Well, it would seem that the Kennedy Center is not entirely unaware of the criticism that it is demographically inert. Just a few months after its president, Michael Kaiser, set off a controversy by cursing out the head of a Latino organization who dared to point out the glaring fact that in 35 years of the Kennedy Center Honors, only two artists of Hispanic descent have been so lauded, the venue is playing host to big celebration of Hispanic arts and culture.
On January 20, as part of a three-day convention commemorating Latino involvement in U.S. political culture, the Kennedy Center will play host to a big gala event featuring more than a dozen well-known Latino performers. The actress Eva Longoria will emcee the event, titled “In Performance at the Kennedy Center,” which will also feature José Feliciano, George Lopez, Mario Lopez, Rita Moreno, Chita Rivera and Robert Rodriguez, among others. Rivera, an actress, is one of only two Latino artists to be included in the Kennedy Center Honors.
The big show, which is open to the public for $150 a ticket, closes out a three-day event at the Kennedy Center called “Latino Inaugural 2013.” Hispanic voters were a significant voting bloc for President Obama last year, with 71 percent backing Obama for a second term.
Hosting this event appears to be part of a face-saving campaign by the Kennedy Center to correct its image after an incident last September in which the sometimes tempestuous Kaiser blew his stack during a phone conversation with Felix Sanchez, the head of the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda. After the Kennedy Center announced its 2012 crop of awardees—David Letterman, Dustin Hoffman, Buddy Guy, Natalia Makarova and Led Zeppelin—Sanchez called Kaiser to point out yet another exclusion of Latino performers. Eventually, the conversation escalated to the point where Kaiser told Sanchez, “Go fuck yourself.”
The Kennedy Center’s damage control was revealed yesterday, when it announced the creation of a panel to review how the Kennedy Center Honors are doled out.
