TIME Celebrates 2024 Latino Leaders

TIME Latino Leaders

The mood at TIME’s Latino Leaders celebration in Los Angeles on Thursday was a blend of excitement and seriousness. Guests acknowledged the progress made in amplifying Latino voices, perspectives, and influence across different fields while also recognizing the challenges that persist.

Latinos—the fastest growing ethnic group in the U.S.—make up almost one-fifth of the U.S. population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. However, they face obstacles, such as underrepresentation in media and harmful stereotypes about the community, which honorees addressed throughout the evening. 

“Not long ago, there were very few opportunities for Latinos in Hollywood. Fortunately, I can say that these days I feel optimistic,” said actress , who added that diversity can be a solution to the lack of originality in Hollywood. But “as proud and excited as this makes us for the future,” she cautioned, “we cannot allow ourselves to get complacent. Representation is a constant pursuit.”

Mendes was one of , including actors, playwrights, corporate execs, and other U.S.-based Latinos for their influence and leadership in their respective fields—some of whom gathered at the celebration in Los Angeles on Tuesday, including Olympic gold medalist , influencer, and political strategist .

TIME Latino Leaders

The evening featured speeches from several honorees, including actor , who sang a snippet from Hector Lavoe’s “Mi Gente,” and many anecdotes honoring immigrant parents and loved ones for their support. Cruz, who broke barriers as the first out gay actor to play an out gay character on prime time television, focused his speech on the importance of love. “As Latino people, we’ve been very fortunate to have that love modeled for us by people who fought and bled and even died for our ability to experience more of that love than they did,” he said, mentioning prominent Latino civil rights figures like , a Latino Leaders honoree in 2023. 

Pride in heritage was a recurring theme throughout the night. Marketing expert , who first encountered the word Hispanic after immigrating to the U.S. a decade ago, called for mobilization efforts to help Latinos be proud of their identity and reclaim their Latinidad from any negative connotations others might associate with it. “We’re going to unify, equip, and mobilize [to] change the perception of Latinos,” she said during her speech. “We shouldn’t stop until everybody in this country—not only Latinos—until everyone in the country knows that Hispanics are positive contributors to the country, that we are the economic driving force of America.”

, global brand president at cosmetics company Clinique and Origins, echoed that sentiment when talking about the importance of authenticity. “Latinos sometimes think they won’t succeed, especially in a leadership position … if they’re too authentic, if they’re too passionate. I hear that a lot,” she says. “I have really now started to make it a real part of my journey to help those young Latinos erase that from their mind. I believe that authenticity is our superpower, and that we cannot succeed without this superpower.”

TIME Latino Leaders

Comedian gave a shout-out to his hometown—“It’s always nice to be in Los Angeles and honor people from everywhere else,” he joked—before thanking TIME for the recognition and reflecting on his time working in Puerto Rico on Blue Beetle, the first film to feature a Latino superhero. “There’s a lot of movies about superheroes. Some can fly, some throw fire, some don’t die, but there has not been any superhero near the power of the Blue Beetle, because the Blue Beetle started out as a and ended up as .”

The evening concluded with a performance by 2024 TIME Latino Leader , lead singer of The Marías, who honored her mother before singing “No One Noticed” and “Lejos de Ti” from the band’s latest album, Submarine.

Latino Leaders was presented by Nissan.