Univision CEO Joe Uva Leaves Post to ‘Be Able to Seek Other Opportunities,’ Namely Unemployment

Univision CEO Joe Uva has left the company to “be able to seek other opportunities,” Univision announced today.

But what’s really weird is that they don’t want to tell me where the hell it is that he is going, and rumor has it that he might have gotten the boot. His last day is April 2.

I don’t know you guys but I feel a bit sorry for the guy. After all those years of tireless work and efforts, he didn’t even have time to master his Spanish… But he shouldn’t worry too much. Judging from his stellar appearance as a piragüero in one scene of the hit Brodway show In the Heights, I’m sure he’ll be able to find a gig in the barrio.

His specialty? Piraguas de Uva!

Buena suerte, Mr. Uva. I’ll look you up among my neighborhood’s piragüeros.

You, Too, Can Smuggle Your Own Immigrants!

Move over, cucaracha-stomping Mariachi: The new onda app right now is Smuggle Truck, an iPhone and iPad app that allows you to drive a truck full of immigrants through the dessert and try not to have them tossed out in the process.

Smuggle Truck: Operation Immigration, developed by Owlchemy Labs in Boston, is set for release this month but it’s already raising the ire of immigration advocates who think the game trivializes the seriousness of the crossings.

Really? I thought it was a major attempt by some app-developer coyote to show gringos that their job is no walk in the park!

Wanna Live at The Dakota? Hispanics Need Not Apply

Photo: Allan Tannenbaum

Every time I walk by New York City’s famous Dakota building, I cannot help but think about Lennon, Ono, Bacall and Bernstein. But for some reason not many Hispanics come to mind…

And now I finally know why:

In a recent New York Times article about Dakota tenant Alphonse Fletcher and his ongoing fight with the building’s management, one member of the co-op board is said to have made a point about why they turned down an apartment to one famous Hispanic:

“[…] after a well-known couple, believed to be Melanie Griffith and Antonio Banderas, was rejected for a ground-floor apartment in 2005, a board member joked that Mr. Banderas, who is Hispanic, wanted to be at street level so he could buy drugs easily.”

So there you have it. Not only the “system” has trashed my dream of becoming a beauty queen; now I’m going to have to look for an apartment elsewhere… the projects, tal vez.

Oh well…

At Last! A Call Against ‘José Luis Sin Censura’

I have been writing about Liberman’s Spanish-language programming for quite some time now, and was always appalled at the lack of response by mainstream media about the offensive nature of some of their programming.

Things might change soon.

Today the National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC) and the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) filed a joint complaint with the FCC against Liberman Broadcasting, Inc. and KRCA, a broadcast television station serving the Los Angeles area. The complaint is in response to a string of broadcasts of the Spanish-language television talk show José Luis Sin Censura, which contains indecent, profane, and obscene material, offensive language, nudity, and on-air verbal and physical attacks against women as well as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people.

Watch for yourself (if you can stomach it, that is.)

More footage here