In the Sixties, the center of the protest movement was unquestionably the music world, with voices across the folk, rock and Motown genres raised against the Vietnam War and in support of the Civil Rights Movement.
Television’s role was marginal—mainly because rocking the corporate boat was emphatically discouraged. When The Smothers Brothers embraced the anti-war movement, they wound up losing their hit CBS show.
But in those days, nobody messed with Johnny Carson. So, in 1968, he could turn over his Tonight Show for a week to singer/activist Harry Belafonte to transform late-night TV into an unlikely five-night beacon for civil rights, with outspoken monologues backing the movement for racial equality and guests that included Robert F. Kennedy (the one who believed in vaccines) and Martin Luther King Jr. himself.
Nothing in late night will ever compare to that. And it’s fair to say that Diego Luna, the moderately known actor from Mexico, is not Harry Belafonte.
But this week, the national protest against the Trump Administration’s increasingly draconian round-ups of undocumented immigrants (along with some actual US citizens) was given a special spotlight when Luna walked out stage center as guest host on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on ABC.
Along with other late-night hosts, including Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers, and Jon Stewart, Kimmel has already stepped forward in aggressively vocal opposition to Trump across a host of issues, centering on abuse of power and threats to the American democratic experiment.
But with the focus of the anti-immigrant sweeps coming to Los Angeles, where the Kimmel show is based, the selection of Luna as the first guest host for the show’s summer run seemed like an additional bold statement for the host and his show.
Luna walked out onto the stage each of his four nights and made his intentions clear. He would speak out, calmly, reasonably, without stridence, against the ugly atmosphere of fear instilled by the pictures of ICE agents, backed by heavily armed U.S. soldiers, grabbing people off the streets, and in favor of the “generosity and openness” he had experienced in his own interactions with the people and culture in LA.
The city, he said, “is a powerful example of what can be achieved when we put empathy first.”
Of course, in a later monologue he wondered, again in a mild-mannered way, how Trump had been able to acquire “this level of power” while relying on “hate-speech.”
His addresses to the audience each night were a bit more humanistic sermons than the usual monologues, though he did work in a few jokes. As in the first night:
“English is not my first language, so I hope you guys will help me if I get, uh, what’s the word? Deported.”
Then he made the obvious point: With the deportation moves, the bombing in Iran, and all the rest going on in America, “It is no small thing that a Mexican is hosting such an important show.”
It was no small thing. But that point emphasized an important distinction between the Belafonte week on The Tonight Show, and what Luna did this week on Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Belafonte was born in Harlem. Luna was born in Toluca, Mexico. Surely that was an invitation for Trump supporters, especially their media spokespeople, to dismiss the Luna week on Kimmel as a propaganda stunt.
The same people, if they had been around and anywhere near a microphone, would not have liked the message of the Belafonte shows in 1968 either. But in that case, the critique was coming from inside the house.
Here, it was a Mexican attacking the policies of the American president.
Luna acknowledged on his second night a bit of blowback from those quarters, including a Fox News headline that identified him as a Mexican actor from “Narcos,” which, he observed, made sense for Fox because he played a drug dealer in that series.
Mindful of the prospect of raising right-wing hackles, the show had some fun by bringing on an “immigration lawyer” (comic and former Conan O’Brien writer Laurie Kilmartin) to make sure the Trump jokes weren’t going too far.
She had some faux trouble with one Trump joke. “Why does Donald Trump want to screw immigrants? Because the one he married won’t screw him.”
By night four, Luna managed to get some actual attention out of Fox, as Laura Ingraham and guest took turns trying to figure out who Luna is, and disparaging Andor, his Disney+ Star Wars series—as well as Kimmel, whom, they swore, they never watch.
Mostly the reaction to Luna was positive. He came out to thunderous applause every night. Not too surprising given the show and its hometown. But Luna did manage to charm them.
And he was game in participating in some regular Kimmel bits like the street interviews where people on Hollywood Boulevard displayed their acumen about Mexico and his history.
One thought a picture of artist Frida Kahlo was “Queen Victoria” and another could not pick out either Mexico or Canada on a map of North America.
Luna did use this opportunity to advantage with the lineup of guests. Nobody quite up to MLK standard (who is?), but he brought on Dolores Huerta, the legendary 95-year-old Mexican-American activist, who, with Caesar Chavez, founded the National Farm Workers Association, as well as Dominican-American singer Nezza, who defied the LA Dodgers by singing the U.S. National Anthem in Spanish before a game on June 14.
Did Luna change anyone’s minds this week? Maybe yes, maybe no. But it was one more indication that late-night television is going to keep sticking its neck (and tongue) out in the cause of dissent.
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I don’t believe Nezza sang the Mexican national anthem for the Dodgers. But rather the US anthem in Spanish.
Justin, thanks for pointing this out. You’re right. We’ve corrected the article.