Latinos go missing at the ‘Concert for Valor’ honoring US veterans

A Veterans Day tribute unlike any other is the idea behind the recently announced “Concert For Valor” taking place Nov. 11 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

However, the high-profile show has drawn criticism from National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts Chairman and Co-Founder Felix Sanchez, who pointed out the Latino’s missing from its musical acts in letters recently sent to Time Warner and HBO.

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“The ‘Concert For Valor’ relies on a Spanish word, valor,” Sanchez told VOXXI. “It’s almost an oxymoron to name the concert with a Spanish cognate, yet leave out Latino musical talent.”

The star-studded Thank You to veterans, active duty service members and their families is being hosted by HBO, Starbucks Coffee Company and Chase with musical guests The Black Keys, Jessie J, Eminem, Dave Grohl, Metallica, Rihanna, Bruce Springsteen, Carrie Underwood and Zac Brown Band.

Celebrities participating in the “Concert For Valor” as onstage hosts include Jack Black, Bryan Cranston, Jamie Foxx, John Oliver and Latino George Lopez, with Will Smith, Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg delivering special tributes.

“Since they announced the concert, I had discussions with both Time Warner and HBO,” Sanchez said. “At first there was this sentiment of, ‘Of course, we’re going to have Latino talent. We haven’t cast the whole show. Give it some time because this is all being put together very quickly.’”

He added a subsequent conversation with HBO resulted in the cable network saying it tried to add unnamed Latino acts but scheduling conflicts precluded them from appearing.

This infuriated Sanchez, who in his letters noted more than 1.5 million Hispanics are veterans of the U.S. armed forces, not to mention Hispanics currently comprise 11.4 percent of active-duty military forces (more than 157,000 people). And in 2011, 16.9 percent of all new recruits were Hispanic.

“We all know they could never do this type of a concert without an African-American musical act and face criticism,” Sanchez said. “And yet they have no problem not having a Latino musical act because they don’t feel that they will get criticism. That is the difficult and unfortunate problem that we face. These are more than sins of omission. They’re sins of commission.”

As part of his letters, Sanchez provided a number of Latino acts that didn’t have any scheduling conflicts on Nov. 11. That list included Los Tigres Del Norte, Lila Downs, La Santa Cecilia, Sergio Mendoza y La Orkesta, Natalia Clavier, Ceci Bastida and Gaby Moreno. So far he hasn’t heard back from HBO or Time Warner.

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“These are the issues that we face where producers in general have a difficult time understanding why we they need to include Latinos in a mainstream event because they see us as marginal to the mainstream,” Sanchez said. “We’re asking for inclusion.”

He added, “The problem is that if you’re going to honor veterans and they don’t make it reflective of the veteran community, then it’s kind of a sham to have such an event.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: At time of publishing, neither HBO or Time Warner offered comment.