Celebrating 45 years
HOLA was founded in 1975 by a group of Hispanic actors (including founding president Ilka Tanya Payán and founding members Elizabeth Peña and Raúl Juliá) concerned with the images of Latinos in the media. HOLA is the nation’s longest leading advocacy group in the entertainment industry for actors working on stage, on television and in film.
In one well-documented case in the 1990s, HOLA successfully collaborated with Actors’ Equity Association to shine a light on questionable casting practices being employed at the time on Broadway. The show in question then was the Ariel Dorfman play Death and the Maiden. Since that time the number of Latinos on Broadway has increased steadily over the years. HOLA was originally located in the west 40s in Manhattan.
