Latest news with #LatinaRepresentation
Forbes
17-07-2025
- Politics
- Forbes
Adelita Grijalva Is Poised To Make History For Latinas In Congress
TUCSON, ARIZONA - JULY 15: Democratic U.S. congressional candidate Adelita Grijalva speaks to the ... More media during a primary election-night party at El Casino Ballroom on July 15, 2025 in South Tucson, Arizona. Grijalva, the Pima County supervisor, is running in a special election held for the state's 7th District seat vacated by the death of her father, longtime U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva. (Photo by) Adelita Grijalva secured the Democratic nomination this week for Arizona's 7th Congressional District special election to fill the vacancy created by her father's death. Grijalva is the daughter of U.S. Representative Raúl Grijalva, an 11-term congressman. If successful in September, she will become the first Latina to represent Arizona in Congress and will bump Latina representation in Congress to an all-time high, according to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. Nineteen Latinas currently serve in Congress, including 18 representatives and one senator. They hold 3.6% of congressional seats despite Latinas being about 10% of the U.S. population. The gains for Latinas at the congressional level have been notable in the past decade. In 2017, Democrat Catherine Cortez-Masto became the first Latina in the U.S. Senate. In 2018, five new Latinas were elected to Congress, including the first two Latinas to represent Texas. Over the next six years, 14 more non-incumbent Latinas were elected to the U.S. House, including the first Latinas to represent Colorado, Illinois, Oregon, and New Jersey. Combined, the 19 Latinas who entered Congress for the first time since 2019 represent nearly 60% of the 32 Latinas that have served as voting members of Congress to date. Despite these gains, Latina congressional representation has held steady since January 2023. Three new Latinas were elected to the U.S. House in 2024, but those gains were offset by the departures of three Latina incumbents due to retirement and electoral defeat. The special election in Arizona's 7th Congressional District, which will be held on September 23, is the next opportunity to bump Latina congressional representation to a new high of 20. Adelita Grijalva won Tuesday's Democratic primary to replace her father with nearly two-thirds of the vote. She is favored to win the general election in a district to which her father won re-election in November 2024 by nearly 30 points. Grijalva brings her own record of public service to this year's special election, first elected to public office in 2002 as a member of the Tucson Unified School District's Governing Board and elected in 2020 to the Pima County Board of Supervisors. If she wins in September, Grijalva will be the ninth woman and the first Latina to represent Arizona in the U.S. Congress. Dr. Anna Sampaio has documented the concentration of Latina congressional candidacies and success in a small number of states, as well as the distinct experiences, opportunities, and obstacles to Latinas running for congressional offices. Her research, focusing specifically on California and Texas, calls for expanding opportunities for Latinas to run and win outside of those states that she identifies as having 'critical or growing capacity of Latina/o/x voters.' Arizona is among those states. Almost one-third of Arizona's population is Hispanic, according to the U.S. Census. And 25% of the state's eligible voters in the 2024 election were Latino, according to an analysis by the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute. Still, no Latina has yet served in Arizona's congressional delegation. This fact stands in contrast to the success of Latinas in Arizona's state legislature, where they hold 20% of all seats and are nearly 50% of all women legislators. There remain more opportunities for growth in Latina congressional representation. Only one Latina has served in the U.S. Senate. And even if Grijalva marks this milestone for Arizona, 38 more states will remain that have never sent a Latina to Congress.
CNA
24-06-2025
- Entertainment
- CNA
Pint-size pioneer Dora the Explorer celebrates her 25th anniversary
Twenty-five years ago, a little girl with a bob haircut appeared on TVs in the US, speaking a mix of English and Spanish, with a spunky, can-do spirit. She had an adventure planned, a backpack, a monkey friend and upbeat songs. 'Hi, I'm Dora. What's your name?' she asked. This was, of course, Dora the Explorer, the first Latina to lead a major cartoon series and the girl who helped spearhead the rise of multicultural children's programming in the US on her way to becoming a cultural phenomenon. 'The show allowed Latinos to be depicted on TV as educators, teaching viewers how to speak our language, and yet at the same time, just teaching ordinary things that children need to learn,' said Brenda Victoria Castillo, president and CEO of the National Hispanic Media Coalition. Nickelodeon is celebrating Dora's 25th anniversary with the feature-length live-action movie Dora And The Search Of Sol Dorado, a third season of the rebooted animated series Dora, the podcast Dora's Mermaid Adventures, an album of songs and plenty of toys and apparel. 'The great thing about Dora is that, yes, she celebrates Latin culture through every aspect – language, food, dress and music,' says Ramsey Naito president of animation at Paramount and Nickelodeon. 'But she also empowers everybody to be their true self and to be brave. She's not exclusive. She's inclusive.' THE ORIGINAL VOICE Kathleen Herles had a special vantage point to see Dora's influence: She was the original voice of the pint-size heroine, cast in the role when she was seven and staying until she was 18 and off to college. 'It has been the longest journey and the greatest adventure of my life – no pun intended,' said Herles, who grew up in New York City to parents of Peruvian descent. On the convention circuit, Herles would see firsthand the power of Dora. 'I remember I would make kids cry, not intentionally,' she says. 'Their mind goes to a memory, to a moment, it's just incredible. It's so special, it's magical.' Herles has lately been the voice actor for Dora's mum on Dora, the reboot that started in 2024. It's a full-circle moment for the actor and singer: 'It changed my life forever, twice.' Dora The Explorer led to what Herles laughingly calls the 'Dora-verse' – the spinoff series Go, Diego, Go!, a sequel series Dora And Friends: Into The City! and the 2019 live-action feature film Dora And The Lost City Of Gold, starring Isabela Merced, Eva Longoria and Michael Peña. Dora co-creator Chris Gifford has watched his creation age up and down and take human form. 'She has been older and she has been younger and she has a hair clip now,' he says. 'Her essence, her positive spirit, her I-can-do-anything-with-your-help attitude has stuck through.' Dora is firmly part of the culture, as big as her Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon. There's a reference to her in Inside Out 2, she's been mocked on Saturday Night Live and if you look carefully at the PBS show Alma's Way, you can see a Dora doll in that heroine's bedroom. TikTok users have embraced the Backpack Song. 'Those kids coming of age now – the ones who 25 years ago were just watching it as little preschoolers – they're out there and they're remembering,' says Valerie Walsh Valdes, co-creator of the original series and an executive producer on the new series and movie. CREATING A PROBLEM SOLVER Valdes and Gifford originally had the idea for a show about a little girl who was a problem solver. Like Blue's Clues, it would reward kids for figuring out answers posed by the host. 'Preschoolers are the least powerful people in our world,' says Gifford. 'They're not able to button their sweater and not able to tie their shoes, but if they're able to help Dora get to the City of Lost Toys and really feel like they helped, that's something special.' Nickelodeon suggested the girl be Latina and the creators ran with it, making her pan-Latina so no one would feel excluded. Latin representation on TV – then and now – has been a struggle. The Latino Donor Collaborative's 2024 Latinos in Media report found that Latino actors made up 9.8 per cent of the main cast in lead, co-lead and ensemble roles in scripted shows. In non-scripted television, Latino hosts made up only 5 per centof host roles. That's despite Latin people making up nearly 20 per centof the country. 'There were few programs at the time that featured Latina protagonists with Dora's skin tone or features, so from that perspective, the representation is valuable,' says Erynn Masi de Casanova, head of the Sociology Department at the University of Cincinnati. Dora was put in an animated world inside a computer, and the creators asked kids to help make the show better. They hired education consultants to tease out the skills Dora teaches, like spatial understanding and interpersonal. They brought in language and culture experts. 'We did it!' became her signature song. BILINGUAL HEROINE The series is seen in more than 150 countries and territories and translated in 32 languages on Nickelodeon channels and Paramount+. In English-speaking countries such as the United States and Australia, Dora teaches Spanish; in other markets – including the Hispanic US markets – she teaches English. Samantha Lorraine, 18, who grew up in Miami of Cuban heritage, had the Dora T-shirts and backpack. She laughs that she once even had the Dora bob. In July, she's starring as Dora in Dora And The Search Of Sol Dorado, which was filmed in Colombia. 'I've been doing my audition since day one,' she says. 'It's an honour to be stepping into Dora's shoes. It's such a huge legacy,' she adds. 'It's really nice to be able to be a part of representation where it counts. And Dora is the epitome of that.' Castillo, of the National Hispanic Media Coalition, puts Dora up there with Mickey Mouse in terms of an instantly recognised cultural character and says she's relevant more than ever. 'We need more Doras,' she says. 'If people were just open to being educated in other people's languages and cultures and beliefs and not see it as a threat, we wouldn't be in the situation that we're in this country and the world.'
The Independent
23-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Pint-size pioneer 'Dora the Explorer' celebrates her 25th anniversary
Twenty-five years ago, a little girl with a bob haircut appeared on our TVs, speaking a mix of English and Spanish, with a spunky, can-do spirit. She had an adventure planned, a backpack, a monkey friend and upbeat songs. 'Hi, I'm Dora. What's your name?' she asked. This was, of course, 'Dora the Explorer,' the first Latina to lead a major cartoon series and the girl who helped spearhead the rise of multicultural children's programming in the U.S. on her way to becoming a cultural phenomenon. 'The show allowed Latinos to be depicted on TV as educators, teaching viewers how to speak our language, and yet at the same time, just teaching ordinary things that children need to learn,' said Brenda Victoria Castillo, president and CEO of the National Hispanic Media Coalition. Nickelodeon is celebrating Dora's 25th anniversary with the feature-length live-action movie 'Dora and the Search of Sol Dorado,' a third season of the rebooted animated series 'Dora,' the podcast Dora's Mermaid Adventures, an album of songs and plenty of toys and apparel. 'The great thing about Dora is that, yes, she celebrates Latin culture through every aspect — language, food, dress and music,' says Ramsey Naito president of animation at Paramount and Nickelodeon. 'But she also empowers everybody to be their true self and to be brave. She's not exclusive. She's inclusive.' The original voice Kathleen Herles had a special vantage point to see Dora's influence: She was the original voice of the pint-size heroine, cast in the role when she was 7 and staying until she was 18 and off to college. 'It has been the longest journey and the greatest adventure of my life — no pun intended,' said Herles, who grew up in New York City to parents of Peruvian descent. On the convention circuit, Herles would see firsthand the power of Dora. 'I remember I would make kids cry, not intentionally,' she says. 'Their mind goes to a memory, to a moment, it's just incredible. It's so special, it's magical.' Herles has lately been the voice actor for Dora's mom on 'Dora,' the reboot that started in 2024. It's a full-circle moment for the actor and singer: 'It changed my life forever, twice.' 'Dora the Explorer' led to what Herles laughingly calls the 'Dora-verse' — the spinoff series 'Go, Diego, Go!,' a sequel series 'Dora and Friends: Into the City!' and the 2019 live-action feature film 'Dora and the Lost City of Gold,' starring Isabela Merced, Eva Longoria and Michael Peña. 'Dora' co-creator Chris Gifford has watched his creation age up and down and take human form. 'She has been older and she has been younger and she has a hair clip now,' he says. 'Her essence, her positive spirit, her I-can-do-anything-with-your-help attitude has stuck through.' Dora is firmly part of the culture, as big as her Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon. There's a reference to her in 'Inside Out 2,' she's been mocked on 'Saturday Night Live' and if you look carefully at the PBS show 'Alma's Way,' you can see a Dora doll in that heroine's bedroom. TikTok users have embraced the 'Backpack Song.' 'Those kids coming of age now — the ones who 25 years ago were just watching it as little preschoolers — they're out there and they're remembering,' says Valerie Walsh Valdes, co-creator of the original series and an executive producer on the new series and movie. Creating a problem solver Valdes and Gifford originally had the idea for a show about a little girl who was a problem solver. Like 'Blue's Clues,' it would reward kids for figuring out answers posed by the host. 'Preschoolers are the least powerful people in our world,' says Gifford. 'They're not able to button their sweater and not able to tie their shoes, but if they're able to help Dora get to the City of Lost Toys and really feel like they helped, that's something special.' Nickelodeon suggested the girl be Latina and the creators ran with it, making her pan-Latina so no one would feel excluded. Latin representation on TV — then and now — has been a struggle. The Latino Donor Collaborative's 2024 Latinos in Media report found that Latino actors made up 9.8% of the main cast in lead, co-lead and ensemble roles in scripted shows. In non-scripted television, Latino hosts made up only 5% of host roles. That's despite Latin people making up nearly 20% of the country. 'There were few programs at the time that featured Latina protagonists with Dora's skin tone or features, so from that perspective, the representation is valuable,' says Erynn Masi de Casanova, head of the Sociology Department at the University of Cincinnati. Dora was put in an animated world inside a computer, and the creators asked kids to help make the show better. They hired education consultants to tease out the skills Dora teaches, like spatial understanding and interpersonal. They brought in language and culture experts. 'We did it!' became her signature song. Bilingual heroine The series is seen in more than 150 countries and territories and translated in 32 languages on Nickelodeon channels and Paramount+. In English-speaking countries such as the United States and Australia, Dora teaches Spanish; in other markets — including the Hispanic U.S. markets — she teaches English. Samantha Lorraine, 18, who grew up in Miami of Cuban heritage, had the Dora T-shirts and backpack. She laughs that she once even had the Dora bob. In July, she's starring as Dora in 'Dora and the Search of Sol Dorado,' which was filmed in Colombia. 'I've been doing my audition since day one,' she says. 'It's an honor to be stepping into Dora's shoes. It's such a huge legacy,' she adds. 'It's really nice to be able to be a part of representation where it counts. And Dora is the epitome of that.' Castillo, of the National Hispanic Media Coalition, puts Dora up there with Mickey Mouse in terms of an instantly recognized cultural character and says she's relevant more than ever. 'We need more Doras,' she says. 'If people were just open to being educated in other people's languages and cultures and beliefs and not see it as a threat, we wouldn't be in the situation that we're in this country and the world.'
