12:32 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Controversia| Cuba| Marketing| Spain| Women| race| sex · 10 Comments
22 May 2007
Spanish airline Iberia is in hot water for an ad they used to promote a contest for a trip to Cuba on Iberia.com. The commercial (video after the jump), which depicts a white baby (yes, baby) on a trip to Cuba, where hordes of scantily clad Cuban women dance and satisfy his every need, is at the center of the controversy. Spanish consumer rights group FACUA was outraged by the ad, calling for its immediate removal because:
…it presents “denigrating stereotypes of Cuban women, showing them as mulattas in bikinis who are at the service of tourists around the clock to dance for them, give them massages, fan them and give them food and drink”
According to Spain’s 20 Minutos, the ad was created for a promotion celebrating the 10-year anniversary of Iberia.com. And it gets worse:
12:19 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Controversia| Peru| Spain| race · 1 Comment
28 Nov 2006
It seems that Spanish airline Iberia has some ’splaining to do…as to why two Peruvian parlamentarians were the target of what can only be regarded as racist and xenophobic comments on the part of Iberia staff at Lima’s airport.
Peruvian congresswomen Hilaria Supa and Maria Sumire, both members of the oppositional UPP-PNP alliance, complained they have been the target of discrimination by Spanish airline Iberia. The incident obviously happened on Saturday evening at Lima’s Jorge Chavez International Airport.According to Sumire’s version given to CPN Radio, both legislators arrived at Iberia’s check-in counter to board the 8:55 p.m. flight to Madrid.
However, they were told the airplane was full and there was no alternative for a later flight that night.
Sumire maintained that despite purchasing the tickets in advance, airline personnel made them wait unnecessarily while servicing other customers first. After the congresswomen started to complain about this disadvantage, an airline employee apparently answered something that roughly translates to “how can you be congresswomen if you don’t even know how to speak the language? Obviously you don’t speak Spanish very well, so complain all you want”.
Um, she said what?! Yet another reason not to fly Iberia. While Spain seems to be the most progressive country in Europe, it appears that some of the people hired by its national airline are not. Which begs the question: was the employee a Spaniard or a racist Peruvian?
Via / Living in Peru
Image via Perfil.com
VivirLatino is a daily publication published by 2 Mujeres Media, dedicated to featuring all the latest politics, culture, entertainment of interest to the diverse and influential Latino and Latina community in the U.S.
About | Advertise with us | Contact | Twitter