The Imagen Foundation recognizes Latinx talent, celebrating diversity in the entertainment industry. The awards are determined by an independent panel of industry executives and Latino community leaders. Established in 1985, the Imagen Awards program was founded by television producer and American Masters subject Norman Lear to encourage and recognize the positive portrayals of Latinos in the media. Its mission serves to provide access, education, and resources for Latinos in the entertainment industry.
Jovita Idar (1885-1946), teacher, journalist, nurse, and civil rights activist, grew up in Laredo, Texas where her family published La Crónica, a Spanish-language newspaper that exposed segregation, lynching, and other injustices endured by Mexican Texans in the early 20th century. At a time when signs announcing “No Negroes, Mexicans, or Dogs Allowed” were common in shops, restaurants, and other public places, she helped organize the First Mexicanist Congress in 1911, a convention that tackled racism and the lynching of Mexican Americans, launching the civil rights movement for Mexican American in the U.S. She helped create the League of Mexican Women, one of the first known Latina feminist organizations, and served as its first president. Encouraging women’s involvement in public policy, Idar worked for women’s rights, suffrage, quality bilingual education for Mexican American children, and an end to racism and segregation.
Interviewees: biographer Gabriela González, Associate Professor of History at the University of Texas at San Antonio, and author of “Redeeming La Raza: Transborder Modernity, Race, Respectability, and Rights”; award-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa, anchor of NPR’s Latino USA and founder of the non-profit news organization Futuro Media.
