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Tenoch Huerta, a Mexican actor known for his role in the Netflix series “Narcos: Mexico,” has been campaigning under the banner of racism; and it seems that his political activism has worked for him, as he has managed to make it in Hollywood. Although Marvel has not officially confirmed it, according to The Hollywood Reporter, he could be one of the villains in Black Panther 2.
Many thought they saw confirmation of his signing with Marvel in a tweet by Tenoch Huerta himself on November 21, which was deleted shortly thereafter. In the tweet, the actor assured, both in Spanish and English, “it seems that our message will reach further and with more power.”
Rather than rejoicing about what it would mean for his professional career as an actor, Tenoch Huerta seems to have taken his signing with Marvel as a vehicle to continue spreading his political messages, which lately have been focused on shoring up the leftist narrative about alleged systemic racism.
In a May 14 video entitled “Racism: the problem Mexico doesn’t want to see,” actor Tenoch Huerta denounces the Mexican entertainment world as racist because it prefers to hire actors of white complexion, despite the fact that “more than 60 percent of the population considers itself brown-skinned.”
In the video, in which he is accompanied by characters such as Estefanía Veloz and Pancho Parra, actor Tenoch Huerta states that in Mexican television and cinema only 3 percent of screen time corresponds to actors of color and, in general, “they reinforce class stereotypes” -as when he played a drug trafficker in the series Narcos: Mexico-.
In this video, in which it is stated that “reverse racism does not exist”, the actor can be seen uttering racist insults such as “white, whitexican, wannabe whitexican or white trash”, while pointing at actors with white skin.
Many people have seen in this attitude an obvious double standard and a hypocrisy impossible to ignore. In particular, Mexican YouTuber Chumel Torres -one of the people Tenoch called white trash and whitexican during the video- has been very critical of Huerta, to whom he dedicated a satirical tweet.
“If we could turn Tenoch’s frustration into energy, we would become Sweden in a week,” joked Chumel Torres.
The animosity between Huerta and Torres was almost a year old, since June 2020, when they had a clash in a discussion forum organized by RacismoMX.
Many followers of Chumel Torres describe Tenoch Huerta as “frustrated” and a “prejudiced” and “racist” person towards those who are not black.
Other Tenoch Huerta controversies
Shortly after his possible signing by Marvel was leaked, more than 100 actors and filmmakers signed a public letter showing their support for Tenoch Huerta to play one of the villains in Black Panther 2.
This letter of support was made public after many people and celebrities criticized Tenoch Huerta’s political activism, and campaigned for Disney to rethink his hiring, using the hashtag #DisneyTerrorist.
The hashtag sought to highlight some of Tenoch Huerta’s shady company, recalling previous tweets by the actor in which he was seen accompanying and supporting Spaniard Katu Arkonada -López Obrador’s campaign advisor-, who is accused of being a sympathizer of the Spanish terrorist group ETA, as well as allegedly harassing women on social media.
The truth is that, if his signing for Black Panther 2 is confirmed, it would only deepen the woke drift of Disney, a company that seems to have an opinion on racism similar to that exhibited by Tenoch Huerta.
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
Thank you for this information. I’m a black woman who’s loved comics since the 70’s but I can’t support Disney/Marvel with their woke agenda. I won’t be paying to see BP2. In fact, I’ve had it with Marvel and haven’t seen WandaVision or any of their other shows that I had longed to see. Sometimes you just have to make a stand.