina talent in acting and representation,” said Theresa Delgadillo, a Chicana and Latina studies professor at the University of Wisconsin-madison, “and a woman innovator in music at the center of it.”

Selena burst into the maledominated Tejano music industry in Texas, winning critical adoration, a huge following and then a Grammy in 1994. She was shot and killed a year later, only 23, by the founder of her fan club. Her English-language debut, “Dreaming of You,” was posthumously released.

Over a quarter-century after her death, Selena remains a pop culture icon, especially among Mexican-americans and Latinos from her native Texas. On Spotify, she has more than five million monthly listeners. This month, the Grammys will honor her with a special merit award.

But the 1997 film, starring Jennifer Lopez as Selena and Edward James Olmos as her father, also deserves recognition, said Representative Joaquin Castro, a Democrat from Texas leading the effort in Congress. He said in an interview that Latino creators and their stories are too often brushed aside by gatekeepers of American culture, like Hollywood and the national registry, and that, in all media, Latinos are too often portrayed through negative stereotypes like gang members, drug dealers and hypersexualized women.

“Hollywood is still the image-defining institution in the United States,” Mr. Castro said about his project for more balanced representation. “All of us that walk around with brown skin or a Spanish last name, we have to face the stereotypes and narratives that are created by American media, and historically, some of the worst stereotypes have come out of Hollywood.”

In a letter from the 38 members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Mr. Castro wrote that “the exclusion of Latinos from the film industry” mirrored “the ways in which Latinos continue to be excluded from the full promise of America — a problem that will not be solved until our stories can be fully told.