Spanish TV Needs to Open Up

In response to your cover story regarding the lack of Latinos in prime-time TV (“TV’s Lost Souls,� Calendar, March 5), I would like to offer some thoughts about the invisibility of U.S. Latinos in prime time on Spanish- language television.

For decades, the two major U.S. Spanish TV networks, Univision and Telemundo, have managed to fill their prime-time schedules not with shows that feature U.S. Hispanic actors but with programs imported from Latin countries, mainly Mexico, Venezuela and Colombia.

To illustrate how Univision and Telemundo operate, let’s suppose that tomorrow all four American TV networks were to terminate their contracts with independent producers and drop all of their prime-time programs from the air.

Instead, the big four would decide to buy all of their prime-time shows from English-speaking countries with low production costs such as Jamaica, Ireland and South Africa. Then, unhappy with those cuts, the four networks would produce the nightly news plus three programs in-house:

1) An “Oprah Winfrey� (the equivalent of Univision’s “Cristina�).

2) A “Hard Copy� (Telemundo’s “Ocurrio Asi�).

3) And a four-hour “The Price Is Right/Ed Sullivan�-type of show (Univision’s “Sabado Gigante�). The latter for Saturday airing only!

Imagine: No more American-made prime-time sitcoms, movies of the week or cop shows. Just lackluster and highly detached, offshore TV.

This seemingly inconceivable scenario has been the norm for the Univision and Telemundo networks for the past 30 years. If you tune in today from 7 to 11 p.m., you will find the blond fantasy world of Mexico’s telenovelas. No U.S. Hispanic actors. And no apologies either.

Univision and Telemundo do not buy prime-time programs produced in the United States simply because Mexico, Venezuela and Colombia offer deals that are impossible for U.S. Hispanic producers to compete against.

*

In 1988, I joined efforts with other independent producers to form HIP-TV: the Hispanic Independent Producers for Access to Prime Time in Spanish-Language TV. Our organization remains active, and our goal is to create similar legislation to the Prime-Time Access Rule, which was introduced by American independent producers in the early ‘60s and adopted by the FCC in 1970. This law fostered the creation of a healthy community of independent producers, including Stephen J. Cannell, Aaron Spelling and many others in mainstream media.

If such legislation were applied to Univision and Telemundo today, two important goals would be achieved:

* It would create an important source of new employment for many U.S. Hispanic writers, producers and actors.

* It would stimulate much-needed competition, diversity and responsiveness to local and national concerns on U.S. Hispanic TV.

Perhaps with this new TV industry we will be able to show the world the true richness of our culture and heritage. And then one day we would be able to see a Ricardo Montalban or an Elizabeth Pena star in a bilingual TV version of “One Hundred Years of Solitude,� or a modern-day rendition of “El Cid� in perfect Spanish and English.

Maybe then the U.S. networks will start to give Hispanic artists the attention they deserve.