by Antonio Mejías-Rentas
Two Latina performers are among this year’s crop of Emmy primetime nominees, announced July 8 in Los Angeles. Colombian actress Sofia Vergara is nominated in the supporting actress category for her role as Gloria Delgado-Pritchett in the ABC Modern Family.
And Mexican-American percussionist Sheila E is up for an Emmy in the musical director category, for her work in the PBS special. In Performance at the White House: Fiesta Latina.
Both Latinas are first-time Emmy nominees. Vergara, only the third Latina actress nominated in the supporting category for comedy in the 62-year-history of the primetime Emmys, said she was stunned by the nomination.
With this accent, it’s very hard to find roles, she told Associated Press. To have been able to find a role so perfect for a person like me with my ethnicity, with the way I look, it’s unbelievable.
Previous nominees were Puerto Rican actresses Rita Moreno (in 1983) and Liz Torres (in 1990, 1994 and 1995), but neither won the award in the category.
The Emmy Awards will be handed out Aug. 29 in a ceremony to be broadcast. Enrique Iglesias’s new album is the first recorded in Spanish and English by the 35-year-old singer born in Madrid but raised in Miami.
The son of Spanish crooner Julio Iglesias calls Euphoria the most eclectic album I have ever done in a 15-year-career
Enrique Iglesias has usually recorded one album in Spanish and a separate version in English, but in an interview with Associated Press he said it was the right time for a bilingual album.
I have always written in English and in Spanish, I think in English and in Spanish, I dream in English and in Spanish. The timely moment didn’t arrive before … (But) this moment asked me for it creatively, he said.
The recently released album already contains two hits off the album: I Like It, with Pitbull and Lionel Richie, and Cuando me enamoro, a duet with Juan Luis Guerra. The album also includes collaborations with Akon, Nicole Sherzinger, Usher and Wisin & Yandel.
ONE LINERS: The American Ballet Theatre will perform in Cuba for the 22nd annual Havana International Ballet Festival, taking place Oct. 28 to Nov. 9.
Scholars hope that La educación de laVirgen, a painting found in the archives of the Yale University Museum and newly attributed to Spanish painter Diego Velazquez, will provide new insight into the early career of the 17th century master.
Greek Cypriots are mounting an angry internet campaign complaining about an upcoming concert in the Turkish-dominated north Cyprus by Jennifer Lopez; the pop diva expects to celebrate her 41st birthday at the July 24 planned opening of a $220 million casino. Hispanic Link
