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JLo graces the cover of this year’s People en Español 50 Most Beautiful People issue, which hits newsstands this coming Monday. In the issue, JLo reveals:
“I’ve never tried to hide the fact that I’m Latina,” the Bronx-native tells the magazine. “I think that’s why Hispanics are like ‘she’s ours … she belongs to us.’ And that’s true; with the Latino community, I am theirs, I do belong to them.”
Jenny’s still from the block, big whoop. The more interesting chisme is that she might get her own reality show on MTV:
Singer/actress Jennifer Lopez is reportedly in talks with MTV brass to develop a weekly reality show, which will specifically revolve around her own life.The show is supposed to be a close reflection of Lopez’s life, and will focus on various facets of her life including helping dancers who are trying to make it big in the industry.
The producers are still working on the exact theme of the show, but sources reveal that the groundwork is on in full swing.
Via / FortWayne.com and Himalayan Times
Dear VL readers, some of you may be experiencing inability to view the site today due to the fact that the overwhelming traffic to the “Nuestro Himno” piece we posted last week. VL has never seen this type of traffic and it’s been too much for our host — we’ve been crashing on and off all day.
This issue seems to be striking a chord with immigrant rights supporters and the opposition alike. Pretty amazing that something that amounts to a translation of a song is stirring up this much controversy. The Bible, considered by many as a “sacred” document has been translated into thousands of languages but I don’t see that as such a cause for concern. What’s going on?
Speaking English poorly certainly hasn’t stopped President Bush from being in power but he’s insisting that people who want to be citizens learn the language and of course sing the national anthem as it was written. In the White House Rose Garden during a question and answer session President Bush said:
I think the national anthem ought to be sung in English, and I think people who want to be a citizen of this country ought to learn English and they ought to learn to sing the national anthem in English.
Of course all this in response to today’s release of Nuestro Himno
Via/Yahoo! News
Image Via/ Why We Hate Bush
Peruvian Presidential candidate Ollanta Humala, is being put in the same boat with Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and Bolivia’s Evo Morales, as part of a branch of progressive Latin American leaders going against the tide of neoliberalism. Pero accusations of him committing human rights abuses when he served as a military commander in the early 1990s and possible links to former President Fujimori’s bribe taking intelligence chief, Vladimiro Montesinos, are calling his progressive cred into question.
There are very well-founded allegations based on testimony that was collected at the time by the Red Cross. The accusations go beyond implicating Humala in crimes committed under his command and finger him directly for cases of torture, extra-juridical execution, and disappearances.
Is this a gamble Peru can afford to take?
Via / ZNet
I’ll admit to being a little bit amargada that I couldn’t be in Miami tonight covering the Latin Billboard Awards live but I’ve tuned into Telemundo anyway to see the promised excitement and well so far am finding the same old same old. Daddy Yankee had his entrance exagerado. RBD was nominated three times in one category and won (oh what a surprise-bring it on RBD fans). Shakira won within the first 10 minutes of the show and looked casual and comfy against the parade of novela protagonistas with over the top gowns and culo baring dancers. There was a well deserved tribute to Rocio Durcal and my favorite performance, given by the Cubano hip hoppers, Orishas. Shakira just took stage singing Hips Don’t Lie with Wycliff Jean. And with that I think I’ll call it a night. I’m sure whatever I miss will be on Cada Día with Maria Antonieta Collins in the morning.
Ladies and gentlemen, after 5 years of polladas, berrinches, lloros and face-slapping drama, Laura Bozzo, the once-incarcerated host of “Laura en América” has been fired, according to El Mundo and EFE:
Peruvian television host Laura Bozzo has been fired by the Telemundo network after a five year working relationship due to “hard to meet expectations”, according to Peruvian press. Bozzo had declared that her contract ended by mutual agreement, but the press claims that Telemundo ended her aggressive talk show due to a decline in viewers and her approaching trial before Peruvian court on charges of corruption. Her talk show, which reached great popularity in Latin America in last few years distinguished itself by showing dramas in the lives of low-income people who, in many cases, accepted money to tell their stories and allowed themselves to be humiliated for money.
Now who will give all of those poor souls their carritos sangüicheros?
I guess la Bozzo had a reason to fear her Mexican counterpart, since, as far as I know, la Señora Leon still has a job. RIP, “Laura en América”, it was fun while it lasted.
Via / El Mundo
Los Angeles mayor and grandson of Mexican immigrants is telling students and their parents that skipping out on school on Monday, May 1st, the day of the national boycott, should not be an option. This is a backstep from the active urging he did for the million plus people rally in downtown L.A. on March 25. The statement signed by Villaraigosa, cardinal Roger Mahony, and Los Angeles Unified School District Supervisor Roy Romer reads :
We support the celebration of our liberty as American citizens to freely, responsibly and legally express ourselves. We firmly believe children must attend school everyday, including May 1, they have to be there ready to learn.
That’s what the American Chamber of Commerce in Mexico, and others, are saying, according to AP:
Mexicans’ refusal to “buy American” on May 1 could further polarize the debate and make reform supporters seem anti-American at the very moment that lobbyists are trying to persuade lawmakers in Washington to pass a bill that would benefit migrants, worries Larry Rubin, the chamber’s president.“This is like shooting oneself in the foot,” Rubin said. “U.S. companies have been the first to lobby, launching a huge lobbying effort for immigration reform. … Why hurt something that is helping you?”
Um, okay…if you think that U.S. businesses are going to suddenly pull out of Mexico over one day of lost revenue, you are smoking crack. There is too much money to be made there. An example from the article:
Unskilled workers at U.S. companies usually start with Mexico’s minimum wage of $4.35 a day. While many earn more, such as seamstresses making an average of $5.89 a day — even these wages pale in comparison to paychecks offered by the same companies north of the border, conceded the chamber’s Humberto Banuelos.A cashier at Subway (or “sandwich artist,” as the company refers to them) earns about $189 a month in Mexico City. In Colorado, Subway cashiers make four times that — $824.
You call that helping? I wonder what “hurting” looks like. I think I’d rather help myself.
Via / FOXNews.com
Photo via Pravda.ru
Hit TV show Lost‘s Latina actress Michelle Rodriguez (known to Lost fans as Ana Lucia) got locked up today in Hawaii as a result of an unfortunate borrachera back in November of last year:
Maybe Michelle Rodriguez figured jails in Hawaii are nicer than those on the mainland, or maybe there’s another reason the “Lost” actress took five days in a sunny slammer of Hawaii over community service when a judge found her guilty of drunken driving, according to a recent Reuters report.Sentenced Wednesday, she went directly to the Oahu Community Correctional Center, where she is expected to serve her sentence. Rodriguez and “Lost” co-star Cynthia Watros — who play castaways from the other side of the island, where a “Lord of the Flies”-like experience left them in worse straits than the rest of the survivors — were arrested in December “on suspicion of driving under the influence.” The bad girls were arrested separately, but within minutes of each other.
The best part? It ain’t the first time…juicy!
Rodriguez has been on the other side of the law, receiving three years probation in 2004 for three traffic offenses in L.A., including hit-and-run and drunken driving.
I always wondered how they got by without alcohol on that island (and without killing Matthew Fox), but apparently they don’t.
Via / Seattle Post Intelligencer
