A truly unfortunate political ad for the California gubernatorial race featuring a semi-famous Latina actress, her shivering old Chihuahua, and a state assemblyman who looks like he could be have had a small arc as a bumbling villain on Weeds has really, really pissed off San Francisco’s Latino community. The shitstorm over this ad is so bad, in fact, that the actress has been booted from an upcoming, Spanish-language performance of The Vagina Monologues next month at the Brava Theater in San Francisco’s Mission District.
Maria Conchita Alonso, an actress of Cuban and Venezuelan descent whose most famous role San Francisco’s CBS affiliate incorrectly describes as having been Moscow on the Hudson (it’s obviously Predator 2, I mean, come on), appeared in a political ad next to Assemblyman Tim Donnelly of San Bernardino, the California’s gubernatorial race’s very own wacky Tea Party candidate. Donnelly, steadfastly white and monolinguistic, jaws at the camera about “illegal immigrants” and the great exodus of businesses from California. Alonso is ostensibly there as a translator, but the gag is that she doesn’t translate Donnelly’s actual words…just the gist.
It’s awkward and terrible and long and Alonso’s Chihuahua (whose name is Tequila) really doesn’t want to be part of it. Members of San Francisco’s Latino community are understandably not thrilled with Alonso for appearing in an ad for a guy who used to be part of the border-patrolling Minuteman Project. They’re also taking issue with a radio interview Alonso gave the Spanish-language station KIQI 1010 AM San Francisco on Friday, in which she said she agreed with a lot of Donnelly’s harsh views on “illegal immigration.” Callers were quick to remind Alonso that it’s pretty crappy to use the term “illegal” to describe undocumented immigrants.
Alonso’s political views haven’t just earned her public scorn — she’s been kicked out of the Brava Theater’s production of The Vagina Monologues. Eliana Lopez, the show’s producer, explained,
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.
Local Republicans are already rushing to Alonso’s defense with arguments about the First Amendment, which is funny because you probably would have never thought that Republicans anywhere would actively fight for a woman’s right to perform in The Vagina Monologues. I mean, that’s almost what Leo Lacayo, a prominent San Francisco Latino Republican, was doing when he said of the Donnelly ad, “It was a political ad, it was a funny ad. That anybody would lose employment over what their political leanings are is absurd.”
Imagine it — “Republicans 4 Vagina Monologue Employment.” And then the GOP could put on its very own Vagina Monologues show featuring Mitch McConnell performing “I Was There In the Room.”
