(A deep voice with edge and energetic anticipation): IN A WORLD where white males dominate the field of film composition, stands one Latina, ready to battle her way to receiving a gold figure of…

(CGI special effects and a montage of extreme light-contrasting settings or scenes. Driving metal music with heavy percussion and screaming guitars)

Voice returns: Ironically, (interrupted-record sound effect) [Pause] …a white man.

Latina: (Camera effect: Quick zoom in to confused Latina face) Huh?

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As one would expect. Can you think of a Latina film composer who has won an academy award for Best Original Score? Of course not! Only three women have ever won it – Marilyn Bergman for Yentl (1983), Rachel Portman for Emma (1996) and Anna Dudley for The Full Monty (1997); a New Yorker and two English women, respectively.

I remember the first few scores I heard, or should say, was mature enough to appreciate - The Terminator, Braveheart,and more so than the rest, Dragonheart. Randy Edelman wrote a simple melody, augmented by a flighty arpeggiating string accompaniment and majestic brass and low-woodwind bass line. I remember how I used to spend hours, excited (and eventually frustrated), trying to play it on the piano.

Today, I spend hours composing melodies and supporting lines, in hopes that one day someone with growing hands will run to the piano, working until the wee hours in the morning, craving to repeat them.

But its a rough game. Writing music comes effortlessly to some and is impossible to others; to have a career in it seems pointless – its just too darn difficult. (Sigh) But when I listen to Danny Elfman’s Black Beauty or Alice in Wonderland, or Howard Shore’s LOTR Shire motif or Stephen Warbeck’s Shakespeare in Love, or any other score with moving lines, I am pushed to have faith that this piece isn’t finished – there’s a purpose for all of these notes.

Escúchame exists for a reason – to shout and share the Latina voice. What is the “Latina voice”? Now that is a question that has many answers. There is a misconception – that voices exist to be heard. Sure, people can listen with their ears, but can they not also listen with their hearts? From what I know, Latinas are passionate and speak with every bone and muscle in their bodies. They can express themselves through what they create and destroy (such as those despicable stereotypes that corrode our reputations). The voice is a means of expression and to express is to emit what is felt, or feelings.

It can then be deduced that the voice can be felt and it is through my voice, my music, as an Escúchame Latina, that I will share my emotions and experiences and perhaps prove to this world that this Latina is more than capable and deserving of an Oscar.

Just food for thought: The next best thing is an Emmy, a winged woman. And renown awards such as the Pulitzer and Nobel prizes have men on their front faces. Sure, they represent important people (some guy who wrote cool stuff and another guy who blew stuff up), but does that really matter? Why not incorporate the faces of people who have done more than risk the lives of many others? Why not use the faces of change, such as the many women who have risked their lives to make a difference?