Obama on Hispanic Trending

Juan Guillermo Torne of Hispanic Trending sent me the following link to an interview he did with Barack Obama (in some ways it mirrors some of the issues raised by gay supporters):

Q: Why did your campaign take so long to proactively reach out to Hispanics in comparison to several of the other candidates? We saw Latino people gravitating towards you, but not until later in the game we saw a fully orchestrated effort from your camp to reach out to them?

Obama's response is here.

Is brown Jesus better than chocolate Jesus?

Dateline: San Antonio, Texas - Never mind that a brand new chocolate Jesus might actually see the light of day in a Manhattan gallery before Halloween (the old one was never unveiled at a planned exhibit back in April due to protests and was subsequently the gruesome victim of rat nibblings while being held in a dark Brooklyn storage room - the horror!). In any case, here comes Hispanic Jesus! Yay?

Yesterday hundreds of devoted church-goers in San Antonio, Texas, turned out for the unveiling of the city's "first Hispanic Jesus!" Praise the Lord!

Television reporter David Cruz described an "unmistakeable (sic) Hispanic appearance" (judge for yourself above) and I imagine for Latino kids growing up praising a Jesus that looks a bit like them - even if he's nailed to a cross - might be a good thing? I mean, I guess it's better than those 3-D images of Jesus with long blond hair and blue eyes whose stare follows you across the living room at many a Latin American living room (but probably not even close to representing the Middle Eastern man most probably portrayed in the Bible).

The difference? Well, brown Jesus has a loin cloth and was created by a believer. Chocolate Jesus doesn't have a loin cloth and was not necessarily created for a place of worship. Which is better? Only Jesus knows. What do you think?

Related:

• QueerSighted debates Folsom Street and public displays of sexuality (Queer Sighted, October 4, 2007)
• A last thought on the Last Supper...? (Citizen Crain, September 28, 2007)
• Father forgive them (Citizen Crain, September 26, 2007)
• Other Last Suppers: Where is the outrage? (Dan Savage, September 25, 2007)
• Culture war gasoline (Andrew Sullivan, September 25, 2007)
• Xtians on warpath over Folsom poster (Joe.My.God., Septemver 25, 2007)

Previously on Blabbeando:

• All chocolaty and Jesus-like (April 2, 2007)
• Billboard ads removed in Panama after uproar (March 23, 2007)
• The last supper, the sacred femine, Opus Dei and liberty of expression in Colombia (August 4, 2006)
• José Mantero: A gay Catholic priest and his blog (November 8, 2005)
• Gays are part of God's creation, says Colombia's sole female priest (October 2, 2005)

A public confession: I am no longer Latino or Hispanic

So there's something truly shameful that I have been hiding from you. And, yes, I tried to keep it under control but now I feel the need to come clean. I hope you'll be understanding and also be able to forgive me...

It all began a few weeks ago when Jorge Valdivia, the Vice President of the Association for Latino Men in Chicago/ALMA, sent a message to me with a subject that read "Frida Fascination."

I was shocked! I mean, everybody certainly knows ABBA but nobody that I know truly adores ABBA's Anni-Frid Lyngstad, better known as Frida, for her solo work. And I guess I am specifically talking about her 1982 album "Something's Going On" which was produced by the then-great Phil Collins immediately following his first successful bid as a solo artist with 1981's "Face Value" (also a great album). Both albums document the disintegration of each artist's marriages and they also share one song, the beautiful "If Leaving Me is Easy." Collins also provided back-up vocals and drums for several tracks on the Frida album. I recommend it highly.

Anyway, so I'm about to write to Jorge to tell him that I can't believe that he also loves Frida and the moment I open the message I just know my Latino cred has just been shot to hell - maybe forever. Jorge, of course, was sending a note about a successful showing of Mexican artist Frida Khalo paintings or some sort of retrospective, NOT the other Frida. OMG!

The first to react was, well, Jorge himself who said he was ashamed and that I should really consider enrolling in a "Latin American icons 101" class.

Because I needed understanding and support I reached out to others and, well, I got no such thing. Pedro Julio Serrano from New York, Monica Taher from Los Angeles and Lorenzo Herrera y Solano from Austin engaged in cross-country cyberterrorism and plastered images of Frida Khalo on my MySpace page (hm, my MySpace page disappeared this weekend by the way, what's up with that?). So much for friendship.

So, like, am I still Latino?

Favorite blog of the moment: Guanabee

OMG! If they hadn't linked up to one of my posts I probably would not have known about them but I am just loving this blog. Guanabee (as in wanna-be) is a Gawkerish look at all things Latino with a queer edge here and there. It was just launched on June 1st and so far so great:

• Fresa flashback: Latin Music industry still on that nostalgia trip
• MySpace now irrelevant in Spanish, too
• Trends: Introducing the Mexican American Prince
• Shocking revelations: Michelle Rodriguez is NOT gay
• Grupo Fantasma (who?) to back Prince on ALMA awards tonight
• Dear God, we're liveblogging the ALMA awards!

Coolness.

Update: Marine Corps begin inquiry against Matt Sanchez

I guess you could see this coming: The Navy Times reports tonight that the Marine Corps Mobilization Command in Kansas, Mo., has begun an inquiry about reservist Matt Sanchez' past as a gay porn star.

As the article says, "While Sanchez says he has put his gay porn past behind him, the Marine Corps hasn’t. Homosexual behavior is prohibited by an article of the Uniform Code of Military Justice that forbids 'sodomy.'"

This week I sent a message to Mr. Sanchez asking him to talk about his experience in the military as a Latino soldier and on his views on the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy.

There was an immediate reply: "Andres. There are no black, gay, or Puerto Rican Marines. There are just Marines. :)"

So I guess that's as far as I'll hear from Mr. Sanchez (I like the sideways smiley face though!).

Over on his blog, after a review of the testosterone filled flick "300," Cpl. Sanchez does give a link to a reply he posted on the Military Times (which also hosts the article posted in the Navy Times above).

His response: "I'll be writing another opinion piece on this subject to address this matter in my own words. I'd appreciate it, if my fellow Marines gave me the benefit of the doubt until then."

• Previously: Matt Sanchez 24/7 (March 8, 2007)

Matt Sanchez 24/7

So imagine that you are a graduate school student at Columbia University and dealing with midterm exams and what not. And then a snap of winter weather hits the city making those long pathways between campus buildings that extra windy and cold to traverse, even with a turtle-neck sweater on!

Then again, you are Cpl. Matt Sanchez, Marine reservist and right-wing media darling for daring to (gulp!) back on-campus military recruitment and complaining that some "non-minority" socialist students on campus insulted him by saying he was "too stupid" to understand that the military exploited minorities such as him (Sanchez is Puerto Rican).

An OpEd piece in the NY Post set the usual right-wing media channels on his tail including The O'Reilly Factor and Hannity and Colmes, culminating in his invite to the CPAC conference where Ann Coulter recently made those "faggot" remarks about John Edwards.

Not to miss out on the attention, Cpl. Sanchez launches his own blog to... promote his Columbia Spectator article on the lack of truly masculine characters in Ugly Betty?

Ah! But that was mere days ago and this is now:

From Joe.My.Blog:

• "Jeff Gannon Redux" (March 6, 2007)
• "Sanchez & Gingrich" (March 7, 2007)
• "Matt Sanchez Responds, Sort Of" (March 7, 2007)
• "Semper Fi, Matt" (March 8, 2007)

From Matt Sanchez:

• "Porn Free: The Truth Has Set Me Free" (Salon.com, March 8, 2007) - also on his blog.

And, finally, for now, from Matt Foreman, Executive Director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force:

The Real Eleven Inches of Pure Hypocrisy

While it may be delicious to watch our opponents twist and squirm after honoring and embracing a larger-than-life gay porn star, I don’t see any hypocrisy in U.S. Marine reservist Matt Sanchez’s actions. As is his right, he spoke out against what he believed was bad treatment by Columbia’s ‘radical anti-military students’ (Sanchez’s words). Right-wing pundits and organizations pounced on the handsome Latino Marine and showered him with praise and media exposure. Now, they’re scrambling for cover.

Porn — gay or straight — has no ideology. Porn stars and porn consumers are Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives, atheists and evangelicals. There’s no inherent contradiction between Matt Sanchez being pro-military and being part of the ‘adult film’ industry. The real hypocrisy expresses itself in two different and important ways. First, the failed ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ law requires Matt Sanchez and thousands of other loyal Americans to hide their sexual orientation to serve their country in the military. Second, Ann Coulter and her ilk lift a man to hero and spokesperson status until — gasp! — he is found out to be a ‘faggot’ (Coulter’s word).

The important 11 inches in this story? That is the approximate distance between berths on U.S. naval submarines, so defamatorily measured in front of TV cameras by then-Sen. Sam Nunn in 1993, who immorally intimated that openly gay service members could not be permitted to bunk next to straight service members. From that shameful episode, Nunn led Congress to adopt the ‘Don't Ask, Don't Tell’ law, which should now be repealed. Let’s be done with officially enforced closets.

It's sometimes fascinating to see one of these mini-scandals shape up but part of me also cringes when you see someone who obviously did not know what was coming to him become a deer caught in the headlights.

The Task Force does well by defending Sanchez' right to his views and tries to redirect the dialogue towards renewed efforts to challenge the military's "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policies (it was just last week that we blogged about yet another conservative Hispanic Marine in a whole different situation).

Still, I'm not sure I'd say that there was no hypocrisy in Sanchez letting Fox news use him in the same way that he accuses left wing media of championing minorities who express left wing views (though he does have a point when he says that when his views became prominent, it was only the New York Posts and the FOX news of the world that picked up the phone).

Still, what is most insidious to me is how conservative media outlets canonize a few minorities that espouse right-wing ideologies (Michelle Malkin anyone?). Perhaps it's my turn to turn into a Minutemen-loving, reggaeton-hating motivational speaker and Newt Gingrich fan and see if they bite? I'll even call myself Hispanic! I certainly could use the money!

An interesting point about Sanchez' Salon.com essay: He never says whether he is a gay man or not. Likewise, though he does name the titles of a couple of his porn flicks as well as the monikers he used as an actor, he never once directly says that these were gay porn flicks, just "adult films."

Online he has also claimed to have had two fiances and a wife - but never a boyfriend (a bad thing when you've dated one of the most widely read gay bloggers).

Is he trying to avoiding being thrown out of the reserves? Is he bisexual? Is he gay and doesn't think it's a public matter? Only Sanchez knows.

Not sure the truth has set him free but let's hope he does come out a better man at the end of this.

UPDATE: Just for the heck of it, a few views on the right (all in defense of Sanchez).

• A Message for -- and from -- Matt Sanchez (Michelle Malkin, March 8, 2007)
• In defense of Matt Sanchez (Right Wing News, March 7, 2007)
• Using Matt Sanchez' Past to Dismiss Conservative Ideas (Gay Patriot, March 7, 2007)
• Gay Escorts Say the Darnest Things (Chris Crain, March 6, 2007)

Hispanic Marine, 1st to be wounded in Iraq, Comes Out

On March 21st, 2003, Eric Alva, a Unites States Marine Staff Sgt. from San Antonio, Texas, became the first soldier to be wounded in the United States invasion of Iraq when he stepped on a land mine and lost his leg.

Today, backed by the Human Rights Campaign, Sgt. Alva publicly came out as a gay man and called for the repeal of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" military policy which only allows gays and lesbians to serve in the military as long as they don't disclose their sexual orientation or it's disclosed for them.

On July 13th, 2003, Sgt. Alva was also among those who received a Heroes and Heritage award from the National Council of La Raza honoring Hispanic veterans in the United States armed forces.

To read more about Sgt. Alva's long road to recovery after he lost his leg in Iraq and about his decision to come out, check out the following:

• "Don't Ask Don't Tell: From the Inside Out" by Eric Alva (Huffington Post, Feb. 28, 2007)
• "Defending His Country, but Not Its 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Policy" (Washington Post, Feb. 27, 2007)
• "'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Revisited" (ABC News, Feb. 28, 2007)
• "New bill would let gays serve openly" (Navy Times, Feb. 28, 2007)