Posted by Wendy Carrillo on Wednesday, April 6, 2016
Today at the Hispanicize conference in Miami, actor Rosario Dawson told MSNBC’s José Díaz-Balart that even though she and activist Dolores Huerta “are fine” when it comes to their friendship, Dawson believes that her voice had been minimized ever since her viral open letter about Huerta’s support of Hillary Clinton has sparked controversy within the Latino community.
A live video of the conversation between Dawson and Díaz-Balart was posted on Facebook by journalist Wendy Carrillo. According to Carrillo, Dawson, a Bernie Sanders supporter, discussed the controversy at the beginning of the Hispanicize session. Earlier this week, Huerta had told the Associated Press that the Sanders campaign “is asking people like Rosario Dawson to come out and attack me.” According to the AP story, Huerta also said that Dawson was dividing Latinos and the Sanders campaign was to blame.
Here is a portion of what Dawson told Díaz-Balart in Carrillo’s video:
Dawson: Divisive is the word that I keep using. As a woman, I am being attacked for not immediately, not automatically supporting a woman. As if that’s something I am just supposed to do. I’m attacked right now because I have a critique of someone that I really admire and very much love. And believe me, Dolores and I are fine, so it’s very interesting to see how other people have made this…
Díaz-Balart: But she’s commented on you…
Dawson: Yeah.
Díaz-Balart: She’s talked about you. Others have insulted, but she said, “you’re being divisive.”
Dawson: Yeah, she said I’m being divisive. I’m answering you. She also said we’re fine. She knows our friendship is… that’s really fascinating to me. What she said though was is that there’s a slander of Bernie Sanders in there, which I’ve seen since the letter came out. People keep dismissing my voice by automatically saying that I clearly had a ghost writer. And that I clearly had been forced by Bernie Sanders to say something and write something. And I guess that’s a way to sort of dismiss my arguments and minimize them because what I’ve actually asked for was a dialogue. And instead what I’ve gotten from one side overwhelmingly, very positive, people just feeling so excited, that I brought conversation made less about having to have deference for someone over having responsibility as the humanitarian that I am for the issues. I can’t have more deference for you than I have respect and inspiration for my children. Ok, so that’s where the letter comes from. The letter came from, by the way, I wrote the letter. I was compelled to write the letter. I was compelled to write the letter specifically because after seeing America Ferrera and Dolores Huerta both tweeting that Bernie Sanders folks were at a caucus in Vegas and they were saying “English only.” Many people where there. I know many people who were there. That did not happen…
The fact that those tweets are still up is divisive and race-baiting. Period…
Dawson then talked about a letter Huerta wrote after the Nevada caucus criticizing Sanders. That led to Dawson’s letter to Huerta.
Before Dawson wrote her letter, Huerta had appeared on Latino Rebels Radio to discuss the Nevada caucus incident and why she was supporting Clinton.
Huerta also told the AP this week that “our campaign for Hillary Clinton in the Latino community is being effective.”