Update II:
María Conchita Alonso was to perform next month at the Brava Theater Center in San Francisco’s Mission District in a Spanish-language version of “The Vagina Monologues.”
The show producer, Eliana Lopez, wife of San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi, has told KPIX5, “We really cannot have her in the show, unfortunately.” Lopez said Alonso abruptly resigned from the cast on Friday, given the backlash on the immigration issue, according to CBS SF Bay Area.
However,
Leo Lacayo, a prominent San Francisco Latino Republican, has been pushing his party to be more moderate on immigration. He thinks Alonso is being treated unfairly.
“It was a political ad, it was a funny ad,” Lacayo said. “That anybody would lose employment over what their political leanings are is absurd.”
Read more here
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UPDATE I:
Fox News Latino reports that María Conchita Alonso is drawing controversy over appearing in an ad, shown below, with California Tea Party assemblyman Tim Donnelly:
Several Latino organizations criticized the actress for endorsing Tim Donnelly, an assemblyman who founded a state chapter of the Minutemen, an armed vigilante border patrol group, and who has pushed for a hard line on immigration.
The critics also took issue with what they say is the stereotyping of Latinos in the campaign video in which Alonso appears with Donnelly.
[::]
“The Tim Donnelly ad with Maria Conchita Alonso ad is so bad it’s almost laughable,” said a statement by Café Con Leche, a Latino Republican group. “The ad seems designed to appeal to Hispanic voters, but instead insults the intelligence of many Hispanic voters.”
The group said that Alonso was an example of how “time and time again movie stars often lack common sense.”
Critics, including Lalo Alcaraz, a cartoonist and activist, expressed bewilderment over Conchita’s support of Donnelly, who vigorously has fought against measures in the state that allow undocumented immigrants to attend public colleges at the same tuition rates as other residents, and that allow them to obtain driver’s licenses.
Donnelly also has been a vocal opponent of measures that would give some undocumented immigrants a chance to legalize their status.
Read more here
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Original Post:
It is strange how some political ads can be funny, infuriating, ironic, clever, stupid, misleading, exaggerated, etc., all at the same time.
Take for example an ad by conservative Assemblyman Tim Donnelly (R-Hesperia, Ca.) who wants to replace Gov. Jerry Brown as the next governor of California.
But to attempt to succeed in such an improbable quest, Donnelly badly needs the Latino vote.
So, Donnelly partnered up with vivacious singer-actress María Conchita Alonso and her lapdog, Tequila, to make a bilingual video campaign ad.
Standing next to Donnelly, holding Tequila in her arms, the Cuban-born, Venezuelan-raised, U.S. citizen, María Conchita Alonso does some very liberal — not in the political sense — and amusing translations of Donnelly’s remarks.
I do not want to spoil your viewing of the ad — especially for our bi-lingual readers who will enjoy it even more — so I will give just a couple of examples of the freewheeling translations.
Perhaps the most funny example is when Donnelly, in a long rant, says that he wants “a gun in every Californian’s gun safe,” that he wants government out of our businesses and our bedrooms and that he wants to make “California the sexiest place on the planet to do business.” María Conchita’s unhesitating, short translation: “Los tiene bien grandes — está enojado.” Observing her eyes and hand gestures, there is no doubt about the re-translation: “He has really big ones” — referring to his testicles — “and he is angry.”
When Donnelly continues to expound, calling Jerry Brown’s ban on lead ammunition “a cowardly attack on the Second Amendment” and “the first step to banning hunting” in California, María Conchita in a well-choreographed “emotional” voice interrupts him saying — in Spanish — that she does not agree with him, “I don’t like hunting…I hate to see animals suffer….We need to talk about this later.” When Donnelly quizzically looks at her, María Conchita coyly says, “I was just saying that you have really great hair.”
María Conchita gives another funny, shorthand translation of Donnelly’s “You know, politicians and big government are killing our prosperity. They’re driving businesses out of our state, pushing welfare costs through the roof, and driving our schools into the ground” with a simple “estamos bien jodidos” (“We are really screwed.”)
Conveniently “lost in the translation” to Latino voters are some of the following aspects of Donnelly’s vision:
According to ThinkProgress:
Donnelly is a founder of the Minuteman movement in California, a group of anti-immigrant vigilantes. Indeed, Donnelly was featured on the Colbert Report proclaiming that “it is a great day to be a vigilante.” He then discusses how he considered hiring “illegal aliens” to build a border fence at the California-Mexico border.
The LA Times describes Donnelly as “a vehement activist against illegal immigration” and adds, “Donnelly also led a failed effort to repeal a state law that allows undocumented college students to qualify for state financial aid programs.”
Watch for yourself what was lost and gained in the translation:
Image: www.shutterstock.com
