Category Archives: celebrity
Telemundo brings back Herederos del Monte heart throbs in Corazón Valiente
If you had a thing for José (played by José Luis Reséndez), and/or Gaspar (played by Fabián Ríos) in Telemundo’s novela, Herederos del Monte, then prepare yourself… Telemundo has brought both actors back in their new telenovela, Corazón Valiente.
Fabián Ríos as Willy del Castillo
José Luis Reséndez as Juan Carlos Arroyo
Here’s two promos, one featuring José who plays a character named Juan Marcos Arroyo and the second one features Fabián playing the part of Willy del Castillo.
Watch Corazón Valiente, weeknights at 9pm starting March 6th, 2012. Not fluent in Spanish? English subtitles will be available in closed captioning options. For more information visit Telemundo.com or follow @CValienteTV on Twitter.
Will Ferrell Answers all Spanish Questions, “Chicharito”
Actor/Comedian Will Ferrell appeared during halftime of the Colombia vs. Mexico fútbol game last night to promote his new movie, “Casa de mi Padre.” Hilarity ensued. Chécalo!
Lana del Rey – Is she Latina?
Apparently Lana del Rey is the hot thing right now, and her popularity began some time last year – but I had no clue who she was until a couple weeks ago.
I don’t listen to music in English even half as much as I listen to music in Spanish – so that might be why Lana flew under my radar for so long, and she would have continued to remain unknown to me if it weren’t for these terrible headaches I’ve been getting.
These particular headaches aren’t anything to fool around with – I can’t just take Tylenol and carry on as I usually do – and by “carry on as I usually do”, I mean playing Pitbull full blast for at least some portion of my day.
Well, I can’t manage with no music at all and so I decided I needed a temporary replacement for Pitbull, Reggaeton, Norteños, and all the other typically loud-ish music I listen to. One day, with a headache building, I flipped through the satellite radio channels and impatiently stopped on some sort of “coffeehouse” station – I ended up leaving it on the entire week. The music was calm, didn’t distract me from my work and some of the songs they repeated often began to grow on me.
Then one day, this song began to play and I stopped mid-typing, completely absorbed in the hauntingly beautiful music and the singer’s voice.
I rushed to find out the name of the singer and the song, which turned out to be “Video Games” by Lana del Rey. I laughed to myself, seeing the name. Leave it to me to find the only Latina on the coffeehouse station, but when I looked up the artist to find out more about her, I found a number of things I didn’t expect.
First of all, she’s highly controversial for a multitude of reasons. (See here, and here, and over here…Okay, and here too.)
The other thing I found out? While her exact heritage isn’t publicly known, Lana most likely isn’t Latina. Born Elizabeth Woolridge Grant, her birth name suggests Anglo ancestry, (though one never knows whose hiding in the family tree.) The Spanish-sounding “Lana del Rey” is just a stage name which some say was concocted from the name of movie star Lana Turner and the Ford Del Rey automobile. Lana tells a different story…
“I wanted a name I could shape the music towards [...] I was going to Miami quite a lot at the time, speaking a lot of Spanish with my friends from Cuba – Lana Del Rey reminded us of the glamour of the seaside. It sounded gorgeous coming off the tip of the tongue.” – Source: Vogue magazine interview
Despite the various controversies over everything from her authenticity to her plump lips, I can’t help but like the girl based on her voice alone. As for Lana/Elizabeth using a Spanish name for her public persona, who am I to judge? If I hadn’t married a Mr. López, maybe I’d have changed my name to Tracy del Rey by now. Is it not one’s prerogative to call themselves whatever they please? What do you think?
Why Salma Hayek’s accent is sexy but the gringo accent isn’t
Antonio & Salma are well-loved for their accents. Mayor Bloomberg? Not so much.
The other day I talked about my accent and whether I should embrace it or continue to attempt to erase it. For the sake of brevity, (which I don’t think I quite succeeded at anyway), I edited the post before publishing and took out some other points I wanted to make.
One of the rabbits I didn’t chase down the path the other day, but will today, is the fact that the gringo/a accent in Spanish is often perceived as one of two things:
1. Ugly, (i.e. “That gringo’s accent is horrible. He’s butchering our language!“)
-or-
2. Amusing, funny, hilarious
Latinos born and raised in the United States who have difficulty speaking Spanish are often made fun of or criticized even more heavily than Caucasian gringos who try to learn the language. Jennifer Lopez, Cristina Aguilera, Erik Estrada and many other celebrities have taken plenty of flack in the past.
Yet native Spanish speakers with heavy accents in English are often considered “sexy.”
Examples?
Salma Hayek
Antonio Banderas
Sofia Vergara
And so the question occurred to me – why the double standard? It seems rather unfair, (and yet, even I admit that I would rather hear a native Spanish speaker speak English with an accent than a native English speaker speak Spanish with an accent.)
I decided to ask an acquaintance I made this past year, François Grosjean, a Professor of psycholinguistics and author of several books including, Bilingual: Life and Reality. I don’t know him in person but I discovered him via the fascinating articles he writes on Psychology Today and once E-mailed him questions I had regarding the phenomenon some bilinguals experience which feels somewhat like having a split personality. He happened to be working on an article on that very topic and asked permission to quote me. (The article: Change of Language, Change of Personality? is here. I’m quoted as “Bilingual 1.”)
And so, when I had this new question on my mind, I didn’t hesitate to contact Dr. Grosjean again. I asked:
…Why is it that when White/Anglo/”Gringos” speak Spanish with an accent, it is usually considered “ugly” sounding or “funny” – Yet it seems when native Spanish speakers speak English with an accent, it can be considered “sexy”…
I’m sure this can be said about other languages as well. If you asked Americans if they preferred to hear a native French speaker speak English with an accent or a native German speaker speak English with an accent, I believe the majority would choose the French speaker. The French accent in English is considered sexy or pretty, but the German accent is considered ugly and harsh.
Are these learned cultural preferences or are there scientific linguistic differences that simply make one scenario more pleasing to the ears than the other?
Dr. Grosjean gave me permission to share excerpts of his E-mail. He answered, in part:
“As for the other question: “are there scientific linguistic differences that simply make one scenario more pleasing to the ears than the other?” – I don’t have an answer. You’d expect that researchers would have examined this but I personally don’t know of a study. Everything you say is correct but how much is due to the way the dominant language sounds and how much to cultural preferences is simply not known.”
So there you have it – it’s still a mystery!
While I had Dr. Grosjean’s ear though, I also asked him what he thought of my dilemma regarding my accent. Should I erase it or embrace it? His opinion?
“I think the best thing is to accept it as it is. Your loved ones like you the way you are, with an accent, and that is what really matters. As for the others, hopefully, with time, they’ll put more emphasis on how well you speak Spanish and not on the accent that you have. In any case, the more you do speak Spanish, the more your accent will improve; so it’s a win win situation all the way, I think.”
Thanks to Dr. Grosjean for allowing me to quote him and for being so kind in answering my various linguistic questions. Check out his most recent Psychology Today post – it should hit home to many of you, (as it did for me!)
Falling in Love With a Culture and a Language.
(Image sources: Live at J&R and Eva Rinaldi.)
Interview: Latin Pop singer Luis Fonsi
I recently had the opportunity to interview Puerto Rican singer Luis Fonsi about his involvement with St. Jude Children’s Hospital. Check it out!
Inspired to support this charity? Check out HospitalSanJudas.org.
I’ve got some ‘splaning to do
I’m not usually chismosa but I admit it, yesterday I Googled “hijo de Espinoza Paz” … I was CURIOUS, okay? Just curious.
I respect Espinoza’s privacy and blah-blah-blah, but I just wanted to see the cute bebito. So here I am, innocently acting like a tabloid-crazed fan when I should be writing or folding laundry, and here are the Google Images search results I see for “hijo de Espinoza Paz” …
Santa. Mierda. That’s my younger son! The photo is from this post, which doesn’t even mention Espinoza Paz.
Anyway, I just wanted to head off any rumors.
#1. That cute polar bear/child is mine and Carlos’s.
#2. I’ve never even met Espinoza Paz, let alone…
#3. Even if I met Espinoza Paz I doubt he’s into chubby gringas.
#4. IF Espinoza Paz happened to have the same taste as Carlos and he let it be known to me I would say the following:
“I’m sorry, Espinoza, but it isn’t meant to be. I’m happily married. I’m sorry to break your heart, but maybe you can at least get a few good songs out of it? … Can we still be friends?… Actually, I can’t be friends either. You wrote that song ‘Amigos con Derecho’ so it won’t look right, plus my husband, (WHO I’M MADLY IN LOVE WITH), can be a little celoso. I should go… Espinoza, please. Don’t make this harder than it needs to be.” {Pulls his hands off my ankle and walks away.}
Now all that’s left to do is hope Carlos doesn’t read this or I’ll end up on an episode of Maury. At least DNA test results would prove I’m telling the truth. Then I could get all up in his face, “I told you! I TOLD YOU!” … Then Maury would have our Polar Bear/Child brought out where we’d hug him together, Carlos would apologize for having ever doubted my fidelity and we’d live happily ever after.
Pero, sheesh, who would have ever thought Google Images could cause such drama?
JLo backs it up like a Tonka Truck for Pitbull
Last night my 13 year old interrupted my very impassioned rendition of Yertle the Turtle, which I was reading to his little brother before bedtime.
“Mommy! Jennifer Lopez and Pitbull just performed on the American Music Awards and it was nasty!”
“What do you mean nasty?”
“Jennifer Lopez was barely wearing anything, first of all.”
“Okay, not shocking.”
“No, but she like put her butt near Pitbull’s… you-know, and Pitbull looked like, all happy, of course.”
(The 10 year old giggles.)
I answered my 13 year old with something like, “Yeah? Well, you know how Pitbull is, honey,” and I went back to the story. I mean, it’s JLo and Pitbull. It’s the American Music Awards… what did he expect? We have these conversations often enough. I’ve told him, sex sells. I’ve told him that at some point very soon (if not already), he will find performances and images like these to be spectacular rather than “nasty.” I’ve told him that no matter how strong certain urges may be and despite what the culture says is appropriate – he should always treat women with respect.
Then this morning I came across a photo from the performance which he had described to me and it made me think.
(I can’t use the photo here since it’s owned by Getty Images. Click the link above to see the original. Here are some screenshots I took from video.)
J.Lo and Pitbull perform at the American Music Awards.Image is a screenshot taken from video.
J.Lo and Pitbull perform at the American Music Awards.Image is a screenshot taken from video
What can be said about these photos? I’ll admit that my first reaction was to laugh – (partly because it appears that Pitbull’s pants aren’t flat in the front and partly because I imagine Marc Anthony watching this from the sidelines.)
Look, total honesty here – I love both JLo and Pitbull. I listen to their music and think they are both talented individuals and exceptional entertainers. Pitbull is one of the very few artists that I’m willing to actually buy the album from, because I love every song and know I can dance through the entire CD from beginning to end. As a woman, I get kind of disgusted with the constant objectification of women in his music – but as a music lover, I can’t get enough. It’s a moral contradiction that I’m totally aware of.
After that initial amused reaction though, the photo also made me kind of sad. Here is JLo, one of the most successful Latinas in the world, bending over for Pitbull like an endless number of women have happily done for him before being tossed aside like used Kleenex.
I don’t know. Maybe it’s just a meaningless performance meant to entertain and nothing should be read into it. I know it was just a choreographed dance, a music awards moment that lasted for no more than 10 seconds and will ultimately be forgotten – but it just seems symbolic of how women, (Latina and otherwise), are viewed and consequently treated.
The cultural message: No matter how smart, how successful, how kind or talented you are, in the end, chicas, this is what you’re good for.
A peso for your thoughts, gente.
Related Link:
Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias – Giveaway!
Gabriel Iglesias is one of my favorite comedians, so when I was asked if I wanted to do a giveaway of the DVD release of the Comedy Central show, “Gabriel Iglesias Stand-up Revolution” – I was all in!
This is a 2 disc set with over 40 minutes of Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias and his comedian friends and even features OZOMATLI as the house band. If you haven’t seen the TV show, Gabriel serves mainly as host and introduces the comedians before they perform. All of the comedians are friends of Gabriel’s and most of them are breaking into the business. Some of the comedians are funnier than others, but the DVD is worth having for the opening story Gabriel tells about Arizona. (Their tour bus was pulled over by Border Patrol – hilarity ensues.) I also loved the outtakes and the music video called “Hey, It’s Fluffy!” made especially for Gabriel by OZOMATLI.
Here’s a preview of the DVD – (which is definitely not for niños and somewhat not safe for work, depending on how cool or not cool your boss is.)
Want your own copy? Read the details below for how to win!
—GIVEAWAY CLOSED—CONGRATS, LAUREN!—
GIVEAWAY DETAILS
Prize description: One lucky winner will receive a 2 disc DVD release of “Gabriel Iglesias Presents Stand-Up Revolution.”
Approximate value: $15.00.
How to Enter:
Just leave a comment below telling me what you like about comedian Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias! If you’re not yet familiar with Gabriel, tell me about your favorite comedian of all time. (Please read official rules below.)
Official Rules: No purchase necessary. You must be 18 years of age or older to enter. You must be able to provide a U.S. address for prize shipment. Your name and address will only be shared with the company in charge of prize fulfillment. Please no P.O. Boxes. One entry per household. Make sure that you enter a valid E-mail address in the E-mail address field so you can be contacted if you win. Winner will be selected at random. Winner has 48 hours to respond. After 48 hours, a new winner will be selected at random. Giveaway entries are being accepted between November 20th, 2011 through November 25th, 2011. Entries received after November 25th, 2011 at 11:59 pm, will not be considered. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. If you win, by accepting the prize, you are agreeing that Latinaish.com assumes no liability for damages of any kind. By entering your name below you are agreeing to these Official Rules. Void where prohibited by law.
Disclosure: I received this product for review purposes. No other compensation was given. As always, all opinions are my own.
Hollywood… El Salvador?
[Today is Spanish Friday so this post is in Spanish. For the English translation, please scroll down. If you participated in Spanish Friday on your own blog, leave your link in comments!]
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Caminando en las calles de El Salvador, encontramos muchas cosas inesperadas. Por un lado, había hoyos tan grandes que pudieron comer totalmente a mi niño menor, (¡Ojo en una esquina cerca de Parque Libertad! Había un hoyo que se parecía a un pequeño Boquerón.)
Un hoyo suficiente profundo por meter la mitad de tu pierna. San Salvador.
Después de casi dar un paso en cosas asquerosas o peligrosas, formé el hábito de mirar por dónde caminaba. Un día cuándo fuimos caminando por el museo Tín Marín, yo estaba sorprendida por encontrarme a mis pies, unas estrellas como las que están en Hollywood.
Había sólo tres estrellas que estaban un poco descuidadas y sólo son para los atletas salvadoreños. Estaban en la acera en frente del Estadio de Mágico González.
Desde que regresamos a los Estados Unidos, han arreglado el estadio adentro. Ojalá que arreglan las estrellas, (aunque tienen cosas mil veces más importantes en que pueden usar el dinero ahorita.) También espero que un día deberian añadir estrellas para La Selecta de Playa.
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[ENGLISH TRANSLATION]
Walking the streets of El Salvador, we came upon a lot of unexpected things. For one thing, there were holes big enough to completely eat up my little boy, (Look out on a corner near the Parque Libertad! There was a hole there that looked like a little version of the Boquerón.)
[The "Boquerón" is the nickname of San Salvador's volcano crater.]
After almost stepping in disgusting and dangerous things, I formed the habit of watching where I walked. One day when we were walking to the Tín Marín museum, I was surprised to find my feet standing on stars like the ones that are in Hollywood.
There were only three stars that were a little uncared for, and they’re only for Salvadoran athletes. They were on the sidewalk outside Estadio Mágico González.
Since we’ve returned to the United States, they fixed up the stadium inside. Hopefully they’ll fix the stars, (although they have things that are a thousand times more important that they could use the money for right now.) I also hope that some day they add stars for the football players of La Selecta de Playa.
