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Henry-
You and Val are practically brothers- there's no rule that says you can't differ in opinion on this show. Kind of like Alex Vega and Frank Duque... (couldn't resist).

BTW, I heard manteca was the new oil.

You ate it, horse.

lol great post Hank

Claudia -

Digame - Montequilla no es el olio nuevo? -S-

This is not unusual... Non-traditional casting has ALWAYS been an issue. The way I see it, there are certain "ethnic" things that non-ethnic actors can't do. With the amount of Cuban-American talent that probably auditioned for the parts, I feel the producers should have chosen those that met the ethnic requirements.

We are not alone in feeling this way. As an example...

When Jennifer Lopez (1997) played Mexican-American singer, Selena in a film about her life, the film stirred great controversy within the Mexican-American community: Lopez is Puerto Rican and was playing the role of a singer of Mexican descent.

Andy Garcia and many,many Cuban Americans in Hollywood play roles where they are NOT hispanic and we the Cuban Americans do not mind at all. As a matter of fact we are very proud of the parts that Andy has had in Hollywood like the Godfather, etc, etc. I understand there are many Cuban American actors that can play the part, but the other actors can too. Maybe most of the Cuban American did not audition for these parts? Do we know for sure?

Look by the standards of the last time, CBS took a gander at this community; 1991's Wiseguy, which benefited??? from the likes of Rafael Lima's insights, remember Amado Guzman (Maximilian
Schell) and the Banco de La Nueva Havana; tied to the Colombian mob, through the Salvadoran Air Force; a full on exposition of the Christic Institute.; It's a marked improvement. Most of the
evil seems to carried out by the minions of the
evil Anglo Sugar baron, played by Ken Howard; and
the Israeli ecstasy financiers. Actually CSI Miami
with one token Cuban, has a more right wing profile.

Sorry, can't get into this "Cane" thing. I gave up on TV years ago, and want no more to do with it. Expecting anything but business as usual from TV is beyond naive. There's no point even discussing the matter, as far as I'm concerned.

I mentioned in a previous (admittedly lengthy) post, I'm a Southerner and I bristle at the phony 'mint julip' accents and stereotypes of us on TV just like people are understandably doing in here with 'Cane'. But for whatever it's worth, I don't necessarily require that an actor actually be a Southerner to play one. If the actor can pull it off convincingly, his DNA doesn't matter to me.

I don't care if he's from the heart of Uzbekistan, if with a little facial make-up he can look the part and he has that rare talent some actors have for supreme mimmickry not only of voice but mannerisms, I'll watch and even give the man a standing O right there in front of the TV.

They're out there, but they really are very rare. I can think of a few Brits who do American really well. I was blown away to find out David Laurie ("House") is British. Kate Winslet is almost as good. I remember her on Letterman one night when he asked her to do an American accent and she did several. I had wandered over to the fridge at the time and thought for a moment Letterman had brought the next guest out. Jane Seymour gets honorable mention. (Needless to say, I leave it to all of you to tell me what non-Cuban could convincingly pull off a Cuban part.)

So it can be done, but when you're throwing together a TV show on a tight schedule where you need a few familiar faces to bring the audience in, it's unlikely that you're going to get actors (or writers for that matter) of that caliber.

Guess I have a way of shutting these conversations down...

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