Maid in Hollywood: Latinx roles across years
MAID ROLES PLAYED BY LUPE ONTIVEROS: 150+ Lupe
1976: El Paso-born Ontiveros’ plays her first credited role on ABC’s “Charlie’s Angels” — as a maid. Toward the end of her career she famously says she played a maid more than 150 times, most memorably in “As Good As It Gets.” Still, she managed to make her mark in other roles, including the mother in “Zoot Suit” and “Real Women Have Curves,” the murderous fan club president in “Selena” and a mother-in-law on “Desperate Housewives.”
2002: Jennifer Lopez transforms the maid from character part to leading role in “Maid in Manhattan.” The Cinderella story, wtih Ralph Fiennes as a Senate candidate who falls for Lopez, got mixed reviews for its lazy use of rom-com tropes.
2005: Nadine E. Velázquez’s role as the maid Catalina Aruca becomes a key character in “My Name Is Earl” (2005-09). When her character speaks Spanish, she breaks the fourth wall and sends messages to Spanishspeaking viewers.
2013: Eva Longoria defends the choice to put maids at the center of Lifetime’s Marc Cherry series “Devious Maids” (2013-16), for which she was executive producer. She says the best way to break stereotypes is to not ignore them.
NON-LATINO OSCAR NOMINEES PLAYING CHILEANS IN ‘THE HOUSE OF SPIRITS’: 6
1993: The film based on Isabel Allende’s novel “The House of Spirits” starred Meryl Streep as Clara del Valle Trueba, Glenn Close as Férula Trueba, Jeremy Irons as Esteban Trueba, Winona Ryder as Blanca Trueba, Spain’s Antonio Banderas as Pedro Tercero García and Vanessa Redgrave as Nívea del Valle. The film earned mostly negative reviews.
Other films with Latino characters whitewashed by Hollywood: “Juarez” (1939, with Paul Muni as Benito Juarez and Bette Davis as Carlota), “Viva Zapata!” (1952, with Marlon Brando as Zapata), “Touch of Evil” (1958, with Charlton Heston as Ramon Vargas), “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” (1966, with Eli Wallach as Tuco Ramirez), “Che!” (1969, with Omar Sharif as Che and Jack Palance as Fidel Castro), “Scarface” (1983, with Al Pacino as Tony Montana), “Evita” (1996, with Madonna as Evita Peron), “A Beautiful Mind” (2001, with Jennifer Connelly as John Nash’s Salvadoran wife Alicia Nash), “Argo” (2012, with Ben Affleck as CIA officer Tony Mendez).
OSCAR WINS FOR LATINO ACTORS IN 92 YEARS: 6
1951: Puerto Rican José Ferrer becomes the first Latino to win an Academy Award for acting when he receives the lead actor Oscar for “Cyrano de Bergerac” (1950). He earns two other nominations, for his supporting role in “Joan of Arc” (1948) and his leading role in “Moulin Rouge” (1952).
1953: Mexico-born Anthony Quinn (a.k.a. Manuel Antonio Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca) wins the supporting actor Oscar for “Viva Zapata!” (1952). He wins again in 1957 for “Lust for Life” (1956) and was nominated in 1965 as lead actor in “Zorba the Greek” (1964) and in 1958 for “Wild Is the Wind” (1957).
1962: Puerto Rican actress Rita Moreno becomes the first Latina to win an Oscar for her supporting role in “West Side Story” (1961). The casting of the central role of Maria went to non-Latina Natalie Wood.
1989: Edward James Olmos becomes the first U.S.-born Latino to earn a lead actor nomination for his role in “Stand and Deliver” (1988) about Garfield High calculus teacher Jaime Escalante. Dustin Hoffman wins the award for “Rain Man.” Thomas Gomez, though not Latino, was born in New York to Spanish parents and is considered the first Hispanic to earn a supporting actor nomination in 1948 for “Ride the Pink Horse” (1948). No U.S.-born Latino has won an acting Oscar.
1991: Mercedes Ruehl wins the supporting actress Oscar for “The Fisher King.” Though not always counted as Latina, her maternal grandmother was Cuban.
2000: Puerto Rico-born Benicio del Toro wins the supporting actor Oscar in “Traffic” and is nominated again in 2003 for “21 Grams.”
2009: Penelope Cruz, who is Spanish and not considered Latina, wins the supporting actress Oscar in 2009 for “Vicky Christina Barcelona” (2008) and was nominated in 2010 for her supporting role in “Nine” (2009) and in 2007 for her lead role in “Volver” (2006).
2013: Mexico’s Alfonso Cuarón wins the directing Oscar for ‘Gravity” (2012) and begins an unprecedented five-year streak of wins for Mexican directors, with Alejandro González Iñárritu winning in 2014 and 2015 for “Birdman” (2013) and “The Revenant” (2014), Guillermo del Toro in 2017 for “The Shape of Water” (2016) and Cuarón again in 2018 for “Roma” (2017).