Thread: Latina Actress Under Fire For Endorsing A Tea Party Immigration Hardliner For CA. Gov

Latina Actress Under Fire For Endorsing A Tea Party Immigration Hardliner For California Governor

Published January 16, 2014Fox News Latino

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  Actress Maria Conchita Alonso (2010 GETTY IMAGES)
  

Maria Conchita Alonso, the Cuban-Venezuelan actress who counts as one of her best-known films “Moscow on the Hudson” with Robin Williams, is drawing controversy over a political ad in which she appears with a California Tea Party lawmaker who is running for governor.

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.

In the video, which was released on Monday, Alonso holds a small dog that she introduces as “Tequila” and at times uses vulgar expressions as she translates into Spanish remarks by Donnelly about his views on various issues.

“The Tim Donnelly ad with Maria Conchito 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.

The newspaper La Opinion quoted Alonso as saying that she favors measures that would give certain breaks to undocumented immigrants who contribute in the United States and who do not have a criminal record. Alonso said, according to the newspaper, that before doing the campaign ad with Donnelly, she spoke to the candidate about immigration and she was satisfied with his responses.

“I am among those who think that we should help illegal immigrants who are already in the country and who do not have a criminal background, who contribute and who are good people, but those who are not, we need to take out,” she is quoted by La Opinion as saying in an email. “I spoke with Tim about this issue and he agrees with me.”

The newspaper said it had tried to get a comment about Alonso’s characterization of her exchange with Donnelly from his campaign, but got no response.

The newspaper said that if Alonso’s depiction of Donnelly’s agreement with her views is correct, it would mark a sea change from the hard-line positions he has pushed in the past that called for no breaks for undocumented immigrants.

Donnelly founded the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps of California, a group that patrolled the U.S.-Mexico border in search of people trying to cross illegally into this country.

Alonso, a former Miss Venezuela, was born in Cuba but moved with her family at the age of five to Venezuela, where she was raised. She was known originally for her starring roles in Spanish-language soap operas before she broke into the U.S. film industry.

In 1995, Alonso became the first South American woman to star on Broadway when she won the role of "Spider Woman in Kiss of the Spider Woman," according to The New York Times.

She made headlines a few years ago when she told off actor Sean Penn in an airport in California for his support of the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. She called Penn a communist, and he called her a pig.

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/pol...hardliner-for/

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She made headlines a few years ago when she told off actor Sean Penn in an airport in California for his support of the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. She called Penn a communist, and he called her a pig.

Sean Penn spent his formative years in he lap of of the leftist film industry with few boundaries and he seems to have a surly nature and very little class, poor thing. I cheered Ms Alonso, who has a LOT of class, when she tore into him and I have always enjoyed her performances.

Viva Maria!

Saturday, 01/18/2014

Maria Conchita Alonso Fired For Supporting Tea Party

Written by Mockarena

Remember the great ad from Tim Donnelly and Maria Conchita Alonso that we shared with you the other day? Well, because Maria Conchita Alonso DARED TO EXPRESS HERSELF as a conservative supporter, she's no longer in a stage production she was supposed to appear in next month.

Yeah. So much for tolerance, huh?

According to the sourcelink, Maria was set to perform next month in a Spanish language version of "The Vagina Monologues." Maria's choice of roles notwithstanding, the producer of the show, Eliana Lopez, said, "We really cannot have her in the show, unfortunately. Of course she has the right to say whatever she wants. But we’re in the middle of the Mission. Doing what she is doing is against what we believe.”

And look. It's Lopez's show. It's her right to hire or fire anyone in the production. But it's just another reminder that liberal tolerance is basically nonexistant.

Apparently, Maria's use of the word "illegal" to describe immigrants here ILLEGALLY didn't go over so well with the locals either. I will never understand why anyone has a problem with a FACTUAL DESCRIPTION of something, but that's a whole other topic.

Leo Lacayo, a local Republican put it best when he said, "It was a political ad, it was a funny ad. That anybody would lose employment over what their political leanings are is absurd.”
That's damn right.

http://chicksontheright.com/posts/it...ting-tea-party

Debra J. Saunders
Updated 5:03 pm, Monday, January 20, 2014


Maria Conchita Alonso resigned her role in a Mission District Spanish-language production of "The Vagina Monologues." Photo: Mathew Imaging, FilmMagic

The Hollywood blacklist, according to Wikipedia, is the term for "the mid-20th-century practice of denying employment to screenwriters, actors, directors, musicians, and other U.S. entertainment professionals because of their suspected political beliefs or associations." The blacklist spirit is alive and living in San Francisco, but here and now the enemies of free thought have a new question: Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Republican Party?

Last week actress Maria Conchita Alonso resigned her role in a Mission District Spanish-language production of "The Vagina Monologues," after pro-illegal immigration activists threatened a boycott.

They protested because Alonso, best known for her debut film "Moscow on the Hudson," had appeared in a video supporting the gubernatorial candidacy of GOP Assemblyman Tim Donnelly - a.k.a. to La Opinión, "un ultra conservador republicano." Donnelly is a former member of the pro-border-enforcement Minutemen, and he opposes California's Dream Act, which, to Telemundo, makes him anti-immigrant.

"We really can't have her in the show, unfortunately," producer Eliana Lopez told KPIX. And: "Of course she has the right to say whatever she wants. But we're in the middle of the Mission. Doing what she is doing is against what we believe."

Allow me to state the obvious. Just as Alonso has a First Amendment right to her opinions, critics have a right to call for a boycott. Producers of the play have the right to fire her if they so choose. Would-be patrons have a right to not buy tickets.

But in a tolerant society that values open debate, critics don't go after someone's acting career because they want to muzzle her point of view. It is, after all, fair play for partisans to vote against Donnelly because they disagree with him. It's fair play to give money to his opponents. It is fair play not to pay to hear Alonso or Donnelly lecture on politics.

These boycott threats, however, have nothing to do with honest debate. They are an attempt to marginalize an actress because of her conservative political views and impede her ability to make a living outside politics. Just like the blacklist.

It's also guilt by association. Alonso, a Cuban-born Venezuelan-raised naturalized U.S. citizen, say she supports Donnelly because of his small-government views on the economy and energy. She told La Opinión that she supports deporting illegal immigrants with criminal records, but supports a path to legalization for some immigrants who have been in the country illegally but have no criminal records.

Thus pro-illegal immigration groups are going after Alonso, a legal immigrant who is sympathetic with some of their goals, because she supports a white guy who is a gung-ho opponent of illegal immigration.

Make no mistake about it, pro-illegal-immigration activists and Spanish-language media are particularly committed to marginalizing Alonso precisely because she is a Latina. They have a stake in portraying the Latino vote as monolithic. Nuance is not welcome in this controversy, as the war against Alonso signals that good Latinos must not distinguish between legal and illegal immigration. The strategy works. A 2010 Pew poll found that 31 percent of Latinos viewed illegal immigration as a negative; by 2013, that viewpoint shrank to 21 percent.

Perhaps if Alonso renounces Donnelly, activists will welcome the actress to the San Francisco stage, where she can engage in oh-so tolerant progressives' favorite form of political discourse - the monologue, of course.

http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/saunde...st-5160024.php