Entertainment

Latina Actress Forced To Resign After Endorsing Tea Partier For California Governor 

By Sarah Fruchtnicht

Opposing Views (January 18, 2014)

Cuban-Venezuelan actress Maria Conchita Alonso faced a backlash from the Latino community after she endorsed a Tea Party immigration hardliner for California governor this month.

Now Alonso has resigned from a production of "The Vagina Monologues" in San Francisco's Mission District after the producer began taking heat.

"We really cannot have her in the show, unfortunately," producer Eliana Lopez told KPIX 5.

"Of course she has the right to say whatever she wants. But we're in the middle of the Mission. Doing what she is doing is against what we believe," Lopez added.

Alonso, best known for her role in "Moscow on the Hudson" starring Robin Williams, appeared in the ad below with Tea Party Assemblyman Tim Donnely.

"Politicians and big government are killing our prosperity, pushing welfare costs through the roof and driving our schools into the ground," Donnelly said in the ad. Standing next to him, Alonso jokingly translated in Spanish, "We're screwed."

"The Tim Donnelly ad with Maria Conchito Alonso ad is so bad it's almost laughable," Caf� Con Leche, a Latino Republican group, said in a statement. "The ad seems designed to appeal to Hispanic voters, but instead insults the intelligence of many Hispanic voters."

The group said the ad is an example that "time and time again movie stars often lack common sense."

Alonso told the newspaper La Opinion that she agrees with Donnelly's stance on immigration.

"I am among those who think that we should help illegal immigrants who are already in the country and who do not have a criminal background, who contribute and who are good people, but those who are not, we need to take out," she told La Opinion in an email. "I spoke with Tim about this issue and he agrees with me."

Critics took issue with the fact that she called undocumented workers "illegal" and that she uses some vulgar language in the ad.

"We don't act like that. First of all, that is not a typical Latina," said Jim Salinas, a Mission resident and former president of the San Francisco Latino Democratic Club. "First Amendment rights, we all have the right to say something. But it's also our right to say we object to that."

Salinas said Alonso bowed out because she knew there would be boycotts of the production if she stayed.

Sources: Fox News, CBS San Francisco

Get More: Assemblyman Tim Donnelly | California | Maria Conchita Alonso | Tea Party |