When Shakira became the first Colombian this week to get her name on a world-renowned monument to the entertainment industry -- the Hollywood Walk of Fame -- the 34-year-old recording artist recalled what her mother told her at age 7. "One day, Shaki, your name will be here," her mother said when the two and a family friend visited Hollywood for the first time 27 years ago. For Shakira, the star marked a personal triumph -- as an artist and a Latina. "If by coincidence you happen to look down to the ground and you see this star, remember that it belongs to each one of you, because it carries the name of a Hispanic woman that, like you, dreams and works and works and dreams every day," Shakira said during a public ceremony on Hollywood Boulevard, with her mom and the same friend present.
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CNN analysis: Minorities are underrepresented on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
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"The numbers are low," one university expert says
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Of the 2,354 stars on Walk, only 5.1% go to blacks and 3.4% to Hispanics
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Asians have only 10 stars, or 0.4%
Those figures fall short when compared with those minorities' representation in the nation's overall population: 16% for Hispanics, 13% for African-Americans and about 5% for @placeholder.
@placeholder's overall shortcomings in including more minorities -- and representing them as more than stereotypes -- are a longstanding problem that has been roundly decried by minority advocacy groups and many performers.