A breakthrough Oscar moment for Latinos?

By Soll Sussman

Despite a healthy showing for Latino entertainers in this year's Oscar nominations, there's still plenty of room for a memorable moment in the future when the music will just have to stop in honor of the breakthrough performers of the past.
When she floated on stage to give the Oscar for best foreign-language film, Salma Hayek proudly and justifiably touted her nomination as Best Actress for Frida as the first for a Mexican in that category. Actually, she could have gone further and said she was the first actress from a Spanish-speaking country ever nominated for Best Actress.
I know because I spent hours paging through an Oscar reference book, looking at every nomination for actor, actress, supporting actor, and supporting actress, simply because I couldn't believe it had taken so long.
Surely, with annual awards since 1928, in an event as cosmopolitan to include Melina Mercouri (Greek), Leslie Caron (French), and Sophia Loren (Italian), some other Latina must have been nominated for Best Actress previously. Surely, there must have been someone of Latin origin who might have been overlooked at a quick glance, like Rita Hayworth (Margarita Carmen Cansino). But she was never nominated. Surely, no one would have the chance like Halle Berry did the previous year as the first African-American winner of the Best Actress Oscar to tearfully praise pioneers like Dorothy Dandridge and Lena Horne. I went back to check and now have the sad answer ready if the Best Actress envelope is ever opened for a Latina.
Yes, Salma Hayek this year was the first native Spanish-speaking actress but not the first Latin American. Fernanda Montenegro, the great Brazilian actress, was nominated in 1998 for the Portuguese-language film Central Station. Pretty skimpy for 75 years of Oscar history, I'd say.
Best Supporting Actress nominations have been slightly more numerous, with the only winner Puerto Rican Rita Moreno in 1961 for West Side Story. Other nominees include Puerto Rican Rosie Perez for Fearless in 1993, Argentine Norma Aleandro for the Mexican film Gaby in 1987, and the breakthrough performer in this category, Mexican Katy Jurado for Broken Arrow in 1954.
Jurado actually prompted my current obsession with Latino performers, since I had interviewed her almost 20 years ago at her home in Cuernavaca and been impressed by her pride and frankness. In January, Entertainment Weekly had left her out of its annual tribute to performers who died in the previous year, and I wrote a Letter to the Editor that was published pointing out the oversight. She was included in the Oscar tribute this March, though.
Men have fared better at the Oscars, according to my caffeine-fueled survey, mostly because of Puerto Rican José Ferrer and Mexican Anthony Quinn. Ferrer is the only Latino ever to win a Best Actor Oscar, for Cyrano de Bergerac in 1950, and he was nominated again for Moulin Rouge two years later.
Quinn was nominated twice for Best Actor, for Zorba the Greek in 1964 and Wild is the Wind in 1957, but his two Oscars were for supporting roles, in Lust for Life in 1956 and Viva Zapata! in 1952.
The only other Latino winner was Puerto Rican Benicio del Toro, for Supporting Actor two years ago for Traffic, and the only other Latino nominated for Best Actor was Edward James Olmos for Stand and Deliver in 1988. Best Supporting Actor nominees included Cuban Andy García for The Godfather Part III in 1990 and the first Latino Oscar nominee, Thomas Gomez, a New York-trained stage actor of Spanish heritage nominated for Best Supporting Actor in 1947 for Ride the Pink Horse.
So, even if this was known in some circles as the Year of the Latino because of the nominations in directing, writing, and other categories, there still remains ample room for progress.
Other than Hayek, Mexican actor Gael García Bernal probably drew the most media attention for his ad-lib anti-war comments as he introduced a song from Frida. The movie was nominated for six Oscars, winning two of them for Best Makeup and Best Original Score. In accepting the music trophy, Anglo composer Eliot Goldenthal gave a good shout-out to the beauty of Mexico.
Pedro Almodóvar of Spain, also nominated for Best Director, was a surprise winner for Best Original Screenplay for Talk to Her. A Best Original Screenplay nomination also went to Alfonso Cuarón for Y Tu Mamá También from Mexico, and Carlos Carrera's Crimen del Padre Amaro from Mexico was nominated for best foreign-language film.
There's always next year.