CBS' "Essential Heroes: A Momento Latino Event" Pays Homage to the Latinx Community on the Pandemic Frontlines

With many small businesses closed due to the shutdown, the Latinx community -- the fastest-growing group of small business owners in the U.S. -- has been grievously impacted. Everyone involved in the special hopes to provide help and support. "Momento Latino did a study about how folks are doing in our community during this time," explained Longoria during a Zoom call with Estefan and the show's creator, Henry R. Muñoz III. "We found that we are 18% of the population in the United States, but we are 34% of frontline essential workers. That's your nurses, your health care workers, farmworkers, delivery people, restaurant and hotel workers. We are the majority of frontline essential workers keeping this country moving forward, and often not at livable wages, in very substandard living conditions, and without PPE.

"We thought we needed to applaud these people who are really keeping food on our tables, keeping the deliveries going when you can't go to the store, taking care of your parents, and people in hospitals and nursing homes everywhere," she continued. "Henry thought we should say something. We know what our contributions are to this country but so many don't. So to put it up on a stage and have an opportunity for CBS to partner with us in amplifying the contributions that we've been making, by the way pre-COVID, but especially now during COVID, it's been exciting to have this opportunity to do that."

"I was taken into what at the time was the epicenter of COVID-19 -- New York," Muñoz (pictured below, left) recalled. "I was driven to one of the first testing sites in the country where you had to be able to drive a car and make it through the National Guard, state and local police before you were given an opportunity to be tested for COVID-19, even if you were symptomatic. I thought if you're in any way intimidated, if English isn't your first language, if you have a citizenship issue, you're never going to get tested and the impact is going to be bad on your family and in your community. I remember saying 'We've got to do something. I don't know exactly what it is, but we have to do something.' That's where this coalition idea of Momento Latino came from; to amplify the work of organizations around the country that are already doing great work, but to [also] share the experience of what's happening, get stronger from it, and unify our voices."

Through song and storytelling packages, the plight faced by many Latino-owned small businesses will get that unified voice. "Emilio (Estefan) and I are small-business owners," said Gloria Estefan (pictured above, right). "Two of our restaurants are closed and we don't know if they're going to come back. At the beginning of this pandemic, we got jobs for our workers that we couldn't keep on and kept people on as long as we could. But we are rethinking how to move forward. Emilio has reinvented an entire business on our end, and we're trying to find places for everybody that was a part of our businesses [who] maybe still haven't found their niche. This is going to be a very important moment for all of us."

Longoria also explained that when enlisting support for the special, those approached were saying 'yes' even before finishing her invitation. "Our talent lineup is insane," she raved.

However, it was Gloria (a regular on One Day at a Time) who noted that support in all forms is paramount, especially when it comes to the representation of Latinx families on television. "It's important" she declared. "I think it's a lack of the advertisers really understanding the market, Latinx, Latina, however you want to call it. We are people that continue to buy even through our hardest time and contribute to the economy, and I don't think advertisers know that.

"They really don't focus on us as a viewing audience," she continued. "They give up easier on shows that are talked about greatly through critics, but don't really understand the buying power of the Latino. That's why it's important that we vote; that they see both our political and economic power. Maybe that's one of the reasons why you don't see a lot [of Latino-focused shows] on television, or why they get axed quickly after beginning. It's important we support these shows, so they do see that they are out there."

"There has to be a lot of onus on Latino audiences [with] any [Latinx] show that is on," Longoria concurred. "You should support! Unfortunately, there's still an archaic TV system, that goes for streaming as well, where they develop all this stuff and they go, 'We have the one Latino project, the one Black project,' and they check a box. But you did 20 of the white shows? Why can't we have 20? Put them all on and then see what works.

"Then you'll see," she added. "Because if one Latino show fails that's some sort of metric system for, 'Oh, Okay, then this doesn't work.' No! You gotta keep trying, you gotta keep putting it out there. In this age of streaming and cable we are flooded with options to watch as content consumers. You can't keep tapping the same well for talent, in front of and behind the camera, because innovation comes from diversity. Innovation comes from having different perspectives and different storytellers. Hopefully, networks will start to wake up, the studios will start to wake up to that and go, 'Okay, it's not just morally responsible to do this, it's economically sound."

Essential Heroes: A Momento Latino Eventwill be telecast Monday, October 26 at 9 p.m. on CBS.

Click the social buttons above or below to share this content with your friends and colleagues.

The opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author and/or subject(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillage.com/MyersBizNet, Inc. management or associated writers.