Though TFE has bemoaned the need for every little city in the world to have their own critics organizations (sometimes two!) rather than merely joining preexisting organizations, we don't feel the same way when it comes to representation and diversity. We were actually shocked to realize that there wasn't already an organization for Latino entertainment journalists. Clayton Davis of Awards Circuit fame saw the gap and founded The Latino Entertanment Journalists Association and will serve as its first president. Additional founding board members are Toni Gonzales (Freelance), Niki Cruz (AM NY), and Kiko Martinez (Remezcla). This new Association will announce their first film awards on January 20th, 2019...
Clayton states:
The love of film and art is universal. There are nearly 50 countries throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. Our members range from first-generation, to others with families that have been here for decades. We have citizens and DREAMERS, pure and mixed races, Spanish-speaking and non-Spanish speaking, and a foundation in place to reach out to journalists both old and new, to encourage a new generation of writers to do just that: write. We have future plans to expand this organization through professional networking and proceed to expand into varying facets of entertainment including television, music, theatre, and more. If a Latino can write about it, we want to include it.”
You can read the full press release at Awards Circuit where you'll also see a list of inaugural members including two of our much-missed former contributors here at The Film Experience: Manuel Betancourt and Jose Solís.