Actress Rosie Perez sees no legitimate reason Latinos should vote for Mitt Romney. The comments are not likely to go over well with the nearly 20 percent of Latinos who identified as Republicans in a 2011 Pew Hispanic Center survey.
The Brooklyn-born Latina went on Current TV’s "Joy Behar: Say Anything!" show: spoke about why she thinks some Latinos will be voting for Governor Mitt Romney on November 6.
“A lot of Latin people vote because of religion, I hate to say it,” Perez told Behar referring to issues like gay rights and abortion. “And that saddens me, because we are smarter than that.”
(Watch the segment above)
The Puerto-Rican actress also said that Latinos voting for Romney are acting against their own economic and social interests because they fear being associated with conditions, qualities and needs that Republicans often use to derisively describe Democrats.
“They have this stigma--of undocumented, of being poor, of being on public assistance," said Perez. "And so what do you do? You vote against your own interest so that you are not perceived as that. And that is wrong.”
Perez went on to tell host Joy Behar about her aunt. Perez's aunt raised the actress with the help of public assistance while Perez's aunt also, “busted her butt,” at her three jobs.
“Because of her work ethics [sic] I am who I am today, ok? She needed a help, she did not need a handout. There is a difference,” Perez said alluding to Romney’s comments in the infamous “47 percent” leaked fundraiser video leaked in September.
Concerning the issues of undocumented workers and the Dream Act, Perez said she is “baffled” that Latinos aren’t “in an uproar” about it.
“I sit there and I go, ‘People Wake Up!’.”
Earlier this month the 48 year-old actress collaborated with two pro-Obama super PACs to produce an Actually.org video addressing Romney’s remarks in the leaked fundraiser video. During the closed-door event, the the candidate also joked that he would have “a better shot at winning this” if he was Latino.
In her video, Perez sarcastically points out that Romney would really have the presidency “in the bag” if he was a “lesbian Latina.”
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