“Creating
Opportunities, Rewarding Excellence”
The National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts was created
in 1997 to advance the presence of Latinos in the media, telecommunications
and entertainment industries. The Foundation has concentrated
in increasing access for Hispanic artists and professionals
while fostering the emergence of new Hispanic talent.
The
Hispanic community--which makes up 13.5 percent of the U.S.
population, has become the nation's largest ethnic minority
group--increasingly recognized for its potentially enormous
consumer and political power. The entertainment industry has
been making progress, but an enormous gap still exists before
the Latino Community--38.8 million strong--are adequately
reflected on both the small and big screen.
Paradoxically,
while the entertainment industry and its advertisers tap into
the Hispanic community’s resources, programming still
falls short of the need to expand and present U.S. Latinos
in a more modern and contemporary manner. This omission deprives
an entire community of a source of cultural pride and reality
and the country-at-large of a true picture of the American
mosaic.
The
Foundation's mission has two principal goals:
