My Tribute to Cantinflas,
the idol of my youth!
​
In Sadness, We Smile

April 28, 1993 -- In the movies he was Cantinflas, a poor but happy man who had the innocence of a child. In real life he was Mario Moreno, Latin America's greatest comedian and film star. When he died in Mexico last week, the whole Spanish-speaking world was saddened, thinking about all the times he made us smile.
       You may have read the obituaries, noting that thousands of Mexicans gathered to mourn his death, that he made 49 movies, that he was the faithful servant of David Niven in the 1956 classic "Around the World in 80 Days," that even Charlie Chaplin considered him "the world's greatest comedian."
      But to Latinos, Cantinflas, 81, was much more. Americans loved John Wayne because he played a tough hero, but Latinos loved Cantinflas for a totally different reason: He played a humble peasant, a penniless jack-of-all-trades who used his wit and good nature to get out of impossible situations.
       For a half-century, movie houses throughout the world have flashed scenes of Cantinflas teaching children valuable lessons about life. For those who grew up watching his movies, just the sight of him brought out the child in adult Latinos.
       As a boy, he taught me that a poor man doesn't need money to enjoy life, that happiness is achieved by trusting your fellow man, that everyone deserves a smile. When I met him in New York in 1983, struck by the chance to speak to the idol of my youth, Moreno showed me that in real life he was as sensitive as the character he portrayed.
       For Cantinflas, laughter was the solution to all the world's problems. "I keep thinking that the world needs to laugh, that no one who is laughing is capable of carrying a rifle to kill someone," he told me. "I keep thinking that happiness in the world will be achieved when there's more understanding."
       The character of Cantinflas — with his arched eyebrows, funny mustache, unevenly buttoned shirt, battered hat, and baggy pants -- creates an unusually humble style of comedy, based on the typical traits of a Mexican peasant. "Cantinflas is a guy who tries to be happy and then tries to make others happy," Moreno once said. "He is a poor guy with great sentiments."
       When he created the character, the word Cantinflas had no meaning. Today, it is part of the Spanish language. As a verb, cantinflear means to talk much and say little; as a noun, cantinflada is a long-winded, meaningless speech and Cantinflas means lovable clown.
       Born in Mexico City on Aug. 12, 1911, the sixth son of a family of 15, Moreno grew up under the violence, famine, and epidemics caused by the Mexican Revolution. But when he was still in grammar school he fed himself by singing and dancing for money in the streets of Mexico City.
  He attended agriculture school and studied medicine for three years but opted to become a bantamweight fighter, then an acrobat, and then a comic actor. "I wanted to be a doctor, but I wanted money for my family more," he said. "So I danced a little, sang a little, and talked a lot."
       Moreno worked with a traveling circus, where he developed the character of Cantinflas and gained such an immense following that the name soon became a major attraction in Mexican theaters. The growth of the Mexican movie industry propelled him to international fame. Although he made a fortune, throughout his career Moreno never forgot the poverty from which he came, always giving money to agencies that would help real-life Cantinflases. Receiving honors all over the world, he brought prestige and recognition to all Latinos.
       "If I was born again," he told me, "I would devote my life to giving people happiness all over again." And you will, dear Cantinflas. Your movies — the laughter they brought us and the lessons you taught us — are eternal.

​Published in The Record

SHARING MY RESOURCES:

List of links created for use in my journalism courses at Lehman College. Now sharing them with everyone!
​
• U.S. Hispanic ​News
• African-American News
• U.S. Ethnic Publications
• Spanish and Latin American News

If you know of any news sites not included in these lists, please send me an email with the url, and I will include them. Thanks!
columnistmiguelperez@gmail.com

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Let me introduce myself
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January 3, 2006 - On the second anniversary of this syndicated column, I think the time has come to introduce myself.
          After all, not too many people were reading me when the column was first launched and if I asked for help two years ago – as I will in a minute – my pleas could have gone unheard.
          But now that I have some faithful readers, according to my mail, I figure that after you meet me – more formally – you may want to introduce me and my column to your friends in other parts of the country, so that they’ll request the column from their own local newspaper.
          I write about Hispanic issues.
For the past 30 years, at three major American newspapers, that has been my mission – to present the Hispanic perspective to non-Latinos.
          As a syndicated columnist, addressing a national audience, I see myself as a bridge builder, creating paths of understanding between non-Hispanic Americans and their 40 million Latino neighbors.
          It is never my intention to write a protest column – although to some readers it may seem that way. My goal is to dispel the negative myths about Latinos, most of whom are honest, hard-working people who want to assimilate rather than impose their culture on this society.
          As taxpayers, voters, and contributors to this society, Latinos want their fair share of the entitlements, but they don’t expect them on a silver platter.
          Most Latinos spend a lot less time demanding their rights than expressing gratitude for the opportunity to live in the greatest country in the world. These are the sentiments I want my column to convey.
          The mission was eloquently outlined by the nation’s first Hispanic columnist in an English-language newspaper, Cuban writer and patriot Jose Marti – my idol – who wrote for the old New York Sun more than a century ago.
          "What I want is to demonstrate that we are good people, industrious, and capable,” Marti wrote. “For each offense, a reply . . . and more effective by its moderation. For each false assertion about our countries, an immediate correction. For each defect, apparently just, which is thrown in our faces, the historical explanation which will excuse it, and proof of the capacity to remedy it. It would seem to me that I were being derelict in my duty if I should not realize this thought."
          Although the growth and impact of the U.S. Hispanic population is not often reflected in American newspapers, my goal is to fill that void, by discussing the wide gamut of issues that concern Latino Americans – from affirmative action to immigration.
          And to adequately reflect what U.S. Latinos are thinking, it’s also important to cover significant events in Latin America. When there are statehood discussions in Puerto Rico, human rights violations in Cuba, border squabbles in Mexico, drug wars in Colombia, and anti-American movements in Venezuela, Brazil and Bolivia, you can be sure Latinos are talking about it in the United States. This column will tell you what they are saying.
          But it wouldn’t be a column without a good dose of opinion, and my opinions are formed by my own life experiences.
You are what your life makes you. I was born in Havana, Cuba in 1950 and I came to the United States, as a refugee, at the age of 11 in 1962. Spanish was my only language then. I couldn’t speak a word of English.
          My life has shown me the ruthlessness of a right-wing dictatorship, the repression of a communist regime, the struggles of U.S. immigrants, and the economic, social, and even violent discrimination suffered by minorities.
          That makes me generally a liberal on domestic issues and a conservative on U.S. foreign policy. And that makes me difficult to read, especially for people who want to cast me into a mold.
          It happens to all of us. You express an opinion based on one of a trillion issues that concern you, and based on that single remark, you are either a liberal or a conservative. And when you express another opinion that breaks your assigned mold, some people don't know where to place you.
          But when a columnist expresses many opinions to thousands of readers, it happens practically every day. I'm either supposed to be a liberal or conservative columnist.
Some readers want me to be like those predictable talking heads on cable TV – the ones whose opinions we know, even before they express it.
          Yet I refuse to be defined or limited by the parameters set by those two words. Living under communism, as I did in my native Cuba, taught me not to allow being molded by the party line.
          When I condemn flag desecration and anti-American sentiments abroad, and when I recognize the need for U.S. Latinos to learn English and accept some personal responsibility for child abuse, domestic violence, drug dealing and other social ills, I break the liberal mold.
          But when I come out in defense of immigrants and the downtrodden, when I say Latinos also have a right to dream the American dream, it’s hard to peg me as a conservative.
          So, if you want to know what Latinos are thinking from a not so predictable columnist, tell you friends to ask for this column in their local newspaper.

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Hall of Fame!

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​From the Lehman College web site:

Miguel Perez, an acclaimed award-winning journalist and former chair of the Journalism, Communications, and Theater Department at Lehman College, recently achieved a major career milestone. On September 19, Professor Perez was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists . . . Read more

Illustrious Award!

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Professor Miguel Perez, who has dedicated his career to covering stories in the Latino community, received the Illustrious Award for Journalism at the Institute for Latino Studies last month in the Rutger’s University’s Paul Robeson Campus Center in Newark, N.J. . . . Read more

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One of the fringe benefits of being a journalist
is that sometimes you rub shoulders with greatness!
To watch videos, click on these photos:

Ruben Blades

Miriam Colon

Pele

Tito Puente and Miriam Colon

Machito

Mario Vargas Llosa

When I co-hosted "Tiempo" with Anna Carbonell on WABC-NYC in 1983, I had the privilege to interview:   • Cuban bandleader Machito, shortly after he won the Grammy for Latin Music at the age of 74.   • Pele, the greatest soccer player of all time.   • Tito Puente, the King of Latin Music.   • Miriam Colon, the Queen of the NY Hispanic Theatre.   • Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa.   • Salsa Superstar Ruben Blades.

Have you been following my Great Hispanic American History Tour at HiddenHispanicHeritage.com?