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COLOMBIAN-AMERICAN ACTOR John Leguizamo has starred in El American‘s Idiocy of the Week by expressing outrage over the choice of actor James Franco to play Fidel Castro in a film about the Cuban dictator’s daughter.
In an angry post on Instagram, John Leguizamo wrote, “How is this still going on? How is Hollywood excluding us, but stealing our narratives as well? No more appropriation Hollywood and streamers! Boycott! This F’d up!”
Screenshot of John Leguizamo’s Instagram post.
He did say he had “I don’t got a prob with Franco but he ain’t Latino!.” John Leguizamo has a strange way of participating in Cancel Culture. When everyone (even his evergreen sidekick Seth Rogen) turns his back on Franco over allegations of sexual harassment of minors, John Leguizamo picks cultural appropriation as the turning point to cancel Franco.
John Leguizamo’s idiocy is so ludicrous that we don’t know where to start. First, we wonder if calling for a boycott is not British cultural appropriation, since his name comes from Captain Charles Boycott. We need some experts on Woke ideology to clarify this.
Woke identity politics are making a real mess of people’s minds. Believing that you are entitled to something simply because you are from a particular place, or have a particular sexual orientation, and not because of your talent, quality, or merit, is something we cannot understand.
Besides, if we follow John Leguizamo’s victimizing logic, why give the role of Fidel Castro to, for example, someone like him who is Colombian, and not to a Cuban? Besides, could any Cuban play him, or would it have to be someone specifically born in the Cuban region of Biran like Castro?
Does John Leguizamo consider that being “Latino” is a homogeneous label that can be used to include anyone born in South America, or with South American parents? Can one of these “Latinos” play the same role as a Cuban, an Argentinean, or a Brazilian?
On second thought, what are Brazilians? Latinos? Hispanics? Do they exist? Are they in limbo? Aren’t those in limbo the ones from Trinidad and Tobago? Do Brazilians slip into the category of Latinos by passing under the bar as if they were limbo dancers taking advantage of their capoeira skills? What a mess!
The Idiocy of the Week: John Leguizamo and the Victimhood Woke Mentality
Leguizamo’s racial outrage is also extremely hypocritical. It turns out that one of his best-known roles was that of Toulouse Lautrec, in Moulin Rouge, as he is not French and does not suffer from dwarfism. He was also Luigi in Super Mario Bros. It may be worth remembering that he is not Italian nor a plumber. In fact, he has played an Italian role a few more times, including in Summer of Sam and Romeo and Juliet.
If we keep going by memory, we will realize that in A Wong Foo, he played a drag queen without being one in real life (as far as we know). Be careful, because this kind of appropriation is now one of the biggest problems in the world for progressives. Very bad!
Wait a minute! In Dr. Dolittle, John Leguizamo voiced a rat (a real injustice to the thousands of unemployed rodent actors!). To top it off, his most popular character is Sid, the sloth from Ice Age, and Leguizamo is not a folivore and he’s not even Costa Rican. But hey, since this subgroup of giant sloths is extinct, he didn’t steal anyone’s job, so it doesn’t count, we suppose.
What does need to be extinguished as a matter of urgency is the victimhood mentality that the left is so fond of. The problem with victimhood is not that it destroys the life of the victimizer, but that the voracity of its envy is insatiable, and it feeds on the success and merits of others. At this rate, we are going to run out of quality art because of the fear of cancellation, which torments creators.
In reality, though, John Leguizamo’s outburst may have a much simpler explanation. Maybe it’s simply that Leguizamo (a Democratic activist) is unhappy that a movie is being made about Fidel Castro’s anti-communist daughter.
If right wing Cubans hate fidel’s strongman autocrat government why are they backing Trump? Please explain the disconnect? https://t.co/Wjq0Pf8vca
— John Leguizamo (@JohnLeguizamo) June 19, 2022
For now, the left’s attempt to cancel Alina of Cuba by attacking James Franco for not being Latino has backfired. In fact, it has given the project enormous publicity. We assume that as interest in this predictably anti-communist film grows, the left will opt for the reliable recourse of sexual allegations against Franco.
While that’s happening, we award John Leguizamo with El American‘s Idiocy of the Week.
Ignacio Manuel García Medina, Business Management teacher. Artist and lecturer specialized in Popular Culture for various platforms. Presenter of the program "Pop Libertario" for the Juan de Mariana Institute. Lives in the Canary Islands, Spain // Ignacio M. García Medina es profesor de Gestión de Empresas. Es miembro del Instituto Juan de Mariana y conferenciante especializado en Cultura Popular e ideas de la Libertad.
Social Networks: @ignaciomgm