Latino businesses, communications and media professionals have banded together to create The Latino Rebels Foundation and start a new program to help Latino filmmakers and journalists break into the industry. The foundation has pledged to raise scholarship funds for Latinos to study journalism and film.

Charles Garcia, Co-Founder of the Latino Rebels Foundation, says he hopes more Latinos will enter Hollywood and newsrooms and change the perceptions and stereotypes around Hispanics. The new foundation is meant to be a funding arm for students to study at the American Film Institute.

RELATED: Film hopes to change Latino stereotypes in media 

“The best way to change public perceptions is to change stories coming out of Hollywood and make sure that we have journalists at news organizations and that have a Latino conscience and radar,” he says.

Garcia says that the idea for the pipeline started from the results of a Hilton Knowlton study that showed that there is a pervasive negative perception of Latinos in the United States. The study found that a majority of non-Hispanics overestimate the proportion of Hispanics who are here illegally, 75 percent of people do this.

An astounding 80 percent of Americans associate Hispanics with being involved in crime and gang violence. However, there were also some positive numbers such as the fact that 90 percent of people associate Hispanics with being hard-working.

Garcia says that the study confirms his suspicion that the “Latino brand was tarnished.”

However, the study did not receive widespread attention because of criticism over its methodology. The study was conducted online. Still, Garcia defends the results, citing statistician Nate Silver’s claim that online surveys are more accurate than public opinion polls.

RELATED: Latinitas create their own positive images in media 

Regardless of the study, Garcia believes that having Latinos working behind the scenes in media will change some of the depictions on the big screen.

“We don’t have many executives that are Latino. So what you have coming out of Hollywood are gangbangers, traffickers, criminals. That’s what Americans perceive,” he says.

Although foundation was just launched at Hispanicize 2013, it has already seen a lot of support. Jim McNamara, the CEO of Cine Latino and Chairman of the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, has given a 100,000 match grant for the scholarship initiative.  Top Obama fundraiser Andres Lopez has also gotten involved with the new pipeline program.

“Every contribution will help change the image of Latinos in this country,” Garcia says.

This is not a trivial question. As Hispanics start populating academia, newsrooms, boardrooms and courtrooms across the country, they face the tricky terrain of interacting with people who have different backgrounds and upbringings. And sometimes those folks say the craziest things.

Recently, the Chicana writer and Huffington Post blogger Michele Serros wrote about once finding herself as the only Latina at an elite national writers conference in California. In addition to being the only participant from a rural farming community — and not from some Latin American country — she experienced the following crack:

“At the lunch buffet line, another aspiring writer nudged me. ‘Look,’ he motioned to a basket of tortilla chips. ‘l guess they knew you were coming.’”

Ouch.

“When that happens, you just have to roll with the punch and see where it’s headed,” said Luis Martinez, a human resources consultant and executive coach in Rochester, N.Y. As a Cuban immigrant, he gets a lot of questions about cigars and baseball — two topics he cares little about — and has learned to take it all in stride.

“Sometimes when it’s something serious, you really have to stand your ground and explain in as civil a way as you can why someone has made the wrong assumption about you,” Martinez told me. “But other times it’s not worth the trouble. You read the body language, the tone of voice and go from there. It would take someone being really over the top, extraordinarily ignorant to make me stand my ground.”

Having gotten such an evenhanded answer from a professional relationship pro, I had to wonder if there were other, zingier, ways to respond to such situations. The kind that maybe a brilliant satirist could get away with.

I called Lalo Alcaraz, the nationally syndicated Mexican-American cartoonist and “jefe-in-chief” of the humor site pocho.com. But he, too, counseled against telling someone who blunders to take their tortilla chips and shove ‘em.

“I get out ahead of it, I like to proclaim my beanerness ahead of time because then it’s like, ‘If I can say it, then you can say it. Maybe.’”

Frequently mistaken for some of his more direct cartoon alter egos, Alcaraz said, “People get uncomfortable around me, they think I’m some thoughtless militant. But I’m really not out there barking at people. So I think I maybe overcompensate, but I can usually spot when someone’s being lame and racist or being sincere.”

In the past, Alcaraz has coped with uncomfortable food references by “just putting it out there.”

“I was in an office party situation once and I brought in pan dulce,” which is sweet Mexican bread. “I’m not a stereotype machine, but I enjoy pan dulce, everyone should like pan dulce, so why not?”

Aurelia Flores, founder of the Latina leadership site powerfullatinas.com and senior counsel at a Fortune 500 company, completed my trifecta of experts who suggested giving stereotype-laced comments the benefit of the doubt.

“If I go into any situation where I’m the minority thinking ‘These people are jerks, they don’t understand me,’ that’s not going to get me anywhere,” Flores said. “But if we try to figure out where the other person is coming from and meet them there — even if we’re thinking in our heads, ‘How clueless is this person?’ or conversely, ‘What an a——!” — it might help me or someone else.”

“Like it or not at that point, you’re the representative Latino or Latina of their world and you don’t want to leave them feeling like, ‘Not only do I not understand these people, but they’re all so uppity — I was just trying to be nice,’” Flores said. “While it’s not fair to have to deal with other people’s misperceptions, you have to be open to the possibility that they might actually be trying to relate to you on a personal level.”

This is the secret to dealing with life’s little slights: Assume the best and just try to be nice.

Esther Cepeda is a syndicated columnist and an NBC Latino Contributor.

A new stylebook entry sent via e-mail to NBC Latino states that reporters can still use the term “illegal immigrant,” but to “be aware that in the debate over immigration, some people view it as loaded or offensive. The stylebook urges its writers to consider alternatives when appropriate to explain a person’s specific circumstances, such as “who crossed the border illegally,” or “who is not authorized to work in this country,” according to the entry.

The new stylebook also states, “Do not use illegal as a noun, and avoid the sinister-sounding alien.”  The term unauthorized is an acceptable description, according to the newspaper, and undocumented is described as “the term preferred by immigrants and their advocates, but has the flavor of euphemism and should be used with caution outside quotations.”

The e-mail from the New York Times came shortly after a group representing several organizations went to the Times headquarters in New York City’s midtown with a delivery — over 70,000 signatures, according to the group, petitioning the newspaper to stop using the term “illegal immigrant.”

“A term like this is degrading, and it does not need to be used, since it does not adequately characterize individuals,” says Fernando Chavez, one of the group’s members and son of famed civil rights leader Cesar Chavez.

“I think this term has become a slur,” says Gabriela Garcia, of the group Presente.org, an organization advocating for immigrant rights and a more active political voice for Hispanics. “It’s really the defining term used by anti-immigrant groups to categorize people as inherently being illegal, and it leads to dehumanizing people,” Garcia adds.

RELATED: AP drops ‘illegal immigrant, means a person will no longer be described as illegal

Alex Nogales, of the National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC), says that originally, “this was not a fight we wanted to get into.” What changed his group’s mind, explains Nogales, was a Latino Decisions September 2012 poll which found that the term “illegal immigrant” had a measurable negative effect of non-Latinos’ views of Latinos.  Fifty-nine percent of non-Latinos polled offered a “cold” rating toward the term “illegal alien,” compared to 49 percent for “undocumented.”

Moreover, almost one out of three non-Latinos polled thought that the majority of Hispanics were undocumented.

“Crimes against Latinos have gone up, and that’s largely because of hate speech,” says Nogales. “But it’s also loaded words like this (illegal immigrant) which carry a meaning above and beyond what another word would carry,” he added.

Immigrants rights, as well as Latino groups, have been meeting with organizations on the issue. Recently, the Associated Press announced they would no longer use the term. USA Today did the same.

In the e-mail statement, the New York Times’ Corbett said, “we’re well aware of the debate over these terms, and we understand the sensitivity of this issue for many people.  Our goal, on this and every topic, is to be as accurate, clear and impartial as possible in our reporting, including in the language we use.”

Jose Antonio Vargas, the Pulitzer-prize-winning  journalist and writer — who happens to be undocumented — was with the group who went to the New York Times, and tweeted a lukewarm response to the newspaper’s decision.

BREAKING: @nytimes *not* banning “illegal immigrants” but urging reporters “to consider alternatives.” #notreallysurewhatthismeans

— Jose Antonio Vargas (@joseiswriting) April 23, 2013

There, I’ve said it. Let the Latino community slam me for lacking cultural sensitivity if it will, but I’m sticking to my pistolas on this one.

The furor over Mexico Barbie came to a head last week when a $30 doll that was released in June 2012 became the subject of news stories and chatter on social media networks for perpetuating offensive stereotypes.

Accusations of cultural insensitivity included outrage because Mexico Barbie comes with a passport and therefore implies that the inanimate piece of plastic is not living in the United States illegally. Journalist Laura Martinez was widely quoted: “Play with your Barbie Mexicana and don’t even think of calling her indocumentada.”

Chuckle-worthy, yes, but there are two significant issues at play here: First is that when Hispanics freak out over something as innocuous as a toy that was treated with every bit the same amount of cultural sensitivity as the rest of the dolls in a collection — all of Mattel’s “Dolls of the World” sport traditional costumes, tote an animal or other symbol of their country, and come with stickers and a passport — we look irrational and humorlesss.

The second is that being seen as overly sensitive is the least of our problems — Latinos in the United States have deadly serious issues with our image.

According to a spring 2012 online survey for the Latino Donor Collaborative, a Hispanic image advocacy organization, the research and communications firm Hill+Knowlton Strategies found that most non-Latino Americans have highly skewed perceptions of U.S. Hispanics.

Three-quarters of the non-Latinos surveyed overestimated the proportion of the Hispanic population who reside here illegally. A third believed that over half of all Latinos are in the U.S. illegally (the real percentage is about 18, according to the Pew Hispanic Center). More than 80 percent of non-Latino respondents associated Latinos with not having learned to speak English and nearly 80 percent associated Hispanics with crime and gang violence.

Traditional offline research has found much the same. Last fall, the National Hispanic Media Coalition and the polling firm Latino Decisions found that more than 30 percent of non-Hispanics believe a majority of Hispanics are here illegally.

This same study found that 51 percent of non-Latinos think “welfare recipient” describes Latinos “very” or “somewhat” well, 50 percent think of Hispanics as “less educated” and 44 percent believe Hispanics “refuse to learn English.” (According to the Pew Hispanic Center, 65 percent of all U.S. Hispanics age 5 and older either speak only English at home or speak English very well.)

Living under those circumstances, it’s difficult not to be annoyed at those who would stir outrage over a doll. It’s not a big deal that a company is hoping to make profits by selling impressionable young children on the idea that Mexicans have both brightly colored clothing and official passports that entitle them to travel the world freely.

Can Hispanics in the U.S. just please focus on the truly important issues before us — our reputations, low education-attainment levels and poor health, for starters? Must we waste time worrying about the accessories of a doll representing another country?

And while we’re at it, let’s get over ourselves a little. Could it really be such an affront to the dignity of Mexicanos all over the world to imply that the Chihuahua is their country’s national dog?

Seriously: Mexicans love Chihuahuas. I didn’t say all Mexicans, but more of them than any other ethnic group I can think of. I’ve had countless in my family, and the two sitting on my couch were highly offended to hear that this petty Mexican Barbie kerfuffle has brought into question the place of honor that the proud Chihuahua holds in the hearts of the Mexican people.

And I hate to be the one to break it to all the evolved, pan-American “New Generation Latinos” out there, but millions of other Hispanics whose families hail from all over Latin America love Chihuahuas, too.

Mexicans tend to also love tacos and mariachi music. Such a broad generalization may be highly offensive to some, but the reality of life is that while no rule of thumb accounts for all instances, some stereotypes are true. We can either embrace them and share our affinities with others or be the humorless clod who won’t be invited on the next Chipotle lunch run.

Esther Cepeda is syndicated columnist and an NBC Latino Contributor.

Linda Hernandez grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska during the 1960s.

Her father worked for the railroad, and her family was one of the few Latino families in town.

At StoryCorps, Linda recalled how that made school-life difficult.

Ten years ago at the University of Texas, students Laura Donnelly Gonzalez and Alicia Rascon were asked to create media that empowered Latinos.

“Both of us noticed the lack of magazines that were inclusive of young Latinas and presented positive images of young Latinas, so we decided to develop Latinitas Magazine in that class,” Gonzalez says.

Rascon felt there were serious issues in her community that needed to be addressed and that girls were really lacking resources. “I felt that media was a perfect outlet to empower girls, help break some of the stereotypes, and help represent our community,” she says.

Laura Donnelly Gonzalez and Alicia Rascon as students at the University of Texas created a model magazine to empower young Latinas.

So Gonzalez and Rascon started clubs, camps, and workshops where girls could learn how to be media makers. Their current signature program is called “Club Latinitas,” an after-school program based in media, technology, and culture. One project that embodies their program, Gonzalez says, is a research assignment on el Día de los Muertos in which the girls created their own altars through Power Point. Through the process, the participants learned how to use computer software while learning something new about Mexican culture.

Latinitas also gives girls an opportunity to express themselves through blogging. According to Gonzalez, there are 1,000 bloggers who are currently connected to My Latinitas and some of them are as young as 11 years old. She says that recently a young girl wrote about how dissatisfied she was by the way Mexican-American history was being presented in her class.“That was super exciting for us to see a young girl blog about this,” Gonzales says, “to have that kind of emotional awareness at eleven.”

In addition to all the girls they reach online, Latinitas has now served about 20,000 girls at their club since their start and are happy to see the girls like Vega succeed and become leaders in their program.

Rascon feels that the media and technology portion is the vehicle to deliver their message. “The most powerful part of the magazine is that the girls have a Latina like themselves mentoring them, paying attention to them, and listening to them,” she says.

Young Latinas get to create stories to help them break some of the stereotypes they encounter everyday.

Ana Vega, 20, was in real need of guidance when she joined Latinitas seven years ago. She says she grew up in a bad neighborhood and there was a point in middle school in which she was hanging out with the wrong people. When she was 13, Vega became interested in the program because her friend was attending. She says she was also attracted to the technology component because she didn’t have a computer at home. “It completely switched my whole path around,” she says. “I left my bad friends. I found a group where I can fit in.”

Vega says the program also gave her more self confidence. “A lot of activities we did were about being proud about being Hispanic and being proud of being a girl,” she says. Now Vega is a program leader and attends the University of Texas where she is studying bilingual education. She says she plans to teach elementary school.

For those who want to get involved but reside outside of the El Paso or Austin area, Rascon suggests joining the youth editorial advisory board– a virtual mentoring opportunity for young women across the country. She says that they are also looking for volunteers to assist as a guest writers or as virtual editors. Additionally, they provide opportunities for bloggers, photographers, and translators.

“A lot of the girls feel like society has really low expectations of them, that in general they think they’re going to become the stereotype of a teen mom that drops out of school,” Rascon says. “We’re really interested in connecting them with positive Latinas that have broken that stereotype to show that there are other options.”

Erika L. Sánchez is a poet and writer living in Chicago. She is currently the sex and love advice columnist for Cosmopolitan for Latinas and a contributor for The Huffington Post and other publications. She is a recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship and the 2013 “Discovery”/Boston Review poetry prize. You can find her on Twitter, Facebook, or www.erikalsanchez.com

Offensive? Yes. Surprising? Not at all.

I found it troubling that this highly insulting casting call didn’t get me up in arms. The stereotype has become so common in both television and mainstream film, the only reaction I could muster was a combination of a chuckle and a sigh.

The casting call goes into further detail about the kind of Latina they’re looking for: “Real Latina Moms who are as big and brash and full of confidence in their parenting style! Should have at least on [sic] kid in his/her 20′s” and should “stand behind their parenting style 100%, and who will stand up and show us how it’s done.” Sometimes these stereotypes are so outrageous that we have to laugh to keep from crying. This entertainment company managed to cram almost all Latina stereotypes into one description. Why?

Latin Stereotypes: How to Cope, with Laughter, Bill Nericcio, director of the Master of Arts in Liberal Arts and Sciences program at San Diego State University, explains why we laugh at stereotypes. “Much of what we laugh at comes from either a sense of identification or a total sense of derision or superiority. You cannot really tell a story without a stereotype. They are always funny. We laugh because we recognize the image and usually because we are somehow better than what we are laughing at.” I laughed at the stereotype because of its sheer absurdity.

Though stereotypes can be destructive, they aren’t necessarily detrimental in themselves. As psychology research would tell us, they can be positive or negative and allow us to make predictions. Sometimes they’re almost inevitable and are unlikely to ever disappear. They are, without a doubt, ingrained in our culture and our psyches. However, the problem with a new show about hot-blooded and sexy Latina moms, for instance, is that it’s the only version of Latinas we ever see. If there were shows or movies about dynamic and nuanced Latinas in addition to this silly reality show, this wouldn’t be a problem. (Who doesn’t like watch trashy TV sometimes?) Sofia Vergara, one of the most successful Latina actresses right now, fulfills plenty of Latina stereotypes, and is also a highly talented woman who deserves the acclaim she’s received. However, is it too much to ask to see another kind of Latina succeed?

Latinos currently make up 16.7 percent of the population of the United States, though you would never know that by flipping through your TV.  In 2010, The National Latino Media Council (NLMC) held a press conference to release the annual Television Network Report Cards, which showed there was a “striking decline in Latino diversity” at the four major television networks — ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox. Why was there a decline when our population is rapidly increasing?

And if Latinos are lucky enough to be on TV, they are almost exclusively stereotypes. The only show I can think of with a smart and strong Latina lead is “Ugly Betty,” which was canceled almost three years ago. One of the newest shows to star Latinas, “Devious Maids,” is a drama about four Latina maids in Beverly Hills. It has been officially acquired by the Lifetime channel and will be airing this year. In response to the inevitable criticism, Eva Longoria told HuffPost that the show is “a reality so why not tell their story and their point of view … I think people really need to look at the paradigm of television and go, ‘This is a very powerful medium for Latinos to have a voice. Let’s support it so that they will make more of these.’”

Sure, it’s true that many Latinas are working class, but it’s also true that young Latinas are becoming more educated than ever. I’ve met plenty of Latina maids and even hot and fiery moms, but I’ve also known plenty of Latina college graduates and professionals. Why not choose to tell their stories?

While I watch the Golden Globes, I look for Latinas and other women of color in the crowd. I only see a sad sprinkle. So many women are making huge strides in the entertainment industry; they are winning award after award for playing complex and fascinating characters. And as I watch them, I keep thinking, “hey, what about us? When will it be our turn?”

Erika L. Sánchez is a poet and freelance writer living in Chicago. She is currently the sex and love advice columnist for Cosmopolitan for Latinas and a contributor for The Huffington Post and other publications. Her poetry has appeared in Pleiades, Witness, Hunger Mountain, Crab Orchard Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Copper Nickel, and many others. You can find her on Twitter, Facebook, or www.erikalsanchez.com

“Of course it’s offensive, it’s meant to be,”  says Lisa Navarette, advisor to the president at the National Council of La Raza. “This is simply a failing business trolling for attention. We would recommend people not patronize this place. Sure, because of this insult but really due to the fact that a restaurant this clueless about the Latino community can’t possibly make a decent taco.”

Navarette’s reference to Taco Cid as a failed business, likely comes because it is the only remaining Taco Cid in South Carolina. The rest have been closed. It is also a one-star restaurant on Yelp.com, but most of the reviews have come after this controversy unfolded.

Efren Serrano, a pastor at Iglesia Nueva Esperanza in West Columbia, which is five minutes away from Taco Cid, said the shirts are inappropriate.

“It just looks bad because this talks about all the Latinos,” he said. “It’s not just Mexicans, it’s the Hondurans and Guatemalans.”

Serrano said the majority of people who go to the restaurant are not Hispanic but some are. “This is wrong and the Latino community doesn’t feel good about this.”

RELATED: Hockey team’s controversial Latino promotion moves forward minus Dora and plus Latino veterans

Taco Cid did not respond to an NBC Latino request for comment but updated its website with a statement.

“Our t-shirts were created as a witty and comical statement regarding ILLEGAL immigrants. There are NO racial nor hate remarks towards any specific ethnic group. Taco Cid and its employees are not racists,” the statement continued. ”As most tax paying Americans, we do believe ILLEGAL immigrants are taxing the system we support and live under, thereby, causing us to work harder and pay more taxes in support of their illegal activities which our government has simply chosen to look the other way. Is it racist to disagree with those who are not supporting the American system?”

Taco Cid employees wear the shirts and they are also available for purchase, according to Think Progress.

Brian Cohen, is the owner of BeWild.com, which also sells the shirts and says the shirts are not his designs — they just sell them.

“It’s not one of our top sellers but it sells,” he says. “People find it funny, it’s just funny. It’s a stereotype.”

But Pastor Serrano says the Latino community in South Carolina doesn’t find it funny.

“Here we experience a lot of intimidation,” he said.

“This is a very racist state and we fight to get rid of that. We are against anti-immigrant laws and when we see these things it just makes us feel bad.”

RELATED: Playground signs spark allegations of racism

This is rich.

All of us in the Latino community have been asking brands to STOP stereotyping us – we don’t all eat beans, we don’t all play the guitar, trust me we are not all good gardeners and our skin comes in all shades.

Would the reaction be different if Sofia were dark skin with brown eyes and also rolled her “Rs”?

That would have mobilized a protest of epic proportions!

With 5 generation of Mexicans behind me, I am 5’9” have light brown hair and green eyes, my father and both my grandmothers are pale and blue eyed. My mother, and in fact, most of my aunts and cousins looks just like Sofia.

Upon arriving in the U.S. in the late 80s– no one would automatically identify me as Mexican. And whenever I discussed my background people would always say: “Well but your parents must be European or American?”.

“No” – I would find myself saying how many millions of Latinos are not dark skinned.

Personally, I think Disney got it just right. I am excited to have little Latina girls identify themselves with Sofia and be enchanted by the magical beauty of the stories that we’ve all enjoyed for decades. I don’t know how her culture will come through in the story but I am excited to follow along and find out.

So lets remember that neither complexion nor physical attributes truly define us. Or anyone.

Instead, it is the richness of our culture, our love of family, the profound respect for our elders, the loud support for the dignity of our immigrant brothers and an unapologetic passion for life that defines us.

Monica Vila is “Chief Technology Mom,” born and raised in Mexico and co-founder of The Online Mom, the market leader in providing online and off-line tools to make parents of kids K-12 smarter and more comfortable with the technology that touches their family. The Online Mom is a website, an online newsletter, a forum for discussion, a network of certified experts and a social community devoted to promoting a healthy understanding and appreciation for the positive role technology can play in a family’s life.

The bad news is obvious– over seventy percent of non-Latinos believe Blood In Blood Out movie characters are the norm in our community. However there is a silver lining, these negative views are malleable.

The NHMC-Latino Decisions poll was part of a larger study that looked at how people viewed Latinos as a result of being exposed to negative/positive representations of Latinos. Non-Latino survey respondents were divided up into groups. One group saw a clip from “Training Day” where tatted-up homeboys and homegirls were swilling beer and mad-dogging the white and black dudes. Another group saw a clip from “The West Wing” where Max Santos (Jimmy Smitts) is portrayed as a Latino presidential candidate giving a moving discourse about his bootstrap story.    

Not surprisingly, the respondents that watched the gangbanger clip had more negative views of Latinos along a whole host of dimensions—honesty, neighborliness, patriotism, family orientation. On the flip side, respondents who watched positive portrayals of Latinos had less negative views of them. It’s really quite simple; the more Latino criminals and slouches appear on TV, the more negatively Latinos will be viewed. The more Latino astronauts, teachers, and students appear on TV the more positively Latinos will be viewed.

On the heels of the Latino Decisions poll, the importance of Hispanic Heritage Month hit me like a ton of bricks. Throughout the years, I have looked forward to the first couple of weeks of fall, when my Latin American ancestry is highlighted. I’ve always enjoyed seeing fellow Latinos, people who looked and sounded like me, showcased for their professional and personal successes. And I would be lying if I didn’t admit to also liking the dinners, parties, and festivals that are part of the celebration month.

But until this week I had a very selfish view of Hispanic Heritage Month. I saw Hispanic Heritage month as being about me and my ethnic group. It was a family celebration. Not that non-Latinos weren’t invited, but the celebration was about us. Put differently, it was essentially Latinos preaching to the choir—successful Latinos highlighting their successes.

The findings from the Latino Decisions poll, together with two years of a harsh anti-immigrant media barrage, have jolted me. I no longer have a sanguine view about the weeks that make up Hispanic Heritage Month. This month is not about celebrating, it’s about rolling up our sleeves and getting to work. Hispanic Heritage Month must be used as a springboard to shift popular negative perceptions of Latinos. It must be a vehicle for re-framing who Latinos in this country are. And most importantly, the focus of Hispanic Heritage Month should not be Latinos, but rather all Americans.

Latinos, both in Hollywood and society, have been typecast. We are the gangbangers, the gardeners, and the harlots. Just like in any culture, we have our share of these types, but we also have an incredible array of successful and productive members of society. The responsibility is on us to show this side. While it will be a steep climb to overcome these popular characterizations, it can be done. As the Latino Decisions survey itself demonstrated, while there are negative perceptions, the presentation of a positive characterization does walk back these entrenched stereotypes. And what better place to start getting to work than with this year’s Hispanic Heritage Month?

Dr. Victoria M. DeFrancesco Soto is an NBC Latino contributor, Senior Analyst for Latino Decisions and Fellow at the Center for Politics and Governance at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, at Austin.