One in every five Americans are Latino, but a study from the USC Norman Lear Center found that they only make up 6% of on-screen characters in broadcast television shows.
The study is a first of its kind for the research institution, but the team behind it were not surprised by the lack of representation for Latino characters on screen. As Latino Americans are being targeted across the United States, senior researcher Soraya Giaccardi Vargas told TheWrap exclusively that a diverse array of representation matters more than ever.
“It’s symbolic annihilation,” Soraya Giaccardi Vargas explained the term further, saying, “The idea is that the under-representation of people, and the misrepresentation of communities on screen is actually one of the ways in which we maintain social inequity, by shaping public perception about the value and the existence of these groups.”
“Not including these groups on screen is so much more than wanting to be seen or seeing people that look like you. It’s about the symbolic annihilation of these communities and how they matter to our country at large,” she added.
The “Between Stereotypes & Specificity” study analyzed the top 20 U.S. shows from the 2024-2025 broadcast season with Latino characters as its broad sample. Within those shows, 70% had four Latino characters or fewer while half of the series featured just one Latino character.
The study also noted that even shows that included Latino characters lacked cultural specificity. If their heritage was identified at all, the majority were Mexican. 91% were in race-agnostic roles.
Vargas told TheWrap the racial ambiguity around Latino characters was counter to how Latinos actually identify in reality.
“Research has looked into this — not just for the Latino community — but for many other communities, and people tend to lead with their country of origin,” she said. Representation on-screen rarely embraces this, she found. “That is just such a sharp contrast to the way people speak about their identity in everyday life, and it’s interesting that that’s something that has fallen through the cracks when it comes to how we describe identity on screen.”
As for the quality of the representation on-screen, Vargas and her team noticed a pattern that 25% of Latinos in broadcast television shows had an occupation as a career criminal and 26% participated in a crime on screen.
This trope reinforces stereotypes about the Latino community that are damaging. Out of 69 characters, the study found that only seven were depicted as wealthy and four of those gained their riches from criminal endeavors.
Vargas stressed that the research team is not arguing these stories should never be told, but warned that when criminality becomes the dominant narrative, it carries real consequences for how Latino communities are perceived.
Looking to the future, the research team recommended that television creators and executives aim for their TV shows to reflect the current U.S. population figure of one-in-five Latinos. The study also concluded that to increase quality of representation creators should embrace the Latino lived experience and increase specificity rather than hide in the ambiguity.
The study specifically recommends that networks prioritize Latino talent behind-the-camera to bring a natural authenticity to the storytelling.
“One of the biggest obstacles that we face is that there is still this perception that Latino media is for Latinos,” she added. “I would urge those in the industry to recognize that as a myth. A myth that has held a lot of power in this industry and a myth that is still informing a lot of decisions.”
As ICE raids continue nationwide, Vargas noted that it was impossible to deny the reality of the moment the U.S. is in.
“We are being inundated and flooded with anti-Latino rhetoric coming from the highest offices in the country and the impact has been felt heavily across Latino communities,” she said. “It’s especially important that we humanize the stories of Latinos, and that we treat this community not as a monolith, but that we acknowledge its diversity and all the different things that these communities bring to our nation and our society.”
Read the Norman Lear Center’s full report here.
