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Lucia Mendez, the Mexican telenovela queen and pop singing sensation, struts down the stairway at Brasserie Les Halles Restaurant in Coral Gables in a fierce flurry. She’s fashionably late to the press conference, which has been arranged by local Latino GLBT organizations to “straighten out” an image problem—just as the diva is preparing to launch a tour of mostly gay clubs.
A seasoned pro, Mendes takes her mark at the press conference before the Spanish language television news cameras. She poses and preens behind severe fashion sunglasses, like a red-carpet fashion plate.
Then she began talking.
“I love the gay community,” she says, as the photographers call her name. “The gay audiences have kept Cher and Madonna alive. They buy albums, they listen to my music, and they love me through good times and through bad.”
The press conference is a love fest; it is clear all questions asked are planned to elicit good camera fodder. She is all too happy to answer.
Mendez is one of Mexico’s major stars, both as a singer and actress. With a career ranging as far back as the 1980’s, she has found success with her music, her movies, and especially her telenovelas, the Latin version of a soap opera, where she reigns supreme. Now, she has appeared at the press conference to appeal to her most loyal fans, the fans who revel in her glamour and drama, who have maintained her popularity over the years: the gays.
Like the characters she portrays, she speaks passionately and with the all the emphasis you would expect from an over-the-top diva.
“The same way I love gay people is the same way in which I’m a servant to God,” she said.
Mendez’s penance was meant to reverse a past blow to her image that threatened to loom over her upcoming tour.
This past summer, Mendez appeared on a Mexican interview program, where she was quoted saying that as a religious person she could not accept same-sex marriage.
The statement promised to turn away fans just as Mendez launches her upcoming “Queen of Queens” tour – a glittery spectacular featuring drag queens and macho dancers that will play in gay clubs Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Houston, Dallas, and Miami. Mendez appears at Score Sept. 16.
“I support [gay marriage],” she now told a throng of reporters from Spanish language television shows. “Equal rights for all is peace.”
Ron Brenesky, co-chair of Unity Coalition, a gay Latino service organization based in Miami, said his group took advantage of the situation, to sign on a major name in Spanish language media to show her support. So they made her a deal.
“We told her she either sat down and discussed these issues, or we would not allow usage [of our name] without support,” Brenesky said.
So why was the media event so important that the Telemundo satellite truck be parked outside the tony Coral Gables bistro?
Because impact is immediate throughout Lucia Mendez, Brenesky said. Millions of viewers watch the entertainment news shows and the message could change attitudes.
“[Lucia] is forcing the issue to be discussed in public,” Brenesky said. “And the sooner we get support the better.”
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