Congressman Castro, having championed greater Latino representation in films, turns his attention to videogames
SAN ANTONIO — The percentage of videogame developers who are Latino is hovering in the single-digits, yet gaming is a dominant entertainment medium that can shape worldviews and perceptions for living room audiences.
It's that discrepancy that Congressman Joaquin Castro is now working to address.
The San Antonio Democrat, alongside representatives of the National Media Coalition, Hispanic Heritage Foundation and Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, last week announced the launch of a new coalition to advocate for a more inclusive gaming industry, "better representative content" surrounding depictions of Latino characters and a larger cohort of Latino video game developers.
The Latino Representation in Gaming Coalition follows in the footsteps of Castro's efforts to create more equitable representation for Latinos in the film industry. But the coalition is looking to make changes to a bigger storytelling platform—one that Forbes reported last year is "greater than the music and movie industries combined," having generated more than $184 billion in 2022.
"Games are fun," Castro said at the National Press Club in Washington on Sept. 12. "But gaming is serious business."
The six-term U.S. representative said TV programs and movies helped inform his view of the world as a child growing up in west San Antonio, adding that videogames have become a cultural focal point for his own children who play "Mario Kart" and "Roblox."
The coalition, he says, marks an effort to undo damage done by Hollywood in regards to perpetuating stereotypes by leveraging the massive user bases of game-streaming platforms like Discord and Twitch.
"The narratives they produce onscreen affect every Latino and Latina who interviews to be an accountant, a teacher or a lawyer in a room full of people that has seen them as the media has defined them," the congressman said. "That includes in games."
Statistics provided by the Latino Representation in Gaming Coalition say Hispanic video game developers account for just 8.1% of the industry workforce. A July 2024 report compiled by worldmetrics.org paints a starker picture, saying that number is 4%. The report also found Latinx game developers earned 25% less than their white colleagues.
Meanwhile, the Geena Davis Institute – which works on "championing equitable representation in media" – found last year that inclusivity in video games is something players want. Their study found that 92% of survey takers thought diverse stories were moderately, very or extremely important.
"Narratives that assume white masculine norms contribute to a cycle of underrepresentation and reinforce the idea that certain identities are, by default, 'normal,' while others are less important or even invisible," the report found.
