Veteran Spanish actress, comedienne and flamenco guitarist Charo made an unflattering remark about Colombian star Sofía Vergara during an interview at the American Latino Media Arts (ALMA) Awards. According to the Huffington Post, Charo was questioned about the Modern Family actress and how Vergara was sometimes compared to her.
"Sofía Vergara is Charo with diarrhea," the iconic 1970s star told the Associated Press, as quoted by the Post.
At the Los Angeles premiere of "Machete Kills," Vergara responded to Charo's comments. "Of course she doesn't like it. No one likes being compared with someone else, especially someone younger," she told Univision.
Still, many believed that Vergara's accent, personality and humor brings to mind the 62-year-old actress.
"Sofía created an updated version of Charo, the 'cuchi-cuchi' 60s and 70s sexy and ditzy Latina persona," said the chairman and co-founder of the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts (NHFA), Felix Sánchez, according to The Huffington Post.
"While we applaud her creating a comedic brand that works for her, unfortunately Hollywood looks at Sofía and tries to find replicas of her, believing that Valkerian Latinas are authentic Latinas, not realizing that her act is a shtick and not an example of the U.S Latina actress they should be casting for dramatic television and film roles," Sánchez said.
Recently, Vergara defended her character on ABC's comedy, Gloria Delgado-Pritchett, from those who criticize her representation of Latino culture. "Whoever said that all Latin women are the same? It's impossible to caricature millions of women from 20 countries. There are many kinds of Latinas, just like there are many types and styles of women all over the world," said the 41-year-old actress, according to Fox News Latino.
Although the "Machete Kills" star agreed that a Latina stereotype does exist, she said that "goes more toward seeing us as all about our families, hard working, standing up for ourselves, ultraprotective of our kids, and that we do ourselves up more than others, because a lot of us wear perfume even to take the kids to school in the morning."
"Gloria has a lot of my mom and my aunts in her, especially the funniest and most temperamental of them. I love my character, it makes me proud to play her as a symbol of many Latin women, but not all of them," added Vergara.