Latin History For Morons Review

I have loved John Leguizamo since House of Buggin premiered in 1995. He’s probably most famous for being the Sloth in Ice Age but some of us know him as Tybalt in William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. I remember him as Luigi in the god-awful Mario Brothers Movie, he was Bennie Blanco from the Bronx in Carlito’s Way, he was Ms.Chi Chi Rodriguez in Too Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar. To me, the performance that stood out the most in my childhood was his one-man stage show FREAK. The HBO special was directed by Spike Lee.

My sister and our friends quoted that shit to death. His completely unorthodox childhood is recounted in this really amazing one-man show, if you have not seen it you really should. When I heard that John was doing a new stage show I was already on board. Then I heard the subject matter and became very intrigued. A few days ago it became available on Netflix so today I gave it a watch and I’m very glad I did.

I found his performance very brilliant. During the show, he weaves in and out of stories from history to the recent events that inspired him to write this show. He explains that his curiosity was ignited because his children were being teased at school because they are not 100% white. In his very informative one-man show called Latin History for Morons Leguizamo touches on something very important that only seems to be discussed amongst the Native, Hispanic, and Latino community. During the show he expresses sheer anger and frustration that in 2018 we are still treated like inferiors in OUR country and it is still expected that we just stay in our place. WE are Americans, YOU (Anglo-Saxons) are the immigrants.

We know this, we know exactly what happened in Spain to justify the robbery of the riches in the Americas. We know this and it makes the reality of it all a very hard pill to swallow but WE ARE STILL EXPECTED NOT TO SAY SHIT!!! History books in our schools still do not discuss the true events of the European invasion of the Americas. The hardest thing about it all is that we can’t even speak out or speak up about the TRUTH as we might be labeled un-American and could be seen as a national threat under Trump’s regime and face deportation even though most of us have never even seen Mexico. He thinks he can re-write the constitution (a document that was plagiarized from a native agreement) to denationalize us. Trump thinks he can change the constitution because he doesn’t believe that we have the same constitutionally protected rights as every other American. These are very scary times in America and the most unfortunate part about it all is that Native American/Hispanics have already been down this path.

If you don’t know your history you are doomed to repeat it and here we are again. The United States is facing the same situation that doomed the Aztec’s. Montezuma (Trump) and Cortez (Putin). If you do not already know what happened, I highly recommend you read about Montezuma (A.K.A. Moctezuma) and Cortez. SPOILER ALERT: IT DOESN’T END WELL FOR THE AZTECS. Europeans exaggerated the story about their brilliant and amazing defeat of the Aztec Empire due to their sheer superiority but that’s not how it went down at all. Read up on it, what they told you in school is not how it happened. We know all these things but we as a people (Latinos and Hispanics) are not allowed to be upset about it. We are expected to stay silent because it’s un-American to speak badly of our past, present or future.

That’s just how it is and how it’s always been. We are just now starting to acknowledge the damage done by the fairytale that Columbus discovered shit. Little by little people are embracing the fact that we were lied to and there is no reason to celebrate someone like Columbus but instead celebrate the thousands of millions that lost their lives due to the European invasion of the Americas. Now we celebrate Indigenous People’s day. While I think this is a step in the right direction, that is seriously the ugliest and most boring and unimaginative name one could possibly have given that day. Most estadounidenses still refer to themselves as just American’s. For fuck sake man, Mexican’s, Colombian’s, Peruvian’s and even Canadians are fucking American. America is the continent and the whole fucking thing does not belong to The United States. It’s 2018 and most people don’t realize there is a difference between being American and being from the U.S.

John Leguizamo is courageous in telling it like it is and in his signature over-animated manner and it makes the subject matter entertaining and in some parts just a little bit heartbreaking but very honest and informational. Like Leguizamo does in FREAK, he bears his soul in Latino History for Moron’s and I highly recommend it.