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Latinos are the fastest growing minority, and we're obviously not going anywhere. We're extremely loyal as a people, and I think Hollywood is starting to recognize that. It's very rare for a major studio to nationally distribute a film with Latino talent, not only in front of the camera, but also behind the camera.

There just aren't enough positive portrayals of Latino life in film.

You go to Los Angeles or New York or Miami or Chicago, and you see Latinos everywhere; they are involved in every part of American society. That's why they have to start being represented in Hollywood, because an 'Americano' can't walk down the street and not see a Latino.

A couple of years after I arrived in Hollywood, everything that was Latino was fashionable, and years after, my thought is that we're not fashionable anymore. We're here to stay.

Asian Americans haven't had as many opportunities as other people to build their careers in Hollywood, just because there hasn't been that much of an interest, especially in Asian American males.

On the outside, America looks like this great melting pot, but on the inside, there's this segregation in American cinema. Why does a Latino film have to be for Latinos? Why is a black film just for black people? Why?

The problem in Hollywood is that they try to become the only kind of cinema in the world, okay? The imposition everywhere of a unique culture, which is Hollywood culture, and a unique way of life, which is the American way of life.

I don't want the Latino community to think I think the reason Latino films are not doing well is because of us. It is not fully our responsibility.

I had to endure the worst time of all in terms of racial discrimination in Hollywood when I first started out. It was inconcievable to American directors and producers that a Mexican woman could have a lead role.