VivirLatino Meets the Talento Artistico of John Leguizamo and Kind of Didn’t Like Him!

Posted on: June 11th, 2008
Filed Under: [ Entertainment ] [ Blogante Entertainment ]
Tags: john leguizamo
Knowledge is Power!

One thing is for sure, Leguizamo isn’t shy about stating his opinions. He discussed his idol, Richard Pryor and how his comedy combined the political and the social. While Leguizamo described himself as being an artist and seeing the artist as a political animal, he had zero problem criticizing the critiques of other artists. For example, when responding to a question about if his one man shows were negatively stereotypical and played into white audience othering of Latino men and women, he said that only one person said that, performance artist and academic Coco Fusco and that she said that because she was just jealous because her boyfriend had a show on at the same time that wasn’t doing so well. Ouch. And while Leguizamo touched on tough topics such as the colorism within the Latin community, it felt as if he was playing for the white portion of the audience. He constantly talked about his old stomping grounds of Jackson Heights, Queens, in a slightly negative tone, like, that was then and I’m above that. He clearly has reached a place of privilege, and mentioned his kids going to private schools and that that gave them a leg up, but it was the way he said it. “*