Not only is she a babe ...

... she knows common sense. Maria Conchita Alonso, Cuban-born singer/actress but raised in Venezuela (wonder if she is a fan of this group, natch?), spoke at the Latino Coalition in Washington ahead of Rudy Giuliani the other night.

She began by pointing out she deliberately wore red, and that the color and May Day were meant to be a celebration for workers, not for the Communist party. "We cannot let terrorists dictate our lives, so why acknowledge their claims and allow them to own a color red for a day? I wear red not in solidarity, but in protest of them!"

Then Alonso ripped into Castro and Chavez with a rare combination of ferocity and wit. She told of leaving Cuba as a child with her family to start a new life in Venzuela, with her mother hiding money, jewelry, and even the family dog on the way out of the country. As Latino Coalition President Robert de Posada noted, "She lost her first home country to communism, and she refuses to let it happen again."

"Even as a teenager, I wondered why John Lennon wore Mao jacket," she said, lamenting that Che is a popular t-shirt icon today. She suggested it was a triumph of appearance over substance: "If this man looked like Al Bundy [from the old Fox sitcom Married With Children], would teenage girls still be wearing his t-shirt?"

"When celebrities visit Castro and do not speak out, he gains a great propaganda advantage," she said. "I wonder if anyone told Robert Reford, "your films are all heavily edited on Cuban television.' And we know all directors like to have the last cut."

When a heckler stood up to contend that Chavez had been good for the poor of Venezuela, Alonso noted that the heckler enjoys rights to interrupt and speak freely here in America that she would not under Chavez's rule.

Referring to the former President's thumbs-up regarding the last "election," she declared, "Jimmy Carter, who I respect, should stick to counting peanuts, not votes."

Conchita-Alonso will be starring in an anti-Hugo Chávez movie titled "Two Minutes of Hate." In it, she actually plays a Chavista -- or Chávez supporter. The film's producer said "the concept is that 'Venezuela is the Titanic, Chavez is the captain,' " and that "Alonso's character is in love with an anti-Chavez professor who in the semi-fictional account is among those shot and killed in 2002."

You can't get a more common sensical talk. She's absolutely correct in her reply to that heckler -- how is "being good for the poor" a beneficient trade-off when you can no longer protest or speak freely? And John Lennon and Robert Redford -- I wonder if those two pop icons actually believe(d) they could have amassed their fame and fortunes under Mao ... or Castro. If they do (did), they're either lying or totally delusional. That's why neither of them (as well as many other limousine libs) ever actually MOVE to these socialist "paradises."

From what I understand, Lennon did consider moving to Mao's China, and he wanted to change the titles of some of his Beatles hits. Here are some of his proposed changes:

• "All You Need Is Socialism."
• "A Hard Day's Night (In the Gulag)."
• "Imperialist/Capitalist in the Sky With Diamonds."
• "Back in the Boxer Rebellion."
• "Can't Buy Me Love (Since Money is the Tool of Imperialists)."
• "Please Mr. Postman, Don't Tell the Secret Police."
• "Eleanor Chang."
• "Got to Get You Into My Commune."
• "Rice Fields Forever."
• "Hey Mao."
• "Till There Was Mao."

And, of course, "Revolution" and "Yellow Submarine" didn't really need any title changes!

Likewise, Robert Redford considered changing the titles of some of his films to suit the Cuban Revolution. Here were some of his proposals:

• "Out of Cuba."
• "Legal Macaws."
• "All the Dictator's Men."
• "The Way the Revolutionaries Were."
• "The [Lone Party] Candidate."
• "Butch Cassidy and the Guevara Kid."

Posted by Hube at May 2, 2007 04:38 PM | TrackBack