This is a family website, so we won’t show you the rest of this centerfold in the latest issue of Registro, the New Haven Register-published Spanish-language weekly newspaper. Let’s just say that Latino organizations have seen the full page. They’re disgusted, and livid.
The full picture, of scantily-clad Latina models in sexually suggestive poses, is a new weekly feature in Registro. The first issue containing the feature provoked a storm of criticism from Latino activists and advocates in town as well as within the Register newsroom. So far the protests haven’t swept the feature out of print; a new “Mamacitas” feature appeared in the latest Registro, which hit the streets Friday.
In a letter to Register Publisher Kevin Walsh, Patricia McCann Vissep√جø¬Ω said that elderly residents of the Latino-focused elderly housing complex she runs, Casa Oto√جø¬Ωal, “beseiged” her with complaints after a large display hyping the new feature went up at a Registro newsstand on the premises.
“When I went to investigate, you can only imagine my shock upon seeing two semi-nude women in a suggestive pose for the entire world to see,” McCann Vissep√جø¬Ω wrote. “The elders were appropriately offended. I suspect that you would not appreciate your mother or grandmother to be subjected to such a distasteful poster.”
She had the display removed. Then she opened the paper and saw the centerfold. “My shock increased when I saw the centerfold and an even larger explicit photo of bare women in salacious positions under the heading of ‘Mamacitas’ (another inappropriate term with sexual connotations): it was grossly offensive to both women in general and Hispanics in particular. I simply cannot believe the poor judgment and bad taste that went into the decision to do such a thing.”
Vissep√جø¬Ω, whose organization has advertised in the paper, concluded by threatening to withdraw support and by urging the paper to “revisit” the feature.
A similar message came from Junta for Progressive Action Executive Director Kica Matos. In another letter, Matos called the new feature “exploitative, offensive and cheap. It exemplifies the stereotypes of what we Latinos expect in a newspaper, while reinforcing notions of patriarchy and endorsing the objectification of women. If the New Haven Register does not demean women this way, how can you justify doing so in your Latino publication?”
Walsh couldn’t be reached for comment. Registro Editor Julio C. Urdaneta said the decision to launch the feature was not his, but rather chain management’s. The Trenton, N.J.-based Journal Register Company, which owns Registro (and the New Haven Register), has launched this feature in the Spanish-language weeklies it publishes in conjuntion with its dailies in other cities, too, Urdaneta said.
“I have no comment at this point,” Urdaneta said. “This is something we would like to address with the community directly.”
(Not-Holier-Than-Thou Note: The writer of this article for years made his living writing for a weekly newspaper which depended on pornography and prostitution advertising for much of its revenue.)
(Conflict of Interest Note: The New Haven Independent has a close business relationship with the main Spanish-language newspaper in the area, La Voz Hispana.)