July 13, 2007
Eva
Longoria: “Desperate” For More Immigration
By Joe
Guzzardi
On July 7th at a no expenses spared event,
two A-list celebrities—Desperate
Housewives star
Eva Longoria and San Antonio Spurs star guard
Tony Parker—celebrated their wedding at France’s
lavish 17th century chateau
Vaux-le-Vicomte.
According to the Associated Press, during a civil
ceremony a day earlier Longoria was chauffeured in a white
stretch limo, wore “a way-above-the-knee pink Chanel dress”
with striped black and white straps, changing into white dress
for the Catholic ceremony that followed in the
Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois Church.
Eight guests in cream, pink and purple accompanied the bride.
[Longoria,
Parker Wed in Royals’ Church, Jenny Barchfield,
Associated Press, July 7, 2007]
Conspicuously missing from the guest list, given Longoria’s
openly and often expressed admiration for her, was illegal alien
activist
Dolores Huerta.
Huerta’s favorite chestnut about immigration is “
We
didn’t cross the borders; the borders crossed us.”
Longoria is one of those
infuriating Hollywood bozos whose mostly worthless opinions
get a forum because she is who she is…or, perhaps better said,
who she thinks she is.
Longoria views herself as a crusader for illegal immigrants
and their “rights.”
Her dream is to star in a documentary about life for “struggling
immigrants”—playing the Huerta role.
In
a recent interview with the frivolous
Maxim Magazine, Longoria outlined her delusional
immigration views. If you are unfamiliar with Maxim,
it advertises itself as a publication that specializes in
articles about “girls, sex" and "hotties.” In
2006 for the second consecutive year, Maxim selected Longoria as
its
number one “hottie”.
Said Longoria
"We're documenting a day in the
life of an immigrant worker, just to show how hard these people
work—how they slave away just for us to
have a salad at the
Chateau Marmont.
“I spent a day out in the field, and it's horrendous. It's an
exploitation of people who leave everything behind: their
country, their family, their lives, their language, their
religion. They leave it all behind to come here and make $5 a
day. My hope is that the documentary will educate people about
what's going on".
Large portions of Longoria’s claims are completely false. The
balance is wildly misleading.
I doubt if Longoria “spent a day” in the field. What
would that have done to
her hair? And if Longoria is so concerned about where her
lettuce comes from, let her grow her own. Or don’t patronize the
Chateau Marmont.
The rest of Longoria’s comments are utter nonsense. The
overwhelming majority of farm workers do not leave “
their
country,” “
their
family,” “
their
language,” and “their
religion” behind.
In their hearts, the
farm workers remain attached to Mexico. They rarely
learn English, preferring instead to cling to their native
language. Their families either come with them or join them at
the earliest opportunity. And they remain staunchly
Roman Catholic.
As for earning “$5 dollars a day,” Longoria must be
confusing U.S. wages with those in Mexico. While
farm workers don’t make much, they
earn more than the peanut $5.00 daily salary paid in Mexico.
And there are many benefits Longoria didn’t talk about:
free medical care,
education and
citizenship for anchor babies. The entire package for farm
workers—or what I refer to as “
the
deal”— is not so bad.
To prove what a nutcase she is, Longoria gave conflicting
information in a November 2006 interview with the New
Statesman. Here she says farm workers make $2 a day.
Longoria spoke of her association with the
National Council of La Raza, with whom she set up a
production company to work on her “political films.”
About the NCLR, Longoria said:
“The mission of the
NCLR is far more important than any personal recognition.
The best thing I can do is ensure
positive portrayals of
Latinos in the media. We're in this big debate about the
future of our immigration laws, and it is colored by the
negative portrayals of
Latinos on television. We're 14 percent of the population,
but we make up 5 percent of the characters on TV."
New Statesman - "I got Latinos to vote . . . but they voted
religion" by
Stephen Armstrong November 06 2006
Longoria offered no details supporting “negative portrayals
”
or her statistical analysis of Latino television characters.
However, Longoria contradicted herself completely when she concluded her
New Statesman
interview with this reference,
complete with racist undertones, to her Desperate Housewives
portrayal of the raunchy Gabrielle Solis:
"It's an amazing role because we're the richest people on the
block and we're Latinos, which is really uncommon. And we have a
white gardener . . ."
Read the entire interview
here complete with Longoria’s boastful claim that she
influenced the “Latino
voter.”
In addition to her friendship with La Raza, Longoria also
works with
MALDEF, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational
Fund, and
wants to make a film about
Aztecs. The actress is convinced that she was “
an
Aztec princess” in a
previous life.
In the real world, which Longoria occasionally visits, she is
a
Texas-born graduate of
Texas A&M University—Kingsville with a degree in kinesiology.
Longoria has experienced extreme good fortune in her life. In
a hard sort of way, she’s attractive. And Longoria came onto
the scene when being Latino is hip. Her combination of looks and
ethnic appeal propelled Longoria into her Desperate
Housewives starring role.
But Longoria needs to get real…she’s not a political force
although she would argue to the contrary.
I’ll end on an upbeat note. Neither Longoria’s Huerta nor her
Aztec projects are likely to get off the ground. They have been
kicked around for a couple of years without going past the
talking stage.
Two reasons, I speculate, caused the stall.
