The Latino comedian who champions immigrants in Trump's America

He is the son of a Cuban mother and a Dominican father, and in recent months has become one of the hottest names in American comedy. Marcello Hernández, born in 1997 in Miami, has just released his first comedy special on Netflix. American boyA monologue in which he satirizes the unique aspects of growing up in a Latino family and also jokes about the racist environment in the United States. Donald Trump is never mentioned by name, but it's unnecessary: ​​many of his gags target xenophobic ideas that the president has been instrumental in spreading and reinforcing.

Hernández began to gain popularity after joining the cast of the long-running comedy show. Saturday Night Livewhere he has worked since 2022. He is the first Gen Z actor to be part of the show and has already created famous and viral sketches, such as the one about the seductive Domingo who crashes a wedding or the one about the overprotective Latina mother in which Pedro Pascal participated (they made a sequel to this sketch in which Bany also appeared). Although he has occasionally faced criticism for speaking in Spanish in some of the sketches – he confessed that his mother used to stalk her enemies through a fake Instagram account – right now he is one of the biggest superstars of SNL And he uses it to celebrate his origins as the son of immigrants. "Many of the jokes I make and the things I write have to do with my relationship with my mother as I grew up. She went through a lot to be able to come to the United States and build a name for herself and a life, and that's why I respect her so much and trust her judgment," the young comedian explained in an interview. VarietyHernández's mother emigrated from Cuba with her family when she was 12 years old. They first settled in Spain, then in the Dominican Republic, and finally, she emigrated alone to the United States. There, she managed to study at university and graduated while already pregnant with her son.

Funny crimes

Like many fellow comedians of the same generation, Hernández began to make a name for himself through social media and made humorous videos about Miami for the TikTok channel Only in DadeDedicated to the county where the city of Florida is located. After graduating in entrepreneurship and communication from John Carroll University in Ohio, he decided to move to New York to pursue a career in the world ofstand-upIn 2022, he was chosen as the new face of comedy for the Just for Laughs festival, held every July in Montreal, Canada, which served as a springboard for him to enter SNLLorne Michaels, the show's producer, describes Hernández as an "extraordinary talent." "He just keeps getting better. After some time in SNL "You can tell who belongs: he's one of them," Michaels told Variety A couple of years ago.

In his first stand-up special for Netflix, Hernández uses everyday humor, focusing on topics often explored by other comedians, such as the differences between men and women in the world of dating and personal relationships. The special grows in interest as it delves into the education Latino children receive and becomes truly heartbreaking toward the end, when it directly attacks hate speech against immigrants. It is then that Hernández takes aim at preconceived notions such as all Latino immigrants being criminals and reminds viewers that Latino crimes are "funny, exciting, and movie-worthy," while those of white people are "terrifying and documentary-worthy." "I want to say something to white people who think Latino immigrants are scary: if you're white and you think Latino immigrants come to America to take little children and put them in a basement, no, that's your problem. We don't commit that kind of crime, we don't like some of the children, why would there be any?" Most celebrated moments of the special.

While he's enjoying success with his monologue and SNLThe comedian, whose work is reflected in comics like Bill Murray, is beginning to make discreet steps into film. For now, he will be one of the voices of Shrek 5where he will play one of the sons of the green ogre and his wife, Princess Fiona.