Amid conservative campaigns to end diversity, equity and inclusion programs, a Latino group is vowing to hold accountable those who have promised to keep investing in and representing Hispanic people.
The recently formed nonprofit group Aquí: The Accountability Movement, launched mobile billboards Thursday in San Francisco and Los Angeles as part of its “Show the Receipts” campaign to draw attention to disparities between Latinos’ economic contributions and how the community is represented in turn.
The billboards are part of Aquí’s mission to be a watchdog on promises made to the Latino community, and to put pressure on those who make them to deliver, said Nathaly Arriola Maurice, a former Obama and Biden White House staffer who is now Aquí’s lead strategist.
“Every single Hispanic Heritage Month, someone comes out with something, a pledge, commitment, or even a statement … saying, ‘My company has X number of Latinos employed,’ or, ‘My company aims to have this amount of money spent on Latino talent in news or film.’ Who is actually following up with that?” Arriola Maurice said.
The San Francisco billboard calls attention to continued disparities in capital and investment in Latino startups. It displays an image of a store receipt highlighting the economic output of Latino consumers ($3.4 trillion) versus the amount invested in Latino startups ($1.3 billion).
A Latino Collaborative study released last year found that U.S. Latinos’ economic output would rank them fifth in the world were they their own country. And though there has been significant growth in Latino startups, the share of all business investments going to those companies is in the single digits.
In Los Angeles, the billboard calls out the lack of Latino representation in film despite the community’s high box office spending. A similar store receipt shows the stark contrast between ticket sales to Latinos (29%) and Latino movie leads (5%) and directors (3%).
This campaign…
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