- Oil prices extend gains on Mideast tensions, Wall Street falls
- 'Dark day': Victims mourned around the globe on Oct. 7 anniversary
- Mission to probe smashed asteroid launches despite hurricane
- Oil prices extend gains on Mideast tensions, Wall Street slips
- Europe's asteroid mission Hera launches despite hurricane
- Oil prices extend gains on Mideast tensions, Wall Street retreats
- What is microRNA? Nobel-winning discovery explained
- Weather may delay launch of mission to study deflected asteroid
- China to flesh out economic stimulus plans after bumper rally
- Asian markets track Wall St rally on US jobs data
- World marks anniversary of Oct. 7 attack on Israel
- Asian markets track Wall St rally on jobs data
- Cancer, cardiovascular drugs tipped for Nobel as prize week opens
- Tunisia incumbent Saied set to win presidential vote: exit polls
- 'Difficult day': Oct 7 commemorations begin with festival memorial
- Commemorations begin for anniversary of attack on Israel
- Tunisia voting ends as Saied eyes re-election with critics behind bars
- Drowned by hurricane, remote N.Carolina towns now struggle for water
- Two elephants die in flash flooding in northern Thailand
- Tunisia votes with Saied set for re-election
- Too hot by day, Dubai's floodlit beaches are packed at night
- A 'forgotten' valley in storm-hit North Carolina, desperate for help
- Italy targets climate activists in 'anti-Gandhi' demo clampdown
- US trade chief defends tariff hikes when paired with investment
- EU court blocks French ban on vegetable 'steak' labelling
- Meta AI turns pictures into videos with sound
- US dockworkers return to ports after three-day strike
- DR Congo to begin mpox vaccination campaign Saturday in east
- Meta must limit data use for targeted ads: EU court
- Oil extends gains, jobs report lifts Wall Street
- US hiring soars past expectations in sign of resilient market
- As EU targets Chinese cars, European rivals sputter
- Top EU court finds against FIFA in key transfer market ruling
- Oil extends gains, Hong Kong stocks resume rally
- 'A man provides': Ukrainian miners send families away as Russia advances
- EU states greenlight extra tariffs on EVs from China
- Hong Kong stocks resume rally, oil dips after Middle East-fuelled surge
- Crude stable after Israel-Iran surge, Hong Kong stocks resume gains
- Hera spacecraft to probe asteroid deflected by defence test
- US dockworkers to head back to work after tentative deal
- After Helene's destruction, North Carolina starts to rebuild
- Dockers end three-day strike at Montreal port
- What next for OpenAI after $157 billion bonanza?
- Israel-Hamas war causes 86-percent dive in Gaza GDP: IMF
- Milan's Morata moves house after Inter-fan town mayor 'violates' privacy
- 'Devastating' storm hits Augusta National but Masters will go on
- Relief in Brazil, Asia over delay to EU deforestation rules
- Oil prices jump, stocks fall on Middle East tensions
- Biden says 'discussing' possible Israeli strikes on Iran oil facilities
- Oil prices rise, stocks fall on Middle East tensions
JRI | -0.76% | 13.18 | $ | |
CMSC | -0.53% | 24.57 | $ | |
CMSD | -0.09% | 24.79 | $ | |
BCC | 1.68% | 141.27 | $ | |
SCS | -0.15% | 12.95 | $ | |
NGG | -1.56% | 65.48 | $ | |
BCE | -0.54% | 33.53 | $ | |
RIO | -0.11% | 69.62 | $ | |
GSK | -0.49% | 38.63 | $ | |
RBGPF | -1.97% | 58.94 | $ | |
AZN | -0.78% | 76.87 | $ | |
RYCEF | -1.45% | 6.88 | $ | |
BTI | -0.26% | 35.2 | $ | |
BP | 0.78% | 33.14 | $ | |
VOD | 0.31% | 9.69 | $ | |
RELX | -0.54% | 46.04 | $ |
Mexico's 'Black Panther' star fights racism at home
In Hollywood, he's the rising star of the sequel to "Black Panther," the first major Black superhero movie. In his homeland Mexico, Tenoch Huerta is leading a fight against racism on the screen.
The 41-year-old aims to use his growing fame to break the tradition of Mexican actors of Indigenous origin being cast in the roles of thieves and villains.
Playing the character of Namor the Sub-Mariner in Marvel Studios' "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever," Huerta joins a small club of international Mexican stars such as Salma Hayek, Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna.
The path to Hollywood was strewn with pitfalls for Huerta, who hails from a working-class suburb of Mexico City.
"Like thousands of dark-skinned people, I've been called names" such as "dirty Indian," he wrote in his new book "Orgullo Prieto" (Brown Pride).
"Mexico is a country that's racist and denies it," he added.
Huerta said it is a myth that Mexico today is a mixed-race country where skin color is unimportant.
"This is how we deny the cultural and linguistic diversity of all Indigenous nations, Afro-descendant communities, Asians," he wrote.
Huerta, who also played infamous drug trafficker Rafael Caro Quintero in the Netflix hit "Narcos: Mexico," criticized the way of thinking "that places white, modern, Western, on a higher level."
- 'Racist narratives' -
Even before "Black Panther," Huerta was the figurehead of "Poder Prieto" (Brown Power), a collective of actresses and actors who feel discriminated against because of their origin and their skin color.
"We're only given characters of delinquents, domestic workers, or the poor," said Christel Klitbo, 40, who is of Danish, African and Lebanese descent.
Aware of the powerful influence of the media, Huerta said he and the other group members see a "compelling need to change racist narratives and practices, which have been normalized, reproduced and perpetuated in the audiovisual industry."
Huerta hopes that his appearance in "Black Panther" -- which also stars Oscar winner Lupita Nyong'o, who was born in Mexico to Kenyan parents -- will help their struggle.
"The perception changes if we have these dark-skinned actors, of clearly Indigenous descent, in positions of power and influence, who are kings and great warriors," he said.
Huerta also wants to see changes in wider Mexican customs, such as the popular saying still heard in some homes that daughters should marry a white man to "improve the race."
While he is in favor of laws against racism, Huerta avoids commenting on the policies of Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's party, which has pledged to "restore the dignity" of Indigenous peoples.
"I believe that the demands of the Indigenous peoples have not been met. But this is a subject that does not concern me, because I am not Indigenous," he said Friday at his book launch.
"As a simple external observer, I believe that we could do more and better," he added.
Mexico is home to 23.2 million people over the age of three who identify as Indigenous, representing 19.4 percent of the population, according to national statistics agency INEGI.
Around one in five Mexican adults said they had experienced discrimination over the past year, mainly because of their skin color, in the first national survey on the subject in 2O17.
And three-quarters of Indigenous people felt undervalued by Mexican society.
"We are a new link in a chain that dates back 500 years. All the struggles have been the same for 500 years," Huerta concluded, referring to the Spanish conquest and fall of the Aztec empire in 1521.
M.García--CPN