La Cena Los Angeles Toasts Latino Excellence in Movies and Television

Year 2023 will be remembered in Hollywood for various phenomena — the strikes, Barbenheimer — but for Latinos, 2023 was the year that saw a relatively significant number of movies and TV releases from and about their community, in a variety of genres. With actors and writers spending about half of last year unable to promote their projects, the atmosphere at Neuehouse in Hollywood was all the more electric last Friday evening as a who’s who of Latin entertainment, media, sports and politics came together to toast the excellence they saw on the big and small screens.

The event, La Cena Los Angeles, was an expansion of the intimate multi-city La Cena dinner series started last year by culture and impact consultant Ruben Garcia, formerly co-head of cultural business strategy at CAA, to cultivate community among impactful Latino figures across disciplines.

Sponsored by the Latino-focused organization Equis, La Cena LA saluted a range of work, from superhero tentpoles (Blue Beetle) to comedy (Flamin’ Hot) and drama features (Radical, A Million Miles Away, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe), as well as television series including Primo, This Fool and Lopez vs. Lopez.

“This room is one of the most loving, beautiful rooms,” said Eva Longoria from the stage, backed by her Flamin’ Hot cast and its producer, DeVon Franklin. “I’m so happy we’re here celebrating each other, because if we don’t celebrate each other, who’s gonna do it?”

Carlos Eric Lopez was on hand to snap individual and group portraits of the glamourous attendees, who also included Eugenio Derbez, Michael Peña, Constance Marie, Nestor Carbonell, Xochitl Gomez (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Dancing with the Stars champion), Cristo Fernández (Ted Lasso), Marcello Hernandez (Saturday Night Live) and Banijay chairman of the Americas Cris Abrego, making his first appearance as the newly elected chair of the Television Academy.

See a selection of the portraits made available exclusively to The Hollywood Reporter below.