I'm Glenn Weldon, the pop culture happy our team is off today, so we're bringing you

a story from our pal Mandelite Del Barco's radio series about Latinos in Hollywood.

Latinos have been a part of Hollywood since the days of silent movies, but they continue

to be underrepresented in front of and behind the camera.

For example, there aren't many Latina actresses in leading movie roles, less than 2% according

to USC's Annaburt Inclusion Initiative, and those who do make it also multi-task as directors

and producers and activists.

Rosie Pettis blasted onto the big screen in 1989, dancing like a prize fighter in the

opening credits of Do the Right Thing.

She remembers how she was discovered. As a college biochem major who danced on TV sold

train, she met filmmaker Spike Lee at a nightclub.

Lee cast the Brooklyn-born Puerto Ricania in Do the Right Thing. She went on to star in

the 1992 film White Man Can't Jump and the 1993 drama Fearless, for which she earned

an Oscar nomination.

Today, she's in no less than 4 TV shows, but for many years, Pettis says she turned down

offensive roles. She fired agents who told her to get a nose job and color her hair blonde.

Rasing my hand, saying, hello, this town is racist. Why isn't anyone saying anything?

Pettis didn't just call out Hollywood. Here she is on the view, the talk show for which

she was the first Latina co-host.

There is a secret in the Latin communities they never want to be in the same group as Black

people. And it's sad. It's very, very sad.

As an activist, Pettis protested U.S. weapons training in Puerto Rico, and she was on

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