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Obama’s not from Kenya. He’s from the Bronx
MSNBC
Trymaine Lee
1/18/2013
Excerpt:
As the election returns began to trickle in last November, Louis Ortiz, a laid-off telephone man from the Bronx, bit his nails, squeezed his eyes shut and prayed like he’d never prayed before. But when he opened his eyes, all he saw on TV was a wave of Republican red sweeping up from Texas and into the Midwest. “It was too stressful,” said Ortiz. “I couldn’t deal. So I just went to bed.”
Later that night Ortiz was shaken to his feet by a chorus of whoops, hollers and the blare of Spanish music rolling in from his parents’ living room. Ortiz’s mother bounded breathlessly into the room.
“Cito, Cito,” she screamed. “We got Ohio, we got Ohio! Obama won Ohio! It’s over! We won!” Ortiz double-checked his mother’s Electoral College math and let out a scream of his own.
“It was like I was living in a parallel universe with Obama. We had to win,” Ortiz told MSNBC.com on Thursday, standing on a cold, busy corner in the Bronx. “And it was like him getting reelected was the same as me getting reelected. He was fighting for a second chance and so was I.”
If Barack Obama’s presidency has directly benefited an individual American in any real, tangible way, it’s Ortiz, whose resemblance to the president has delivered him from unemployment and near pennilessness to a relatively lucrative career as an Obama impersonator— “Bronx Obama.”
For Ortiz, a second Obama term means a second lease on life, giving him another four years in which to parlay Obama’s political success into his own economic survival, booking paid gigs across the country and as far away as South Korea and even an audience with the Dali Lama. “It’s like I’m in the Twilight Zone,” Ortiz said. “And I love it!”
In this handout provided by Trymaine Lee, Louis “Bronx Obama” Ortiz poses for a photo at Fordham Road January 17, 2013 in the Bronx Borough of New York City. (Photo by Trymaine Lee/MSNBC)
In this handout provided by Trymaine Lee, Louis “Bronx Obama” Ortiz poses for a photo at Fordham Road January 17, 2013 in the Bronx Borough of New York City. (Photo by Trymaine Lee/MSNBC)
A filmmaker is currently shooting a documentary called The Audacity of Louis Ortiz; it’s scheduled for release later this year. “Bronx Obama” recently signed on with a talent management agency, William Gold Entertainment, that has bolstered his status and put money, resources and know-how behind the “look-alike thing” Ortiz says he was doing for much of Obama’s first term. He spends hours a day honing his craft and has taken the occasional acting class. He’s worked as part of a group of other impersonators, including a surreal-sounding appearance with a Bill Clinton impersonator and a Donald Trump lookalike moderating a debate with fake Sarah Palin and fake Mitt Romney. His weeks are filled with corporate events and fundraisers, public appearances and media interviews. His fees can be in the hundreds or the thousands, and he’s finally making a decent income. “I live on a plane,” Ortiz said.
Just four years ago life wasn’t all planes, trains, and corporate cash. Back then Ortiz was living small: no income, no prospects. He’d been fired from his job at the phone company about a year earlier and was fighting to get it back. He lost his health insurance and the lack of medical attention exacerbated his multiple sclerosis. He was locked in a nasty custody battle for his then-12-year-old daughter. And the legal costs for the court case involving his daughter and arbitration for his job were mounting.
“I just didn’t know how I was going to make it. And didn’t think I would. I was just sitting down with my little bit of hope,” Ortiz said. “I was really going nuts.” Ortiz was used to providing for himself and helping to support his family, including his daughter, who didn’t live with him at the time. He said he’d always held a job but found himself, for the first time, unable to make ends meet.
“And then here comes this shining star from Hawaii.”
It was the summer of 2008: Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were battling for the Democratic presidential nomination, and a couple of his drinking buddies at a local bar pointed out Ortiz’s resemblance to Obama, who was on the cover of one of New York City’s tabloid newspapers. Ortiz had the ears if nothing else, and there was something about the way his eyebrows hung closely over his eyes, the way they squint when he laughed hard or smiled wide.
He didn’t have much to lose, so he shaved his goatee, slipped on a suit and tie and picked up as much of Obama’s cadence as he could.
Where Louis Ortiz, always affable and social, had his light dimmed by hard times, Bronx Obama shined, he said. Bronx Obama stopped traffic. Strangers were asking to take pictures with him. And people were actually paying for him to appear at local events.
.................................................. .....
View the complete article at:
http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/01/18/obama...rom-the-bronx/
MSNBC
Trymaine Lee
1/18/2013
Excerpt:
As the election returns began to trickle in last November, Louis Ortiz, a laid-off telephone man from the Bronx, bit his nails, squeezed his eyes shut and prayed like he’d never prayed before. But when he opened his eyes, all he saw on TV was a wave of Republican red sweeping up from Texas and into the Midwest. “It was too stressful,” said Ortiz. “I couldn’t deal. So I just went to bed.”
Later that night Ortiz was shaken to his feet by a chorus of whoops, hollers and the blare of Spanish music rolling in from his parents’ living room. Ortiz’s mother bounded breathlessly into the room.
“Cito, Cito,” she screamed. “We got Ohio, we got Ohio! Obama won Ohio! It’s over! We won!” Ortiz double-checked his mother’s Electoral College math and let out a scream of his own.
“It was like I was living in a parallel universe with Obama. We had to win,” Ortiz told MSNBC.com on Thursday, standing on a cold, busy corner in the Bronx. “And it was like him getting reelected was the same as me getting reelected. He was fighting for a second chance and so was I.”
If Barack Obama’s presidency has directly benefited an individual American in any real, tangible way, it’s Ortiz, whose resemblance to the president has delivered him from unemployment and near pennilessness to a relatively lucrative career as an Obama impersonator— “Bronx Obama.”
For Ortiz, a second Obama term means a second lease on life, giving him another four years in which to parlay Obama’s political success into his own economic survival, booking paid gigs across the country and as far away as South Korea and even an audience with the Dali Lama. “It’s like I’m in the Twilight Zone,” Ortiz said. “And I love it!”
In this handout provided by Trymaine Lee, Louis “Bronx Obama” Ortiz poses for a photo at Fordham Road January 17, 2013 in the Bronx Borough of New York City. (Photo by Trymaine Lee/MSNBC)
In this handout provided by Trymaine Lee, Louis “Bronx Obama” Ortiz poses for a photo at Fordham Road January 17, 2013 in the Bronx Borough of New York City. (Photo by Trymaine Lee/MSNBC)
A filmmaker is currently shooting a documentary called The Audacity of Louis Ortiz; it’s scheduled for release later this year. “Bronx Obama” recently signed on with a talent management agency, William Gold Entertainment, that has bolstered his status and put money, resources and know-how behind the “look-alike thing” Ortiz says he was doing for much of Obama’s first term. He spends hours a day honing his craft and has taken the occasional acting class. He’s worked as part of a group of other impersonators, including a surreal-sounding appearance with a Bill Clinton impersonator and a Donald Trump lookalike moderating a debate with fake Sarah Palin and fake Mitt Romney. His weeks are filled with corporate events and fundraisers, public appearances and media interviews. His fees can be in the hundreds or the thousands, and he’s finally making a decent income. “I live on a plane,” Ortiz said.
Just four years ago life wasn’t all planes, trains, and corporate cash. Back then Ortiz was living small: no income, no prospects. He’d been fired from his job at the phone company about a year earlier and was fighting to get it back. He lost his health insurance and the lack of medical attention exacerbated his multiple sclerosis. He was locked in a nasty custody battle for his then-12-year-old daughter. And the legal costs for the court case involving his daughter and arbitration for his job were mounting.
“I just didn’t know how I was going to make it. And didn’t think I would. I was just sitting down with my little bit of hope,” Ortiz said. “I was really going nuts.” Ortiz was used to providing for himself and helping to support his family, including his daughter, who didn’t live with him at the time. He said he’d always held a job but found himself, for the first time, unable to make ends meet.
“And then here comes this shining star from Hawaii.”
It was the summer of 2008: Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were battling for the Democratic presidential nomination, and a couple of his drinking buddies at a local bar pointed out Ortiz’s resemblance to Obama, who was on the cover of one of New York City’s tabloid newspapers. Ortiz had the ears if nothing else, and there was something about the way his eyebrows hung closely over his eyes, the way they squint when he laughed hard or smiled wide.
He didn’t have much to lose, so he shaved his goatee, slipped on a suit and tie and picked up as much of Obama’s cadence as he could.
Where Louis Ortiz, always affable and social, had his light dimmed by hard times, Bronx Obama shined, he said. Bronx Obama stopped traffic. Strangers were asking to take pictures with him. And people were actually paying for him to appear at local events.
.................................................. .....
View the complete article at:
http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/01/18/obama...rom-the-bronx/