R.I.P. Miguel Ferrer

American actor Miguel Ferrer -- best known for his roles in such movies as Traffic and the 1987 version of Robocop as well as for his starring role in the TV series NCIS: Los Angeles -- retired from show business on January 19, 2017, at age 61.

He will be missed.

Apparently I'm Puerto Rican Now

At least that's the impression I got from a Hispanic customer at my current place of employment yesterday when she asked me if I were Puerto Rican.

I'm not, of course, but apparently to her eyes, I looked like one. Needless to say, that's hardly the worst thing that could be said about me. Nor is it the first time I've been mistaken for a member of a different ethnic group other than the one I'm in. (Of course, as an ethnic half and half (half-Polish, half Mexican), I'm technically not a member of one ethnic group but still.)

At any rate, when I was growing up, I used to obsess about the fact that I didn't look more like my Mexican-American relatives. Apparently that's still true but at least I'm being mistaken for actual Hispanics now. So that's a good thing, right?

¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Ana Ortiz!

Born January 25, 1971.

She is the daughter of a Puerto Rican father and an Irish American mother. She is also an American actress who is best known for her role as Hilda Ortiz on the ABC TV series Ugly Betty. She has also appeared on such shows as ER, Everybody Loves Raymond, Commander in Chief and Boston Legal. Her first regular role was in the 2001 NBC sitcom Kristin, opposite Kristin Chenoweth. She is currently appearing as Marisol Suarez in the otherwise dubious Lifetime TV series Devious Maids.

¡Feliz Cumpleaños, José Ferrer!

AKA José Vicente Ferrer de Otero y Cintrón.

Born January 8, 1912. Died January 26, 1992.

He became the first Puerto Rican actor -- as well as the first Latino actor -- to win an Academy Award when he won in 1950 for the movie Cyrano de Bergerac. Since then, he went on to win several Tony Awards, marry several women (one at a time, of course), and receive the National Medal of Arts from President Ronald Reagan. In 2012, he even had a U.S. postal stamp issued in his honor as part of the Distinguished Americans series. He also played many roles in movies and television shows including -- ironically enough -- the role of a character's WASPish father on the CBS sitcom Newhart.

¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Rita Moreno!

AKA Rosita Dolores Alverio.

Born December 11, 1931.

She was the first Puerto Rican actress to win an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She is most famous for her role as Anita in the 1961 musical movie West Side Story but she has also appeared on many TV shows such as The Electric Company, The Rockford Files and Oz as well as such movies as Night of the Following Day and such Broadway plays as The Ritz. She was the first -- and thus far, the only -- Hispanic to win an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony. She also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush in 2004.

She has always been one of my favorite actresses and I am glad to see that she is still around to be appreciated.

¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Lauren Vélez!

Born November 2, 1964.

She played one of my favorite characters on the Showtime cable TV series Dexter and I consider it no surprise that the show started going downhill once she was no longer on it. She also appeared in such TV shows as New York Undercover, Oz, and Ugly Betty as well as in movies like I Like It Like That and City Hall. So far her career has been a successful one and I hope it keeps on being successful.

¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Rachel Ticotin!

Born November 1, 1958.

She is an American actress of Puerto Rican and Russian Jewish descent who made her film debut in the 1978 film King of the Gypsies. She has also appeared in such films as Total Recall, Con Air and Fort Apache, the Bronx. She has also appeared in such TV shows as American Family, Lost, Weeds, Law & Order: LA and Blue Bloods.

She played one of my favorite characters on American Family and I would like to think that if that show might still be on the air if it had focused more on her character. However, they obviously did not write that show with me in mind and given the number of TV shows I have liked that rarely lasted more than one season, it is probably just as well.

¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Liz Torres!

AKA Elizabeth "Liz" Torres.

Born September 27, 1947.

She has been one of my favorite actresses since I first saw her star as Cloris Leachman's boss on the old TV series Phyllis. She has been in a lot of good TV shows since -- though there have been times when the roles she has taken could have been better -- but she has never really been a star. Except in my eyes, of course.

¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Rosie Perez!

AKA Rosa María Perez.

Born September 6, 1964.

She is a famous Puerto Rican actress who started out working with director Spike Lee and went on to become a director in her own right. She recently had her autobiography Handbook for an Unpredictable Life: How I Survived Sister Renata and My Crazy Mother, and Still Came Out Smiling... published and she has been nominated for an Academy Award for her supporting role in the 1993 film Fearless. She is most famous for her roles in Do the Right Thing and White Men Can't Jump as well as for her choreography on the TV show In Living Color. As you might guess, she is one of my favorite actresses even though her work rarely appears on screen as often as I would like.

I Saw Yo Soy Boricua, Pa'que Tu Lo Sepas!, Just So You Know!

I thought I knew everything there was to know about Puerto Rican history before I saw the 2006 documentary Yo Soy Boricua, Pa'que Tu Lo Sepas! (aka I'm Puerto Rican, Just So You Know!). Then halfway through this documentary, my jaw dropped open when I came upon its revelation of a historical event so awful that I was surprised that there was not still a major scandal about it. And if said event had happened in the continental U.S. to white middle-class women, I suspect it would have inspired a major scandal. But since it took place in Puerto Rico and involved poor Puerto Rican women, it joined the ranks of so many historical events that ended up being "forgotten" by most American history books.

When this documentary was first released, it was written off by most critics as just another celebrity home movie. And given the amount of film its co-director Rosie Perez devoted to herself and her various friends and relatives, I could see why some critics reacted like that. Yet it seemed equally obvious that there was a lot more to the documentary than that. After all, Perez also devoted a lot of film to portions of Puerto Rican history that are rarely mentioned in conventional history books (for example, the Vieques protests, forced sterilization, the struggle for Puerto Rican independence, etc.). Granted, it would be nice if she had the time and resources to devote even more film to those subjects but as it was, she had so much ground to cover in regard to those subjects that there was no way she could have done them justice with just one movie. Anyway, it hardly seems fair to blame Rosie Perez for not doing more about these topics when mainstream film directors like Michael Moore have been ignoring these same topics for years.

In any event, you don't necessarily have to be Puerto Rican to find something of interest in this documentary. Nor do you have to be Puerto Rican to find something in the historical events Ms. Perez covers that will make you depressed or angry. And you certainly don't need to be Puerto Rican to hope that all the bad things Ms. Perez mentions in this film eventually prove to be stuff of the past. Because the alternative would be even more depressing than anything you see in this film.

¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Jennifer Lopez!

AKA Jennifer Lynn Lopez Rodríguez and J.Lo.

Born July 24, 1969.

Everyone's favorite Puerto Rican actress -- and a long-time favorite of mine though I must admit to rolling my eyes a bit every time non-Hispanics praised certain physical attributes of hers.

However, I did like her in Mi Family, Selena and almost every movie she has made that I have seen. I must admit that there were times when she tested my faith in her -- especially when she starred in Anaconda -- but still.

¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Michelle Rodriguez!

AKA Mayte Michelle Rodriguez.

Born July 12, 1978.

She is an American actress of Dominican and Puerto Rican descent who was raised in Texas, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and New Jersey. She has appeared on the TV series Lost and in such movies as Girlfight and The Fast and the Furious.

As my youngest brother recently pointed out, she used to be notorious for playing the type of character who ends up dying before the last reel. However, after seeing her in Machete and Battle: Los Angeles, it seemed obvious that the lifespans of her characters were actually growing longer. Gracias a Dios!

Of course, after seeing what happened to her character in Machete Kills, I am no longer so sure about that.

¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Aubrey Plaza!

AKA Aubrey Christina Plaza.

Born June 26, 1984.

She is the daughter of a Puerto Rican father and a mother of Irish and English descent. She is best known for her role as an intern on the NBC TV series Parks and Recreation but she is also starting to make a name for herself in such movies as The To Do List and Safety Not Guaranteed.

She is one of my favorite young actresses. Hopefully we will see more of her in the future.

¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Lisa Vidal!

AKA Lisa Vidal Cohen.

Born June 13, 1965.

She is a Puerto Rican actress best known -- to me, at least -- for playing a female firefighter on ER and a guest role on Boston Legal. She also had a role in the 2009 movie Star Trek and played a DA on the NBC series Grimm. She is currently starring in the BET TV series Being Mary Jane -- and no, she does not play the title role. Nor do I believe she is related to writer Gore Vidal -- though that would certainly make for an interesting twist in the history books.

Anyway, I have always liked seeing her and I hope to see her more in the future.

¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Ana Ortiz!

Born January 25, 1971.

She is the daughter of a Puerto Rican father and an Irish American mother. She is also an American actress who is best known for her role as Hilda Ortiz on the ABC TV series Ugly Betty. She has also appeared on such shows as ER, Everybody Loves Raymond, Commander in Chief and Boston Legal. Her first regular role was in the 2001 NBC sitcom Kristin, opposite Kristin Chenoweth. She is currently appearing as Marisol Suarez in the otherwise dubious Lifetime TV series Devious Maids.

¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Rita Moreno!

AKA Rosita Dolores Alverio.

Born December 11, 1931.

She was the first Puerto Rican actress to win an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She is most famous for her role as Anita in the 1961 musical movie West Side Story but she has also appeared on many TV shows such as The Electric Company, The Rockford Files and Oz as well as such movies as Night of the Following Day and such Broadway plays as The Ritz. She was the first -- and thus far, the only -- Hispanic to win an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony. She also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush in 2004.

That's Funny. She Doesn't Look Latina: Parte XXIV

Aubrey Plaza (1984 - ). The daughter of a Puerto Rican father and a mother of Irish and English descent. She is best known for her role as an intern on the NBC TV series Parks and Recreation.

I'm Dreaming of a Latino Christmas Movie

Geez, one would think that if Hollywood was going to wait until the 21st century to make a Latino Christmas movie, they would at least get it right. Not that 2008's Nothing Like the Holidays was a bad movie. It just was not the instant classic I kinda expected after all the hoopla I read about it.

The movie itself was about a family of Puerto Ricans and their assorted significant others who were gathering for a family Christmas celebration in Chicago. The father (played by Alfred Molina) was a bodega owner who might or might not be having an affair. His wife (played by Elizabeth Peña) was contemplating a divorce. One of his sons was a returning veteran who had issues with the girlfriend he left behind while yet another son was having issues with his white non-Hispanic wife. Though many scenes in the movie were neatly done -- the trailer had led me to expect a far broader comedy than ever turned up on screen -- it was still depressing to note how familiar some of the plot elements were: a murdered sibling, a non-Latin wife, a spouse who may or may not be unfaithful, an old girlfriend who may or may not have been pregnant with a certain family member's illegitimate child... To be fair, things improved toward the end but for a while there the movie seemed all too predictable.

Moreover, certain details were off. I could not help but wonder why a Puerto Rican would have the first bars of a Mexican folk song as a tune on his car horn and why Alfred Molina's character used the same Spanish term of endearment for his wife that I used to use for my Mexican grandmother. Granted, even the best screenwriters can't know everything, but given that one of the movie's screenwriters -- Rick Najera -- was Latino, I kinda expected a bit more than the same old Hollywood hand wave.

It is to the cast's credit that the movie is still watchable. (Though I must confess that seeing former I Married Dora star Elizabeth Peña as a would-be grandparent was almost as shocking to me as seeing her former co-star Juliette Lewis appear on an episode of My Name Is Earl.) Indeed, I found the movie to be a pleasant enough time-waster. But I hardly doubt I will be visiting it again next winter. And is not the whole point of a holiday movie that you wish to see it over and over again?

Maybe they will get it right next time.

TV Quote of the Week

My mom’s Puerto Rican. That’s why I’m so lively and colorful.
--Aubrey Plaza, Parks and Recreation, “Sister City”

Viva Sonia Maria Sotomayor


After seeing how often supporters of former Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez played the "let's support the guy because he's one of us" card with Hispanic Americans, I must admit I'm kinda wary of any Hispanic politico or politica seeking higher office.

And yet part of me wants to believe that Sonia Maria Sotomayer -- the Puerto Rican judge recently nominated by President Obama to replace retiring Supreme Court justice David Souter -- would make a great addition on the U.S. Supreme Court for reasons not related to her ethnicity.

So I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Please don't prove me wrong, Dios...