‘Be as Brave as the Characters We Write’

When accepting the Trailblazer Award from the Critics Choice Association’s 5th annual Celebration of Latino Cinema & Television, America Ferrera took the opportunity to call on artists across Hollywood to use the power of storytelling to empower communities in “a day and age where discourse and conversation are failing to create connection and empathy and understanding.”

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Barbie star recalled a conversation with a scholar on the history of authoritarianism who warned that the United States is “barreling towards a crisis point in our country and therefore in our world.” Ferrera pressed on: “And we [in Hollywood] are not a cute little side note to civil society — we are civil society. Artists and the stories we tell have a role to play in this moment.”

The ceremony took place at the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles, a city where the Trump administration’s  Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids have caused widespread fear among immigrant communities. Many have become too afraid to go about their daily lives and leave their homes — regardless of their legal status, as both immigrants with legal status and US citizens have been detained and arrested over the past year.

Ferrera, who was presented her award by Jamie Lee Curtis, continued, “We have an obligation to point not only to what we are against, but to create and to demonstrate the world that we are for and the world that we want to live in; and to not depict one another as charity cases, as people who need us to have dignity. We are born with our dignity, and no one will take that away from us.”

She closed out the event by urging those listening to take action. “It is time for us to find our courage, find our heroism, be as brave as the characters we write and as brave as the characters we play and stand up and use our voices and use our art — make art that inspires and calls forth the world we want to live in,” Ferrera said.

Per THR, other figures in the industry honored that night included Andy Garcia, Oscar Isaac, Anthony Ramos, Camila Perez, Dolores Huerta, Frida Perez, Gabriel Luna, Kleber Mendonça Filho, Dolores Fonzi and Tonatiuh.