U.S. Lawmakers Suggest 25 Movies About Latinos to the Film Registry

The caucus’s list was developed through feedback from constituents, and movies were also identified by, among others, the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures, the National Hispanic Foundation of the Arts, the National Hispanic Media Coalition and the Latinx House (which uses a gender-neutral term for Latinos).

“Our stories have been missing from Latino films,” Castro said in a phone interview. “This is an effort to start to change that.”

The 25 films the caucus chose reflect stories from a variety of nationalities, including Mexican, Puerto Rican, Dominican, Cuban, Colombian, Argentine, Salvadoran and Nicaraguan.

The list speaks to many parts of the Latino experience, including people who are native to the United States and its territories and those who migrated to the country because of its politics and interventions in Latin America, Theresa Delgadillo, a Chicana and Latina studies professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said in an interview.

“It is an important way to influence that diversity effort in an industry,” Delgadillo said about the caucus’s effort.

She and other professors, though excited about the effort, were also critical of the list, because, they say, were few stories about Latinas and L.G.B.T.Q. people.