Luis Jimenez is back in town

With posters announcing "The Second Coming" plastering the city (almost as many posters if not more than for the movie "Cloverfield"), Spanish language radio shock-jock Luis Jimenez finally ended his contract-mandated exile and was back on the New York City radio airwaves yesterday morning with his "Luis Jimenez Show" on La Kalle.

Unrepentant for past on air transgressions - or the homophobic skit that got him suspended for a couple of months last year in a version of the show that was being broadcast by Univision Radio in markets outside New York - the debut of the show was preceded by a number of interviews with the press which were striking for the animosity he expressed towards his former colleagues at "El Vacilon de la Mañana" on La Mega. So much so that when he continued to slime La Mega on the air it seemed more like an act to paint himself as the wronged underdog back in town to take them down than anything else (this "underdog," of course, is the man who signed with Univision for $5 million, making him the top paid Hispanic radio personality in the United States).

In a pre-show interview that appeared yesterday in the Daily News, Jimenez addressed his suspension for the first time in public and said: “That happened right after [Don] Imus’ problems and I think the suspension was less about me than about delivering a message."

In the show aired yesterday, which was set up as an on-air "press conference" instead of a proper show, Jimenez told listeners that he had nothing for which to apologize and said that he'd felt personally hurt about being tagged as anti-gay. He said that he knew it wasn't even the gay community that called him homophobic but one or two people at a small organization (alluding, we assume, to GLAAD, which released a statement denouncing his on air banter before the suspension).

He said that it was a sad day when radio personalities didn't have to fear the FCC but, instead, a small organization. "That's not a democracy," he said, "It's a dictatorship."

He also told the Daily News that “rules for content have definitely changed, black comedians have said ‘ho’ for years and now it’s bad. You used to hear ‘bitch’ all the time and now it’s ‘the b-word.’ I think it’s a problem, but I can adjust. You find other ways to say things. I make up words.”

He added that, despite how he felt, he wasn't about to do anything to get his new employer in trouble and that he was grateful to Univision for bringing him back to New York.

The press conference as an on-air show drew mostly online Latino website reporters with most "reporters" congratulating Jimenez on his return to the air and a female reporter actually gushing over Jimenez and how great he looked. One of the exceptions was the well-known El Diario La Prensa OpEd columnist Gerson Borrero who asked a few pressing questions about the feud with "El Vacilon," the issue of censorship and whether Jimenez would be willing to return to SBC Radio, owners of La Mega, if he was offered $10 million dollars.

But wait! What about the show's content?

Well, a number of new personalities were introduced in yesterday's show including Fay who describes herself as being a lesbian woman. She spent some time defending Jimenez from the accusations of homophobia and vouchering for his character (she's the show's Robin Quivers, if you will, to Jimenez' Howard Stern role).

Yesterday and today she engaged in some sophomoric banter with Jimenez - mostly of the Beavis-and-Butthead type - that played on words such as "mamar" (to suck) and "mamá" (mom) that, at least to my ears, fell mostly flat.

Today she asked reggae star Daddy Yankee, a guest, if he clipped his eyebrows just like Don Omar - another reggae singer with whom he has a feud - or if he regretted wearing pink in one of his old videos which might indicate he was less of a man (I guess if a lesbian woman uses the same stereotypes to call men's masculinity into question, all is forgiven, no?).

Then there was a feature in today's show - set to the Village People's "Macho Man" - in which male listeners were asked to call and see who could say phrases such as "If your hands are busy, I'll shake it for you" without sounding gay. A winner was named. As far as offensiveness goes, it was so lame that I'm not sure that it merits mention here.

No, there were no skit songs about a man enjoying being raped by another man or prank calls telling a man that he has hours to live because he has AIDS - as in the past - but I was struck by how boring the first two shows were (not something I would have said about the old "Vacilon" shows).

At one point, to promote the show's online prescence, we were told that a man was going to fall on a bed of mousetraps. For minutes all you heard was the clickety-clack of the mousetraps going off. Someone assured listeners that if they watched it online it would be funny.

As close as it got to the offensiveness of old was a song skit this morning about a man who meets a beautiful woman and takes her to bed only to find out that she has such a huge vagina that he's afraid to fall inside her and get lost. Pretty objectionable, I think, but it even felt forced. An attempt to "prove" that Jimenez hasn't changed his ways even if everything else in the show seems to indicates otherwise.

Previously:

• El Vacilón de la Mañana and Mariconsuelo (Nov. 30, 2007)
  
• A visit with the radio shock-jocks of "El Vacilón de la Mañana" (Nov. 16, 2007)
• Out of La Mega, Luis Jimenez throws a homophobic fit (Jan. 22, 2007)

A visit with the radio shock-jocks of "El Vacilón de la Mañana"

Is it that I am getting older? Or that I don't really care much about these things anymore? Or might it be that the place is the same but the circumstances have changed?

Five years ago I might have gloated about this or seen it as a big momentous occasion but when I finally agreed a few weeks ago to visit the studios of the La Mega radio station to meet and talk to the radio shock-jocks of the "El Vacilón de la Mañana" morning show it felt almost bitter-sweet.

After all, my refusal to appear in the show during an increasingly public confrontation in 2001 over the show's virulent homophobia drew on-air accusations from the former Vacilón shock-jock Luis Jimenez and his co-host Moonshadow that I was a coward (I wanted a serious meeting with the shock-jocks AND the owners of the radio station, not engage them on their home turf as entertainment for their public).

At the time Jimenez was leading one of the most successful morning talk-show team in all of New York - sometimes even beating "Howard Stern" in the ratings - by doing some of the most offensive prank phone calls and skits ever heard on the public airwaves (i.e. a skit in which man with a lisp sings a bachata about being raped the night before and enjoying it, a prank call to a man telling him he probably has hours to live because his wife just tested positive for AIDS and most probably infected him as well, etc.).

It wasn't the first time that the community had protested the show. In 1994 a group of New York City-based lesbian organizations that included Las Buenas Amigas, African Ancestral Lesbians for Societal Change and The Lesbian Avengers actually broke into the studio and disrupted a broadcast of the show and released a statement that characterized the show as follows:

Spanish-language radio station MEGA-KQ 97.9 FM describes lesbians as weird, disgusting, and sick; a 'comic' segment features 'Ros', a stereotypically effeminate and oversexed Latino homosexual who is the butt of denigrating jokes. Blacks ('africanos') belong to 'tribes' and have 'bad hair'; blacks are derisively called 'timba', 'tuta' and 'macumba'; an ongoing character, 'Mamu', who speaks in a caricatured East Indian / Pakistani / Bangladeshi accent is portrayed as oversexed and inferior; during Yom Kippur, the Jewish religious holiday was described as weird, incomprehensible and boring. Another ongoing character, 'El Chulo,' rejoices in the exploitation of older women for money, especially Asian and African women; the rape of a girl by an old man in Brazil was praised as sexual prowess. The character 'Tito Metralla' is taunted and scorned because he stutters.

In other words, despite the protest, things didn't change much between 1994 and December of last year when both Luis Jimenez and Moonshadow left the show in an increasingly acrimonious dispute with the radio station.

Not that the high-jinx have hurt Jimenez career: The reason for leaving La Mega was a multi-million contract that he accepted from rival Univision radio in December where he has since launched "The Luis Jimenez Show" currently broadcast in Chicago, Fresno, Los Angeles, Dallas, San Francisco and Fort Myers and debuting in New York in early 2008.

As for his homophobic tirades, which he always argued were part of the tools used by a comedian who happened to be an equal-opportunity offender and not meant to be homophobic at all, since his move to Univision he has been caught calling a former co-worker a "faggot" and a "cock-sucker" off the air and received a two month suspension at Univision radio in May after GLAAD caught him doing a derogatory song skit about lesbians in the wake of the Don Imus "nappy-ho" fracas.

He has yet to apologize for either and is rumored to have been furious about the suspension. Still, just as Don Imus seems to be on his way back to the New York radio airwaves, I suspect that Jimenez will probably be welcomed back to New York with record ratings for his show once it debuts - as many fans as he left behind in this city who will surely buy into his "banished underdog arriving back into New York victorious" story - despite the fact that the guy has made millions of dollars with the shtick.

Ok, allow me to clear my throat after that (- ehem - ) which brings us to last months visit to the La Mega studios.

One of the great things that did result out of the confrontations with La Mega in 2001 was the realization by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) that they needed to step up when it came to Spanish language media (at the time they failed to take action because they had few people on staff who understood Spanish and said that they were not sure if the show was as homophobic as I claimed it to be which led to ongoing discussions that resulted in the launch of a successful Spanish-language media program at GLAAD).

I'm not sure if Chuy Sanchez, the current Spanish language media strategist for GLAAD was aware of my history with La Mega, but I certainly was surprised when I got an invite to participate in a meeting with the current on-air team, Frankie Jay and Juan Carlos (pictured above), as well as La Mega general manager Frank Flores - who is also the vice president and New York manager of the Spanish Broadcasting System which owns La Mega.

Brian Theobald of EDGE New York wrote a story ("Activists target homophobia on Spanish language radio" - Nov. 7, 2007) that describes how the recent meeting came to be although it doesn't say that among the participants were yours truly as well as my friend Pedro Julio Serrano from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF).

Now, I have to confess that I haven't heard the show since the new team took over earlier this year but I did know from Pedro Julio that Frankie Jay, who joined El Vacilón from a show he did in Puerto Rico, had been an ally when both lived in the island and Pedro Julio was advocating for LGBT rights there.

So it wasn't a big surprise when both current shock-jocks seemed open to criticism, friendly and engaged in the conversation, even as Chuy pulled up video and audio files that demonstrated some questionable skits and banter that they had ran on their show since they replaced Jimenez and Moonshadow.

I also was not under any pretense that a meeting like this meant that things would change immediately or even that it was purely the result of good-faith (good-faith might have played into it but I'm sure that the recent attention paid to Don Imus and Luis Jimenez also had to do with it) but, still, I was surprised by how genuinely friendly and open to the Vacilón team seemed to be.

The next day, I wrote to Chuy to let him know just how impressed I'd been by the tone of the conversation and today I am even more impressed that general manager Flores would go on the record with EDGE New York to say "We fell into the same trap that most people fall into, thinking everything is funny when you’re not the punch line to the joke, they made us very much aware that some of the things we were doing on their air that we needed to change. It was like light bulbs going off in our heads" and "Changes like this don’t occur overnight, but the important thing is we now have a renewed sensitivity to the problem and an ongoing relationship with GLAAD. I told them that this is an ongoing process and they can always tell us when we’ve crossed a line."

That would have never happened under the old team and I am glad that I was able to take part of the exchange which I feel was a truly historic meeting when it comes to Latino LGBT activism in this country.

Still, Univision radio still has high-hopes with "The Luis Jimenez Show" in New York and it still remains a mystery if Jimenez has learned a lesson from his suspension. We will certainly be all ears once he makes the debut.

Bill Richardson goes all Isaiah Washington on us! Guess on which show!

OK, it's official. Utterances of the word "faggot" are sooo 5 minutes ago. Can people please come up with new ways to insult us gays so we can get a bit angrier about it? Hm, actually, I take that back. That wouldn't necessarily be fun but... come on!

Chris Crain, former editor of The Washington Blade and current editor of GayNewsWatch, sent me an alert earlier today about a story he authored along with IN Los Angeles news editor Karen Ocamb ("Richardson sorry for 'maricon' moment") in which they dissect a single on-air live radio utterance of the Spanish word for "faggot" (maricon) by New Mexico governor and presidential candidate Bill Richardson in - drum roll please! - the now canceled "Imus in the Morning" radio show! (Don Imus, of course, was the first in a number of firings and reprimands handed down at radio and television personalities this spring and summer following what could be construed as racist or homophobic language).

The utterance came more than a year ago on March 29, 2006, and, to be fair, Richardson was goaded into it by Imus who was trying to get Richardson to say that an "Imus in the Morning" producer sitting next to him in the studio was a "maricon" for implying that Richardson was not a Latino (video capture here, courtesy of Media Matters).

Here's a transcript of the brief exchange:

Imus: "How the hell are ya, governor, listen sir, I apologize for this but Bernard [has been claiming that you're not really Hispanic, that you're just claiming that, so, for some advantage or something, so... ah, you can just answer this 'yes' or 'no' - ah - and that... this will answer that question. Would you agree that Bernard is a maricon"
Governor Bill Richardson on the phone speaking in Spanish: "I believe that Bernardo is indeed a maricon if he says I am not Hispanic...." [laughter in the studio]
Richardson speaking in English: "Was that good enough or what?"
Imus: "Pretty good enough for me"
Richardson: "Alright..."
Imus: "Governor Bill Richardson on the phone."

Bill Richardson, who could be argued has the best record on LGBT issues among all the presidential candidates, reportedly apologized in private to people that questioned his comments then and has released an public apology now that the matter is gaining more attention.

Today, a few influential gay bloggers across the political spectrum have been linking up to the GayNewsWatch article and some are offering commentary. They include Andy at Towleroad, Steve Rothaus of the Miami Herald, Andrew Sullivan, Lane Hudson at Bilerico and at the Huffington Post and Pam at Pam's Houseblend. Chris Crain also has additional thoughts over on his personal blog.

A general consensus emerges:

On the right, Sullivan calls it "a Coulter" moment referring to Ann Coulter's own faggot outbreaks and says that the only reason that Richardson escaped scrutiny from gay groups was the fact that he was a Democrat.

On the left, Hudson calls it "incredibly disappointing" and says "There is no room in this race for any Democrat who harbors any kind of homophobic ideas."

Pam asks "Does going on air with a bigot who eggs on pols to say equally bigoted things means something?" and answers her own question with a "Yes, it does."

I guess closest to my feelings about the whole thing is Chris Crain himself who acknowledges admiration for the governor's track record on LGBT issues as he takes him to task for the various semi-apologies Richardson has given in private and in public.

One caveat: I was among the few in the gay blogosphere who was willing to give Isaiah Washington a pass (that is, until he went on Larry King and, like Richardson, claimed that where he grew up the word "faggot" meant "weakness," not necessarily being gay, and that he had no idea that saying it to a cast member would be interpreted as an insult towards gays).

Yes, I get context: There are indeed specific contexts in which the word "maricon" could be used and not be meant as an epithet or insult. But it's clear in this specific context the whole joke was Imus getting Richardson to use "maricon" - a word that most English-speakers would probably immediately recognize as the Spanish language word for "faggot" - specifically as an on-air insult, even if it was in jest. In short, even if has yet to show he is a homophobic man, Richardson did not only engage Imus's very real homophobia but also tacitly let Imus get away with it.

Does it rise to the level of Ann Coulter's viciousness? That's laughable, of course not. Is Richards a homophobe? His track record speaks louder than his brief appearance on Imus.

But I want anyone who gets caught in these sort of thing to show the guts to face up to it, to apologize without "If I offended anybody, I'm sorry" disclaimers or a bullshit line such as "In the Spanish I grew up speaking, the term means simply 'gay,' not positive or negative" and adding the clincher "It has been brought to my attention that the word has a hurtful connotation."

Ask any Mexican-American what the word "maricon" means to them and I am pretty sure they don't need anyone to bring it up to their attention that the word has a hurtful connotation. If Richardson had used the English word "faggot" and said the same thing about it, I'd wonder if he'd been raised in the same building as Isaiah Washington.

As I told Crain, the fact that Richardson said the word is not at all surprising to me. Most Hispanic men have used it at one point or another as ingrained as it is in our culture. Nor does it disappoint me or upsets me. I am a grown man and can hear these kind of words without falling to pieces or tearing my eyes out screaming "WHY OH WHYYYYY!"

If it has legs, people will use the story to raise questions about Richardson's commitment to the LGBT community. I have a feeling people are so burnt-out about these "faggot" flare-ups that there's little room for yet another Isaiah Washington / Ann Coulter / Don Imus moment in English language media or Luis Jimenez / Luisa Fernanda moment in Spanish language media for that matter.

Me? I still think that on LGBT issues, Richardson is among the best of all the current presidential nominees, which is saying a lot when most people's perceptions are that Latinos are generally homophobic.

I wish he had used the "moment" to raise awareness about homophobia in the community instead of giving the usual half-assed apologies that everyone has given as of late. He might do well by forming an LGBT advisory committee, if he doesn't have one. Heck, I might be interested in being part of it.

I do wonder what other gay Latinos might think of the whole thing. If you care to comment, please do.

Update: Karen Ocamb has additional comments at Bilerico.

Television host says she didn't know expression was homophobic, should she have been fired?

A wide array of Latino LGBT leaders throughout the United States took notice of the recent firing of the host of a popular Spanish-language television gossip show for using a word that might be interpreted as homophobic in Cuba but not necessarily in other Latin American countries. I mean, I'm certainly as knowledgeable as most people when it comes to homophobic expressions in Latino culture and even I had no idea that the word cherna could be interpreted to mean "faggot." Then again I am not of Cuban or Caribbean descent (nor is Luisa Fernanda, the fired host).

Today's Miami Herald takes a look at Telemundo's swiftness in terminating Luisa Fernanda's contract as the host of "Cotorreando" and the mixed reaction from Latino gay leaders including Ron Brenesky of Miami's Unity Coalition - who is of Cuban descent - and says she should not have been fired ("Host had 'no idea' of gay slur").

The groovy, amazing and lovely Monica Taher of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (not to say that Ron isn't just as lovely or amazing) also expresses ambivalence about the firing, praising Telemundo's willingness to address instances of homophobia on the programs they broadcast, but also stating that the context in which the word was said was not necessarily homophobic.

Last week, Monica did an informal survey of Latino LGBT leaders throughout the United States and got a varied response, mostly supporting Luisa Fernanda.

How some of us came to defend a host in as trashy a gossip show as "Cotorreando" still makes me giggle a bit.

El muy groovy and amazing Lorenzo Herrera y Lozano (OMG, I love that name) put up his thoughts over on his blog God is Brown on Friday.

Here is what I sent to Monica last week as well:

When CBS radio fired Don Imus over the racially-insensitive comments he made on air a couple of months ago, it seemed to me that the radio company was responding to the escalating national outrage and the potential impact on their advertising dollars rather than purely because Imus had crossed the line. As has been reported, Imus and his on-air cohorts had crossed that line over and over again with nary a peep from CBS radio UNTIL it became a national controversy.

Similarly, Spanish-language radio shows such as "El Vacilon de la Manana" have long been the target of protests by Latino LGBT organizations and activists for more than a decade and none of the radio stations that carry El Vacilon have ever deemed that it was appropriate to suspend or fire a radio personality for skits, call pranks or comments that not only crossed the line but probably violated FCC regulations as well (case in point: a skit song about a man enjoying being raped and wanting more that was on "El Vacilon" at the time that radio personality Luis Jimenez was part of the crew).

The recent suspension of Luis Jimenez who made a move to Univision radio after he was offered a multi-million dollar contract was shockingly swift and must have been embarrassing for Jimenez. According to the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), the move came after Jimenez used pejorative language to refer to lesbians.

But don’t look for an explanation from Jimenez or Univision radio: Jimenez has yet to officially speak about the incident – or apologize – and Univision radio has only put out a vague statement about “inappropriate comments” and its commitment to upholding the “highest standards.”

But, come on! Univision must have known exactly what Jimenez would bring to the show (Jimenez has a well documented history of homophobic outbursts on and off the air).

Most probably, in the wake of Imus, Univision felt threatened by GLAAD’s interest in Jimenez’ show and potential repercussions if advertisers got wind of it.

The firing of Luisa Fernanda from Cotorreando shows that these punitive actions are probably a passing trend rather than Latino media finally having found its "conscience."

I have had a long personal and professional interest in being a watchdog over the representation of the LGBT community in Spanish-language media so perhaps I've been more involved than others on this topic. So I guess I can say that it frustrates me that some in our own community side with those who say that we are humorless censors looking for any opportunity to shut down anyone or anything that does not portray the LGBT community in the best light – when that could not be further from the case.

The Latino LGBT community is incredibly diverse. We come in all hues and degrees of masculinity or femininity, with all sorts of political and ideological backgrounds. There should be effeminate gay men or butch lesbian women represented on out television or radio shows, as well as femme lesbians and macho gay guys. There are good and bad and semi-good and semi-bad gay people. The issue is not to block out aspects of our community we might not like or to concentrate exclusively on the greatness of the LGBT community (although we ARE great!) but to stop being ridiculed and assaulted through Spanish-language media at our expense.

There is humor to be had through skits, songs or comedies that portray the LGBT community in Spanish language media (see the now defunct and groundbreaking Telemundo comedy "Los Beltran") but one thing is to laugh with us and quite another at us.

So, having said this, it might shock some people to hear me say that Luisa Fernanda should not have been fired from Cotorreando. By all intents and purposes, she has had an on air and off air history of supporting the Latino gay community in ways that other supposedly pro-gay personalities have not done. And if she says that she had no idea that the comment she made was pejorative of lesbians in the Caribbean, she has more than earned the right for us to take those comments at face value.

Still, Jimenez is the superstar radio personality that Univision hopes will bring millions to the station – and he only gets a month's suspension (he is back on air as I write this) - while Luisa Fernanda is off-the air at Telemundo for good.

To me, this shows a case of commercial skittishness and fear from the national radio and television broadcasters rather than a true desire to curve some of the most offensive content on Spanish-language radio or television today.

It's great that Telemundo and Luisa Fernanda met this week with Miami's Unity Coalition. Hopefully the conversations will lead Telemundo to ask Luisa Fernanda back on the show.

But the networks and radio producers have a long way to truly change a culture that promotes extreme offensiveness in exchange for increased ratings even if they do have the power to edit content despite their contention that it's "what the public wants."

Censoring expression, even if its language that offends, is not the way to change cultural stereotypes. It’s whether that language incites hate, prejudice and violence against others that matters and needs to be challenged.

Related stories:

• Cotorreando's Luisa Fernanda is Fired (People in Español)

Blog Posts:

• Luisa Fernanda, fired for a word she didn't know (Alex Blaze in Bilerico)
  
• Luisa Fernanda should not have been fired (j.brotherlove)
  
• Unity Coalition to honor Luisa Fernanda on Sunday (Miami Herald's Gay South Florida blog)
  
• Hard Face (Stuck on the Palmetto)

Out of La Mega, Luis Jimenez throws a homophobic fit

[PLEASE NOTE: No anonymous comments will be allowed in reply to this post]

Long criticized for sponsoring homophobia during his stint as a radio shock-jock in NYC's La Mega radio station, Luis Jimenez always scoffed at the criticism saying that if they made fun of gays from time to time, well, they made fun of everybody else anyway so it should not be taken as an offense. He would also say that he personally had no animosity towards gays.

Jimenez, who recently left the radio station in an increasingly acrimonious split when he made a $5 million deal with Univision Radio, has seen his star rise despite (or should I say because) of the filth and raunch that characterized his run in the morning show "El Vacilon de la Mañana."

Question is, was Jimenez sincere when he said, for all intents and purposes, that he did not have a homophobic bone in his body?

Today, in his weekly El Diario La Prensa column, well-known political analyst Gerson Borrero reveals details of an alleged confrontation between Jimenez and Polito Vega on January 12th. Vega, who runs a salsa music show for La Mega and is allied with the radio station's owner, Raul Alarcon, is said to have forced other members of "El Vacilon" to sign contracts that prohibited them from following Jimenez to Univision radio.

Borrero writes that the two ran into each other at a parking garage in mid-Manhattan. Vega noticed Jimenez and said, in Spanish, "Hi Luis, how are you?"

"How do you think I am doing, old hypocrite! Faggot!" Jimenez is said to have shot back in anger, also in Spanish.

"You're the hypocrite, faggot!" replied Vega.

Jimenez then allegedly almost jumped out of his skin in anger and shouted "You are a back-stabber! Cock-sucker!" As Vega turned around and started to leave, Jimenez added "You have Raulito [Alarcon]'s fist up you ass, faggot."

Even Borrero makes note of the homophobic expressions used by both radio personalities though he says La Mega listeners might think they're more in line with language used in "El Vacilon."

If the description of the exchange is accurate, it shows that even when he thinks he is off the air, Jimenez deems it fit to call people a faggot [maricon], a cock-sucker [mama-bichos] or question their masculinity by alleging that he's got a fist up his ass.

The difference between the Grey's Anatomy fracas and Luis Jimenez is that while Isaiah Washington does not espouse what might be his homophobic views through his work in the top rated dramatic television show in the country, Jimenez usage of homophobic insults in private is pretty much what he did on air during his stint in the top rated Spanish language radio show in the nation.

But, because all this happens and is reported in Spanish-language media, while Washington might well lose his job over his comments, Jimenez will get $5 million to do more of the same, care of Univision radio.

UPDATE: Luis Jimenez is back in town (January 18, 2008)

Letter to the NY Times: When You Raped Me

I sent this letter to the New York Times tonight. Let's see if it's printed in this weekend's Sunday Styles letters section.
---
New York Times

Sunday Styles Section

To the editor:

In "Bawdy Radio Show is Now a Superstar" (Sunday Styles, Oct. 30), the Times profiles the Spanish-language radio show "El Vacilon de la Mañana.” Though the article mentions that some consider the show to be obscene, the only comparisson offered is Howard Stern. Perhaps these two examples will show how it stoops even lower:

In a prank phone call, a man is told that his wife has been unfaithful and has just tested HIV positive. He is also told that he might be infected and might die within hours unless he reaches a hospital. The man begins to sob and only breaks into laughter when the prank is unmasked.

In "Cuando Me Violaste" (When You Raped Me), a song skit set to a romantic bachata rhythm, a man with a fey voice dedicates the song to his rapist:

Here I am sufering, dying, Ramon (of love)
I have not been able to be the man I used to be
My ass you left destroyed… You dislocated my butt
Through where you passed through, I can now fit an avocado

DJ Luis Jimenez and the show’s producers act like the victims of zealous moralists while they make millions and proudly hide behind the fact that the FCC has never lobbied fines against "El Vacilon."

But, while the FCC may certainly think that skits about anal rape as a love song do not break their obscenity rules – or, more likely, they do not have the Spanish-language staff that can act as monitors – there are certainly many of us who will continue to challenge "El Vacilon" for the mysogyny, racisim and homophobia that they continue to perpetrate on a daily basis as "humor" at the expense of others.

[Oh my! Google translates freakily into Spanish here]

Updates: From the Vacilón to Luisma

Looking at past blog posts, I thought that it might be time to bring people up to date on some of the postings:

In Spanish Media No Longer Immune (Sat., Aug. 13, 2005) I commented on the rampant homophobia (and AIDS-phobia) that exists in Spanish-language radio and on past skits performed during one of New York City's top listened radio station, La Mega, and their morning show "El Vacilón de la Mañana" (in one a man sings about getting raped the night before and how he pines for more of the same, in another a man is told that he might have AIDS and might die in hours if he doesn't seek medical help, and in another a 5 year old kid whose dad called the station is encouraged to tell dirty and homophobic jokes on air). Undaunted by anyone or anything, subway posters started appearing this summer announcing an upcoming "Vacilón" movie with the legend "Con La Mega No Se Juega" (Don't play games with La Mega). Well, the movie's out and has been generally panned by all the reviews I have read (not that this was unexpected). Unfortunately, those listeners are certainly flocking to the movie screens as today's New York Times reports (the Times mentions some of the bawdiness but doesn't detail any of the truly offensive stuff that they put out there).

In "Argentina a Goo-Goo" (August 19, 2005), I reported on how Argentina was in thrall about a gay couple, Andrew and Martin Farach-Colton, and their twins. The couple, who currently live in New York but were mulling a move to Argentina, are already back in New York and were thrilled when they saw the posting on my blog. I have referred the Farach-Coltons to the Spanish-language newspaper Hoy for a possible upcoming article and will be having lunch soon with them as my schedule and theirs allow. It's actually a great story and I was glad to write about it here first.

In Another Gay Man Murdered (September 13, 2005), I commented on a story in El Diario La Prensa (and a blurb in the NY Times) about Oswaldo Hernandez, a gay Latino man who was stabbed to death in Washington Heights. Alas, there are no updates to give. Just another murder of a gay man that becomes a blip in the city's consciousness.

In Jass Stewart Update: On to the Nov. 8th Runoff Election (September 21, 2005), I spoke of the exciting mayoral race happening in Brockton, MA, where Jass Stewart might be poised to become Brockton's first gay mayor. This week, the campaign sent out messages requesting support for Jass's campaign. Even if you can donate $25 to the campaign, it will be much appreciated. To find out more about Jass go here.

Finally, in Luisma: 275 pounds of love, pure testosterone (October 17, 2005), we introduced you to Luisma Molinari, a big chunk of goofy Argentinian beef, and the ad he did for a car maker. No, we still have not been able to confirm is that is his real name or if he really plays for an Argentinian rugby team but it took RuggerJohnnyD (a new addition to my Personal List at the right of this column) to point out that, yes, there are links to outtakes of the commercial in the ad site. Just go here and click on "Mira el comercial" (watch the commercial). As the commercial loads, you can actually click on 5 short outtakes on the bottom of the screen. For a translation of the original ad, please click on the Luisma link above. For translation of the outtakes, get a Spanish-speaking friend to watch them with you.

Spanish Language Media No Longer Immune

History was made. Yesterday, a San Francisco man was awarded $270,000 from Univision Radio (the largest Spanish-language radio broadcaster in the Unites States) in an arbitration court desison. Univision was found liable for "outing" the man during an on-air phone prank on a morning show. Roberto Hernandez, the victim, argued that the forced "outing" had a "devastating" effect on his personal and professional life.

I am aware that a few years ago the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) fined a Puerto Rican radio station for broadcasting obscene language but this is the first time that I am aware that a court or regulation enforcement agency has forced a Spanish-language media coropration based in the United States to pay for these kind of stunts.

And the fact is that we are not talking the usual radio shock-jock banter that people hear on, say, Howard Stern, or elsewhere. A local radio show here in New York, "El Vacilón de la Mañana" (97.9 La Mega FM) which is syndicated nationaly, practically invented the format (jokes, prank phone calls and parody songs all morning long with brief news and wheather alerts) and caught a lot of people unguarded when they actually beat Howard Stern's ratings consistently and became, from time to time, the most-listened radio station in the New York metropolitan area, regardless of language. Now the "La Mega" format is being exported to other cities around the United States and even rival Spanish-language stations in each market are imitating them.

So what is so offensive? A couple of examples:

In a song skit called "Cuando Me Violaste" ("When You Raped Me") set to a bachata rhythm, a guy sings about being raped by another man the previous night. He sings about how huge a hole the guy left afterwards and how much it hurt (while siging longingly and lisping a few words here and there).

In a "Vacilón" prank phone call a man is told that his wife has tested positive for HIV and that he needs to rush to the hospital for testing before he dies. The man, who does not understand what HIV means asks for clarification to which the pranker says "SIDA, amigo su mujer tiene SIDA!" ["AIDS, my friend, your wife has AIDS!]. At that moment the man starts losing his composure, gets agitated, and the radio jokey actually tells him that this is why it's so important to rush to the hospital: Because - if he also has it - he could die in a couple of hours. They also tell him that his wife has admitted sleeping around with other men. The guy on the phone sounds as if he's on the verge of tears but towards the end he seems to realize this is too much and asks if it's a prank. When he is told that it is, he lets out a sigh of relief and laughs along. Never mind the misinformation spread through these skits (HIV is not the same as AIDS, someone diagnosed with HIV or AIDS can live a long life, etc.).

You actually do not need to rely on my descriptions: These and other skits are included in one of the four popular CD compilations that "El Vacilón" has released commercially (where this type of material is defensible as a Free Speech issue). But so far, no fines from the FCC for the live broadcast of the same skits (which are not defensible if broadcast on live radio or television under FCC regulations).

They get away with it because nobody at the FCC seems to speak or undesrtand Spanish or care much about the most-listened radio show in the New York City metropolitan area. They get away with it because they began to run some HIV prevention messages during the commercial breaks as a shield. They get away with it because agencies like mine see the huge listenership as a means to reach as wide a Spanish-speaking population with an HIV prevention message and go to the show to 'inform' the community (but then get ridiculed the moment they leave the studio as when the HIV disclosure skit mentioned above was re-broadcast the moment members of my agency had left). They get away with it because so many people in the community don't see anything wrong with the skits.

At the very least, after that last experience, the top brass at my agency said that they had learned their lesson and will not be back on the show. But it certainly has undermined the on-going efforts to keep them from spewing so much mierda.