Franky Benítez

With people returning from the holidays, the curious social media story of Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez and her allegations that the leaked TV script adaptation of her book series The Dirty Girls Social Club is harboring Latina stereotypes continues. Today, Valdes-Rodriguez has been extremely active in the social media space, but just announced on her blog that “I have made the statements I needed to make.”

She continues:

Now it’s time for me to focus on the legal aspects of this situation. In the meantime, please keep speaking out, speaking among yourselves, and know that I am fighting for YOU, and for ALL OF US to be represented as we ARE and not as Hollywood wishes us TO BE.

Meanwhile, we had a chance to interview Valdes-Rodriguez on the Being Latino Blog, which was published today. To see the entire interview, you can click on the Being Latino image below:

The Being Latino interview is still the blog’s top post, according to their site.

Tweets Out Encanto Email
In another development, Valdes-Rodriguez tweeted out an email for Encanto Productions, the company that owns the option to produce the TV version of the book. She does continue to be active on Twitter and Facebook, although her blog says she is done with statements.

Other Outlets Pick Up Story
The story is starting to picking up momentum as it has appeared today in both Jezebel and The Boston Globe, where Valdes-Rodriguez used to work in the 1990s as a reporter.

La Bloga Weighs In
La Bloga, one of the Latino literature blogs, summarized the latest Valdes-Rodriguez saga and concluded with this opinion. See more at La Bloga.

Here’s wishing Alisa the best possible outcome from this altercation and the hardball fallout. Her work has been invariably entertaining and deserves to find the wider appreciation that comes of having your stuff on prime time television. Excoriation is what she’s in for if the pilot project gets made. She knows this, so she’s fighting for her life. Lástima.

My Latino Voice Blog
This was just pulled from My Latino Voice:

There is, however, a greater message here. As women, as Latinas, as Latinos, we must stop perpetuating stereotypes ourselves if we are to effect change (the producer and script writer of this TV production are both Latinas). The buck stops here, chicas. Mrs. Lopez, Ms. Leschin, how do you respond?

People have also asked us if we have contacted any of the other principals that Valdes-Rodriguez mentions in her allegations. For the record, we have contacted NBC, CAA, Ann Lopez, Luisa Leschin, and Lynette Ramirez. We have not received any response so far, but if we do, we will be certain to publish comments.

For more Twitter reaction to this, follow these hashtags: #alisavaldes and #LatinoLit.

UPDATE, January 1, 2011: The Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez blog posts referred to here no longer appear on her site. Valdes-Rodriguez hinted that certain blog posts would very likely be deleted in accordance to the statement she published at Please Respect NBC.