From Pedro’s Vanity Fair cover to Karol’s chart takeover to Fall entertainment predictions
Issue #3 of Con Texto: Our stories deserve depth. Context. Reflection
Hey mi gente,
Elisabeth here. Contexto has been on pause for the summer because tbh I’ve been traveling since the start of the year, so I wasn’t in the loop as I’d liked to have been! That said, I loved reading up on what I missed, and hopefully for those that were also taking a break from news or beaching it up, it serves as a helpful recap for you too. <3
In this edition, we bring you contexto recapping the summer’s biggest moments in Latino entertainment & what’s coming in the fall:
Bad Bunny turned hurricane season into an economic boom. His sold-out residency in Puerto Rico brought in over $200M to the island, sold more than 400k tickets, and drew in 600k fans to the island
More Benito: He live-streamed his tour’s finale show & broke the record for the most-watched Amazon Music livestream (Rolling Stone). Plus, this summer he staged a late-night talk show takeover, appearing on both The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and Late Night with Seth Meyers the same night. He taught Colbert some Puerto Rican slang like "pa’ que aprenda.” Watch the viral clip.
Shakira’s Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran tour became one of the biggest of the year. SoFi Stadium welcomed its 10 millionth guest during her August 4 LA show, and she’s already earned over $100 million in ticket sales. Hola! USA has the details.
Karol G hit 1 billion streams and made Billboard’s Latin chart history with 20 tracks charting at once.
My longtime crush (and everyone else’s, ugh), Pedro Pascal was on the cover of Vanity Fair, looking like a full-on telenovela leading man.
Jurassic World Rebirth hit theaters July 2 with ticket sales clearing the $750 million milestone in the first weekend. I LOVE these movies – I have such great memories of watching them as a kid. Remezcla sat down with one of the film’s stars, Manuel García-Rulfo (aka the Lincoln Lawyer).
And that’s a wrap on summer! We’d love to hear from you. What summer moment was your favorite, and did we miss anything special?
Con cariño,
Elisabeth Rosario (The Latinx Collective)
Cristina Escobar (LatinaMediaCo)
Sin Filtro: Fall Entertainment Predictions Q&A with media critic Cristina Escobar
We are so lucky to have Cristina, a noted media critic, as co-author of Con Texto. She answered all my questions in this very special interview about what to expect in Latino entertainment this Fall:
Looking back at this summer, what moments in entertainment stood out for their Latino impact, whether box office, TV, or cultural buzz?
Your man, Pedro Pascal, for sure. After (spoiler coming!) being killed off in the second season of The Last of Us, he had a packed summer, including being one third of the love triangle in Celine Song’s Materialists.
That film caused a lot of conversation. Part of it was Song coming off Past Lives, which I thought was a pretty near-perfect film, and delivering something much more traditional. Part of it was the film’s aside about the lengths men will go to be… taller.
But the main buzz was around how the film encourages women to settle! In her review for Latina Media Co, Angélica Escobar vented how The Materialists Wastes Pedro Pascal on a Story that Punishes Female Ambition.
Streaming platforms keep sending mixed signals. They’re greenlighting shows with Latino talent but also canceling others too soon. Which platforms are really investing this fall and winter?
That’s a great question! I have to give a shout-out to Netflix, which is greenlighting a lot of Latino content (and giving Latiné journalists access to it). They clearly spent a lot of money on Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, starring Oscar Isaac no less. They’ve already promised us a third season of Wednesday, and I appreciate how Latinos basically were the only new part of their Happy Gilmore 2.
Netflix is also investing in Spanish-language programming and I’m here for that. Their Los Gringo Hunters flipped the narrative, following Mexican police deporting gringo criminals back to the U.S! Las Muertas/The Dead Girls satirized our warped relationship to true (sex) crime. And their En El Barro/In the Mud took us deep within a fictional Argentine women’s prison.
That said, they are the network that canceled One Day at a Time, Julia and the Phantoms, and Gentefied. I have not forgotten! So I guess what I’m saying is that we should be wary of big corporate networks and switch our subscription dollars depending on what they’re offering – until they prove that platforming our talent isn’t a trend but a valued part of their business.
We’ve seen more Latino stars on late night and mainstream shows, even as those audiences shrink. Does that visibility actually move the needle?
Late night is in crisis right now. I’m writing this as we’re hoping Kimmel returns to the airwaves. I’m not going to sugarcoat it – censoring comics is no longer a warning sign of approaching fascism. We're in it.
But, as hopefully your abuela can tell you, that doesn’t mean we’re powerless. There’s so much we can do, and I’m glad that our Latinx stars are doing their part. When Diego Luna took over Jimmy Kimmel Live!, it was an absolute delight.
And I do think it matters. Why else would they be working so hard to keep our stories off air?
Which upcoming films or shows featuring Latinos are you most excited about?
You know, end of year is when we get the awards-contenders and I’m pretty excited about the Latinx contenders this year.
I got to see Kiss of the Spider Woman at Sundance - in the same (very big) theater as JLo – and I can’t wait for everyone else to catch it. It’s a queer musical by Dreamgirls director Bill Condon about Argentina’s Dirty War. And everyone is going to be talking about Tonatiuh – because his is the epitome of a “star is born” performance.
We’ll also have Guillermo del Toro back in the mix with Frankenstein, and he’s always got a good chance at winning. Usually, I don’t think we need additional remakes of well-worn stories like Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel, but del Toro is always the exception (remember his Pinocchio? It was too scary for my kids to watch!). Plus, I appreciate how the famed director appears to be more purposefully spotlighting other Latinx talent these days.
And lastly, I can’t wait to catch Hedda, starring our very own Tessa Thompson. Latina critic Kristen Lopez calls the film “cruel in all the best ways” and that is totally my jam. Sign me up for the Nia DeCosa period piece about a conniving woman and her mess.
Con Texto is a special entertainment edition of The Latinx Collective in partnership with Latina Media Co.