Nuestro Stories, the nation's only media platform dedicated to Latino origins and stories, recently announced the release of a special micro-digital documentary on Hollywood's hidden Latino figures.

Latino talent

Sponsored by McDonald's USA's Spotlight Dorado, a new multi-year McDonald's platform aimed at elevating Latino talent and giving them access to coveted mentors and resources to change their career paths and bring them closer to realizing their film dreams, the documentary series tells the amazing story of four icons of world cinema who suppressed aspects of their Latino identity, such as their names, appearance, among others, to enter the entertainment industry.

Legendary names like Raquel Welch, Rita Hayworth, Anthony Quinn, and Lynda Carter, are part of this list that makes many, even today, get surprised.

Representation

While Nuestro Stories alludes to the difficulty Latino filmmakers have in producing movies, it also highlights data indicating that less than 1% of the stories presented by Hollywood refer to Latino culture, despite being the fastest growing population in the U.S.

Seeking to remedy this, in early August the McDonald's initiative awarded three emerging Latino filmmakers a total of $225,000 to produce their short films and help boost industry representation.

The renowned actress, director, producer and defender of representation, Stephanie Beatriz, who gave life to the character of Maribel in the movie Encanto, was in charge of bringing the good news to the winners.

“In the spirit of Spotlight Dorado, the digital and social media content was produced by the Latina-owned Brilla Media, which is the parent company of Nuestro Stories. Every facet of the storytelling, from script to directing, editing, and research, were produced by team of Latinos of Mexican-American, Cuban-American, Puerto Rican, Colombian-American, and Venezuelan-American descent. This is the second part of a content series McDonald’s is producing with Nuestro Stories,” noted Nuestro Stories.

About Nuestro Stories

The flagship brand of Latino-owned media platform Brilla Media Ventures is an innovative digital media and documentary platform that tells the "Origin Stories" of cultural traditions, songs, sayings, places, food, people, sports, nuances, notable achievements, and much more that collectively comprise Latino history and pop culture.