Only One Latino Makes The 2017 Tony Nominations

The 2017 Tony nominations were announced this morning with only ONE Latino making the list -Puerto Rican Ruben Santiago-Hudson who directed the six-time nominated August Wilson play, Jitney. The celebration of Tony’s diversity progression died in the musical category this year in comparison to last year’s Hamilton phenomenon. That’s not to say Broadway as a whole hasn’t made an effort to include more African-Americans, Asians, and Latinos in their shows (Chicago, Miss Saigon, Anastasia, et.al). They have and sometimes at the cost of including them in nonsensical roles (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), but at least they’re there. In the play categories, we did witness inclusion in most of the nominations, in particular, Jitney, Oslo, and Sweat. For me personally, Latinos are a forgotten ethnicity in the eyes of the arts today. Lin-Manuel Miranda cannot be the sole torchbearer of the largest majority minority in our nation. It has to change, we have to change it. Read More