Latina actress Maria Conchita Alonso out of play over support of Tea Party candidate
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
A San Francisco arts organization has parted ways with a well-known Latina actress, who was to star in its rendition of “The Vagina Monologues,” after the thespian appeared in a political ad with a California Tea Party lawmaker who is running for governor.
“We really can’t have her in the show, unfortunately,” Eliana Lopez, the producer, told KPIX 5 of Maria Conchita Alonso’s resignation on Friday from the cast of Brava! For Women in the Arts’ upcoming Spanish performance of the Eve Ensler play.
“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.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
Several Latino organizations have criticized Alonso -- a former Miss Venezuela who gained Hollywood fame for hits like “The Running Man,” and “Moscow on the Hudson” -- for endorsing Tim Donnelly, a California State Assemblyman from San Bernardino.
Connelly founded a state chapter of the Minutemen, an armed vigilante border patrol group, and has vigorously fought against measures that allow California's undocumented immigrants to attend public colleges at the same tuition rates as other residents, as well as permit them to obtain driver’s licenses, according to Fox News Latino.
In the Connelly ad, released Jan. 13, Alonso holds a small dog that she introduces as “Tequila” and at times uses vulgar expressions as she translates remarks by Donnelly about his views on various issues into Spanish.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
“Politicians and big government are killing our prosperity, pushing welfare costs through the roof and driving our schools into the ground,” Donnelly reportedly notes in the ad.
Then, while standing next to him, Alonso jokingly translates it all by saying, “We’re screwed.”
“The Tim Donnelly ad with Maria Conchita Alonso ad is so bad it’s almost laughable,” Café Con Leche, a Latino Republican group, said in a statement. “The ad seems designed to appeal to Hispanic voters, but instead insults the intelligence of many Hispanic voters.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}
Brava! For Women in the Arts’ production of “The Vagina Monologues” is scheduled to show at the venue it owns and operates called the Brava Theater Center, located in San Francisco’s Mission District, a neighborhood heavily populated with people of Latin descent.
For her part, Alonso was reportedly born in Cuba and spent the first five years of her life there, until her family moved to Venezuela in 1962. She became a U.S. citizen in 2005.