The hosts of El Vacilón de la Mañana, one of the most listened-to morning radio shows in the greater New York area, mocked Vice President Kamala Harris during their broadcast on Wednesday for relying so heavily on Hispanic celebrity endorsements – and on voters vulnerable to persuasion from the likes of Marc Anthony and Cardi B.
El Vacilón de la Mañana is a weekday talk show on La Mega 97.9, the New York area’s largest and most listened-to Spanish-language radio station. The radio station often tops its rivals, in English and Spanish, in number of listeners and has broken records for streaming in the United States. Its hosts regularly address political issues and invite callers to opine on the matters and has not shied away from criticizing Democrats, particularly outgoing President Joe Biden, despite its audience being located in one of the most reliable Democrat strongholds in the country.
On Wednesday, the hosts asked listeners if they were happy with the news that now-President-elect Donald Trump had defeated the vice president in Tuesday’s election. Host Frederick Martínez “El Pachá” observed the last-minute surge in celebrity endorsements in the Hispanic community for Harris, including rapper Cardi B and Jennifer Lopez.
“Is this repeating the Hillary Clinton story?” he asked.
Producer Carlos “Guebín” Molina chimed in to discourage the audience from taking celebrity endorsements seriously and mocked Spanish-language media, particularly Univisión, for taking too long to call the presidential race for Trump.
“I’m going to say something and say it again: no artist is going to guarantee you that you are going to win the election,” Molina said. “And if you are a person who votes because Marc Anthony told you to go vote for so-and-so, you’re a brute because you have to do your own investigation regarding why you are going to vote.”
“The other thing that was shameful yesterday were the media outlets, to not accept that Trump was winning,” he added, “On Univisión,” he remarked, they mused, “‘if we put Florida where California is and put California where Florida is, Kamala Harris can win!”
Co-host Victor de la Cruz agreed with the poor evaluation of Harris’s celebrity endorsement strategy.
“It was noticeable with the Democrats, Kamala, that desperation with so many public figures, so many celebrities – like it was noticeable there was some worry there,” he said.
The hosts also discussed the controversy surrounding insult comic Tony Hinchcliffe, who insulted Puerto Ricans at a Trump rally the weekend before the election.
“It helped!” one of the hosts joked. “All the boricuas [Puerto Ricans] voted for Trump!”
Puerto Rican communities in key states such as Florida and Pennsylvania appeared to vote in higher numbers for Trump in 2024 than 2020; Trump made significant gains in other Hispanic-American communities nationwide. Republican candidate Jenniffer González-Colón also won the governorship of Puerto Rico on Tuesday.
Callers into the La Mega broadcast on Tuesday largely expressed satisfaction with the election results.
“I am SO SO SO SO HAPPY!” a woman identifying herself as Angie told the hosts, to cheers. Angie mocked Telemundo, stating the hosts of the election night broadcast became visible upset as the night progressed and Trump’s victory appeared more certain.
“If you put on Univision and Telemundo now [Wednesday morning], they’re still saying Kamala has a chance!” one of the hosts joked, to uproarious laughter.
“Right now Jorge Ramos is tweeting ‘not all the votes have been counted!'” another host laughed.
Another caller identifying herself as Maria stated that she voted for Harris and was “totally surprised” by the results, but said, “a friend of mine called me from California yesterday and she voted for Trump.”
“She said Kamala Harris promised to give the undocumented houses, food stamps, help, and they were sick of that because all that money comes out of the taxes,” the caller claimed, “that made me think a lot of Latinos are tired of that because we get no help with coupons, no help with anything.”
El Vacilón de la Mañana has hosted conversations for years open to both left- and right-wing perspectives on local and national politics, some featuring notable irritation with the Biden administration. The Vacilón hosts were notably irritated in April when Biden issued a statement celebrating “Transgender Day of Visibility” on Easter Sunday.
“This is an abuse, a lack of respect. Don’t come to me with that nonsense,” El Pachá fumed. “The year has 52 weeks. How is it possible [to do this] on the most important week of humanity, when Christ died for us, freed us from sin, confronted and triumphed over death, the Sunday of resurrection?”
“Look, I am very careful and respectful, let everyone do whatever they damn want with their ideas, but not like this,” he concluded at the time.
Hispanic-Americans are overwhelmingly Christian, the plurality of them Catholic according to a 2023 poll by the Pew Research Center.
Follow Frances Martel on Facebook and Twitter.
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