Kennedy Center Commission to Include Latinos

By Victor Landa, NewsTaco

Remember all the commotion about Latinos and the Kennedy Center Honors a few months back? Back in September sharp words were launched back and forth between Center director Michael Kaiser and Felix Sanchez, director of the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts. The verbal feud escalated to the point that Kaiser was quoted to have yelled at Sanchez, through the telephone, to “Go F___ yourself!”, all because Sanchez had questioned the reason that only two Latinos had been honored in 35 years.

A lot has happened since. Tempers have cooled, for one. And that has led to some tempered thinking. The result is that a commission has been formed that will put together a criteria that will be used to pick future Kennedy Center Honorees.

One member of that commission is Maria Lopez De Leon, Executive Director of the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture (NALAC) and member of the National Council on the Arts. She, along with ten other commissioners will be tasked with setting up a  criteria that will result in more Latinos and persons of color to be included as Kennedy Center Honorees.

I spoke to Maria in her office on the West side of San Antonio recently, parts of the interview are included below.