From: Mysanantonio.com

Jimmy Smits has played a lawyer, a police detective and a U.S. presidential candidate, each role earning him honors and showcasing Latinos on primetime network television.

His most recent award-winning role is that of Miguel Prado, an assistant district attorney in Showtime’s “Dexter.” The role earned Smits his 11th Emmy nomination this year.

Roles such as hotshot lawyer Victor Sifuentes on “L.A. Law,” for which Smits won on Emmy in 1990, and President-elect Matthew Santos on “The West Wing,” for which Smits won an ALMA Award in 2006, have helped changed the perception of Latinos on television.

Twenty years ago, the main images of Latinos on television were those of gang member, maid and drug dealer. The number of roles for Latino actors were scarce; the number of Latinos working behind the camera even scarcer.

“I’ve been acting since 1978 and I can tell you back then there were no Latinos on TV,” said Bel Hernandez, an actress and publisher of Latin Heat, a print and online entertainment magazine that showcases Latinos in the business.

The representation of Latinos on television in recent years, said Hernandez, has improved, with much of the credit for that going to “grass roots” campaigns that urged networks to begin diversity efforts.

National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP), an organization founded in 1999 to help ensure Latino representation in mainstream entertainment, is one of 16 Latino advocacy groups that comprise the National Latino Media Council.

The council regularly studies the four major networks’ Latino representation in front of and behind the cameras, and works with networks to help increase diversity on the airwaves.

Kathryn Galan, NALIP executive director, said recent studies show there are more Latino actors and writers working on television today than 10 years ago. There are also more Latino characters on television, including guest spots and regular characters, she said.

There are plenty of reasons why networks should pay attention to diversity, said Galan, including money.

Studies by NALIP and other advocacy groups have shown that diverse casting can help a show succeed. In the television business, success equals advertising dollars.

“When (networks) use multicultural casting on pilots of new series, those have a greater rate of success. They tend to do better with focus groups and get picked up,” Galan said.

One reason for Latinos’ increased television presence is an increase in “color-blind casting,” a term given when characters that could be any race or ethnicity are cast with minority actors. Police procedural dramas, such as the “Law & Order” and “CSI” franchise, and ensemble shows, including “Desperate Housewives” and “Grey’s Anatomy,” tend to use color-blind casting the most, studies show.

Where Latinos’ numbers in entertainment fall short is behind the scenes, directing and producing shows. According to NALIP, Latinos make up less than 1 percent of executive positions in entertainment.

Latinos and other minorities are often the ones that can best understand the need and importance of diversity on television, said Hernandez, who recently launched an online talk show geared toward Latinas.

“These are our role models, the people our children see on a regular basis,” Hernandez said.

The 61st Primetime Emmy Awards air at 7 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 20, on CBS.

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