Editorial:

In 37 years I don’t think we have once mentioned the Oscars on our editorial pages. Until now, there has been no reason to bring up the Oscars.

The Best Short Documentary went to “Inocente,” a documentary about a young, undocumented immigrant artist struggling with homelessness. The story takes place in San Diego, and features Chicano Park, the Monarch School, and the streets of downtown San Diego. It chronicles Inocente’s young life—an undocumented and homeless teenager with an incredible artistic gift. If you didn’t get a chance to see it on MTV you can see the full video at Pocho.com. Bravo

Of course, there were the snubs at the Oscars. The first snub was of the Hispanic community in general with “Argo” winning best picture. “Argo” was about a Hispanic CIA agent who rescues six hostages in Iran, but you wouldn’t have know the hero was Hispanic by watching this film. On one hand we can’t blame the director, Ben Affleck, who cast himself as the agent. He knew it was a great role and he wanted it. As the old saying goes those in power make the rules and Affleck made it work for him.

If “Argo” was the only snub we would have stopped at congratulating the “Inocente” documentary. But when Latina actress and icon Lupe Ontiveros was not included in the In Memoriam segment of the 2013 Oscars telecast, well that was too much.

Ontiveros stared in dozens of films, including Selena, El Norte, As Good As It Gets, The Goonies, not to mention the countless TV shows she appeared in, primarily as a maid or as a domestic worker.

The fact that she was left off the memorial segment sent the Hispanic community into a tizzy over the omission. It is just another example of the whitewashing of Hollywood when it comes to Hispanic actors.

The Oscars, Hollywood, and the movies are all about fantasy and it their world there is no room for the Hispanic community. ¡Que Lástima!