AC (hearts) Donna Brazile

and don't miss the moment when the camera pulls away from Brazile to get the reaction shot of the panel but they are all checking blackberries or zoning out!

Obama Wins!!!!!

I am still euphoric over last night's victory. And I am outraged that HRC refuses to concede. This is unprecedented, at least in my memory. Obama was very gracious toward her last night. But I fear this means might choose her as VP. I'm hoping that his shout out to her as future crafter of universal healthcare suggests he may give her a cabinet position to oversee this initiative for reform. Given that he has formed a 3-person VP search committee, the best case scenario for me is that they are looking outside the usual suspects, such as Bloomberg. 

Now Obama has to do his homework in regards to Latinos and some of the issues that concern many of us. I thought it was outrageous that he referred to us as "Hispanic.....Americans" - Somebody has to school him in nomenclature. Also, his position on immigration is problematic. So I am not an uncritical fan of Obama who has drank the "yes we can" Kool-Aid, but I think he's the best we've got and I hope he picks a VP who is towards the "left" rather than towards the "right" such as a Bloomberg. Granted, he has to make political calculations and to figure out which group counts more - Jewish voters, Latinos (and if so, which ones?!), women, working class people, fiscally conservative independents, etc. Of course, the latter sentence is absurd because just as I abhor facile analyses that assume "Latinos" (or: "Hispanic.....Americans") are monolithic, I know that this is true of every so-called voting demographic. But unfortunately, it seems that politicians and the media view such groups in these reductive, simplistic and short-cut ways. 

Two Years Without La Mas Grande

The bullfighter Jose Ortega Cano, widower of La Mas Grande, Rocio Jurado, kisses the monument at her grave on the second anniversary of her passing.  

Photo: HOLA magazine

Puerto Rican Primary - FANTASY ISLAND????

After my week-end without access to email and cable TV I am slowly catching up with the appalling coverage of the PR primary.

The turnout was a record low. Normally, 80% of Islanders vote in the elections for Governor. Sunday's turnout was 20%. Why? The Independence party called for protesting, since this has nothing to do with resolving our Status question and because Islanders may not vote in the general presidential election. Many pro-Commonwealth party members are, ultimately, pro-Independence if the only 2 options were becoming the 51st state or separating from the USA. As I write below, Clinton's public embrace of controversial members of the extreme Right-wing of the PNP pro-Statehood party surely hurt her. On the Island, you can't have it both ways, as she tried to pretend by claiming she'd unify the PNP and pro-Commonwealth parties.  

I have to grant it to FOX, who seems to be the only major mainstream news corporation to grasp the crucial nuance: Puerto Ricans residing on the Island may not vote in the Presidential election.

Some choice items:

On MSNBC they are saying that a delusional HRC hung on to the "landslide" in PR as an indicator of her possibilities for victory, viewing it as "FANTASY ISLAND." 

My sister commented on the bizarre factoids/trivia running on the CNN ticker as they waited for results, among the jewels "....PUERTO RICO IS 99% HISPANIC....." I have seen: comments about the fantastic weather down there, about the dancing and Spanish-speaking skills needed to campaign (hello? English was imposed on us as soon as the USA invaded, officially we are bi-lingual, and all official Federal business is conducted in English, also, about half of us live on the "Mainland," and many of us do not speak Spanish!). 

Video of HRC's victory speech, more demagogic pandering to the Island, as if she or anyone else in the US government or Congress give a flying fuck about conditions on the Island, and as if those on the Islands have ultimate say on the question of their status. Revolting to watch HRC pretend to speak Spanish and celebrate to the tune of Ricky Martin's anthem composed for the World Football Cup. 

I am increasingly frustrated by the uninformed commentary related to HRC's advantage and now landslide win in Puerto Rico. US media overlooks certain key facts that mitigate the interpretation of this primary as an unequivocal victory for Clinton and as evidence that "Hispanics" as an alleged bloc support her over Obama.

The facts are these:

1. Local political struggles have an impact on the party affiliation chosen by Island politicians. I know for a fact, because my family has been involved in politics, that members of the pro-Statehood Partido Nuevo Progresista are registered Democrat though they are far-Right politically, as a means to gain access to Democratic politicians that they need to lobby for their cause. 

Here, HRC campaigns alongside Carlos Pesquera, Sec. of Transportation under PNP Governor Pedro Rosello, Pesquera himself ran unsuccessfully for Governor under the PNP rubric. This is a very Right-Wing guy with GOP ideology. 


Here, HRC is standing beside Carlos Romero Barcelo, PNP ex-Governor of the Island, notorious for the Cerro Maravilla case. This guy is EXTREMELY Right-Wing and really GOP. 

2. The above brings up the "spoiler" issue - Republicans who vote for HRC as a way to thwart Obama and drag out the contest. This happened in more than one state where, inexplicably, Republicans were allowed to vote in Democratic primaries.

3. This last point is the most politically sensitive and I can understand why it is not aired publicly by US media and especially not by locals - it is racism. Although US commentators simplistically might assume that a fair number of the Island's mixed-race population might identify with Obama, the sad truth is that there is a lot of internalized racism (only furthered by the discrimination faced by darker skinned Islanders not only in Puerto Rico but especially on the so-called Mainland) among us. Thus, Obama's skin color must have harmed him on the Island. 

For what?

Yesterday I passed by the Paul Smith store on Fifth Avenue and was stunned to see an entire window display based on Parisian May 1968 propaganda. This collapse between mercantilist nostalgia for revolutionary youth culture and global branding was not surprising and yet it still disgusted me. Though as I have written in the Collecting Schlock section of this blog, I am party to such decontextualized appropriation of revolutionary visual culture for its chicness -- as in my blog photo, so who am I to judge? 

Rocio Durcal and Barbara Rey

Since I am in the mood to showcase Spanish singers/entertainers in homoerotic situations that even Almodovar could not imagine - here is a classic landmark in Spanish cinema: the first ever Lesbian film "Me Siento Extraña" (I Feel Strange, 1977) starring singer Rocio Durcal and vedette Barbara Rey. This movie was made during the proliferation of soft-porn known as the Destape or unveiling that followed the long decades of repression, censorship and other miseries of the Franco regime. Unfortunately I have only seen fragments such as the one above but even this is not to be believed - the logs in the fireplace, the significant close ups of the champagne flutes to the moist lipsticked mouths, the observation that she "feels strange," followed by the abrupt jump cut to the two of them naked in bed having sex. Hot. It's hard to hear but the soundtrack is of a Spanish version of punk rock band singing "Soy Lesbiana!" among other things. Priceless.

Durcal went from child star to singer known for her versions of Mexican Rancheras and Rey from being a go-go dancer and vaudeville type actress to acting in a circus run by her drug addicted abusive husband Angel Cristo (you cannot make this stuff up - even the names are awesome), then later was involved in a scandal involving a video of her and her alleged lover, King Juan Carlos I. Hence, the irony that her last name is Rey. Durcal was known and loved as the opposite to the sexual and scandal-prone Rey - the family woman, wife and mother. She tragically died young of cancer, like her dear friends (see below) Rocio Jurado and Lola Flores.  

Lola Flores and Rocio Jurado

There's nothing better than this: Rocio Jurado, la mas grande, sings to her great friend, Lola Flores. The love-fest goes way beyond even Almodovar. You can't make this stuff up. As Lola herself said when asked about rumors of lesbianism in the flamenco world, "Who hasn't had a go at it with a friend now and then?" (my loose translation) Rocio sings part of her classic song "Se Nos Rompio El Amor (de tanto usarlo" - Our love broke, from over-use - a pretty erotic song but even better when sung to her colleague. Sadly, both great Divas died young of cancer- La Faraona, Lola Flores and La Mas Grande, Rocio Jurado.