It has often been said that politics is downstream from culture. But when it comes to Spanish-language media, politics and culture are virtually joined at the hip, as evidenced by recent coverage of an anti-Trump tweetstorm from Mexican actress Kate del Castillo.
Del Castillo's anti-Trump rant was prominently featured on both major domestic Spanish-language newscasts. Here is how Univision covered the rant:
MARIA ELENA SALINAS, ANCHOR, UNIVISION: As a 'bellicose, vulgar, and selfish' man and as a 'racist with money' is how Mexican actress Kate del Castillo labeled the virtual GOP nominee, Donald Trump. Kate stated that Trump has no power. She wrote an open letter, which she published over the course of 20 Twitter messages. According to Kate, the mogul with 'Hitlerian beliefs' has caused 'irreversible damage'.
Coverage was nearly identical both on Univision and Telemundo. The celebrity indictment was mostly read verbatim with no further comment.
The reliance on Hispanic celebrity endorsements is not uncommon on the left - where politicians seek any means of validation in order to connect with the community. Per Politico:
Democratic operatives planning next month’s national convention in Philadelphia have reached out to Lin-Manuel Miranda, the Tony Award-winning writer and star of the hit Broadway musical “Hamilton,” about performing at the Wells Fargo Center, sources told POLITICO.
It’s part of an ambitious plan to generate excitement and boost television viewership for the party convention after what Democrats expect to be a four-day reality show at the Republican convention in Cleveland.
Miranda’s name currently tops a lineup of A-list stars, including well-known "young pop artists" whom Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee officials are reaching out to as convention program planning gets underway, according to Democrats familiar with the process.
Do read the whole piece in order to get the full scope of liberal dependence on celebrity endorsement, which Barack Obama mastered throughout the course of both his presidential campaigns.
But back to Kate del Castillo. The networks were so eager to run with del Castillo's condemnation of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee that there was absolutely zero mention of her own serious ongoing legal problems due to her association with the head of the Sinaloa Cartel, Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán. This is particularly fascinating given the fact that the networks gave del Castillo practically nonstop coverage in the wake of Sean Penn's infamous Rolling Stone story. But now that there's an opportunity to bash Trump and push Clinton? Not a peep.
It is left up to others to wonder why, in del Castillo's world, a man she sees as a racist totalitarian with money warrants condemnation, while a murderous and monied boss of a drug cartel does not. There should be no doubt, however, as to why our domestic Spanish-language media failed to raise that question.
