As I have segued from my nearly seven year stint as the Executive Director of the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs and resumed my former role as a local, national, and international arts consultant, I have submerged myself once again in building bridges between the U.S. arts sector and the Latino/Latin American arts communities. Though these communities continue to take on more central roles in the U.S. dialogue, they are still marginalized.

In the fall of 2014, I was on a panel with colleagues from Brazil: Ana Fonseca Reis, an Economist and Ph.D. in Urbanism, and Danilo Santos de Miranda, Director of Sao Paolo’s SESC (the Social Service of Commerce, an organism that receives 1.5% of the state’s payroll and uses it to support health, sports and cultural services), as well as Guillermo Heras from Spain, Director of the Iberescena Secretariat. The symposium, Gestion LatinoAmericana, was held in Buenos Aires by the famed Teatro San Martin, which was celebrating its 70th anniversary.

I was asked to give a twenty minute presentation titled, “Los Latinos en los Estados Unidos: Cual es Nuestra Vision del Futuro y Como Obtener la Colaboración del Mundo Filantropico (Latinos in the U.S.: What is our Vision of the Future and How Can We Obtain the Collaboration of the Philanthropic World).” In preparation for this presentation, I asked myself why would a group of more that 500 cultural leaders from Argentina and throughout Latin America be interested in how the cultural and artistic goals and vision of U.S. Latinos are being supported by U.S. philanthropy. But I soon realized that U.S. Latinos are part of a continuum, a family if you will, that reaches throughout the Americas and beyond.

In preparation for my discourse, this some of the data that I found, and this is what I shared:

• According to the 2010 Census, the U.S. has a population of 308.7 Million
• 50.5 Million people who live in the U.S. are of Hispanic/Latino origin
• From 2000 to 2010 the U.S. Latino population grew 43%
• Of all the states, California, with 27.8% of the 50.5 Million total, has the largest share of U.S. based Latinos.
• 50.5 Million U.S. based Latinos makes us the third largest Latino population center in the world - behind only Brazil and Mexico

The sheer numbers of Latinos who are now making their homes and living their lives in the U.S. make the necessity of incorporating us into the country’s vision of the future a matter of great urgency. Becoming a vital part of our collective vision as a nation is imperative not just for the Latino community, but for our overall national health. We collectively seek a better future – a future that is grounded in equality and parity, two great pillars of the American dream.

However, a 2012 study published by The Foundation Center, in collaboration with Hispanics in Philanthropy, found that, “Over the past decade, U.S. foundation dollars explicitly designated to benefit Latinos have remained steady, comprising about 1 percent of total foundation funding”. Of this total, which stood in 2012 at an average of $206 Million annually, approximately 7% was dedicated to arts and culture.

I am sure that most people who will read this blog would agree that incorporating the arts and culture into the daily lives of all Americans will yield huge rewards in the long term. Of course, we should embrace arts for arts sake. But, additionally, study after study shows the positive impacts that access to an arts education, as well as participation in the arts from cradle to grave, have in promoting educational success; occupational achievement, (which in turn improves tangibles such as home ownership and voting participation); healthy habits (which reduce devastating and costly chronic deceases); and creating an overall positive lifestyle. These are goals all of us should aspire to.

As the Latino population continues to grow and takes on an increasingly strong voice in local, state, and national elections, we must insist that the powerful philanthropic sector join us in supporting our artistic and cultural voices and vision for the future for our country. As the aforementioned study, conducted by The Foundation Center/Hispanics in Philanthropy, reports there are a number of U.S. Foundations that have risen above the 1% threshold for investing in Latino Communities.[1] Yet this is still just a fraction of all the philanthropic dollars invested annually in American communities. This is what I have learned and what I wish to share with colleagues throughout the arts ecosystem, inviting them to join us, America’s Latinos, in the quest for greater parity.

[1] The Top 10 Foundations by Giving Explicitly Designated to Benefit Latinos, 2007 to 2009 are as follow: 1. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation NJ; 2. California Wellness Foundation CA; 3. Ford Foundation NY; 4. California Endowment CA; 5. Weingart Foundation CA; 6. Bank of America Charitable Foundation NC; 7. Marguerite Casey Foundation WA; 8. Edna McConnell Clark Foundation NY; 9. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation WA; 10. James Irvine Foundation