Mi Nombre es Earl

Felicitaciones to the producers of the program, "My Name is Earl," for their creative use of the Spanish language and the non-stereoptyical way they portray Latinos!

I've always enjoyed the character Catalina, played by Nadine Velázquez. Catalina is caring, funny, mysterious and naturally sexy.

In tonight's episode, Earl's ex-wife, Joy, says something snide to Catalina about her work as a maid. Catalina responds with an evil eye and a blistering paragraph in Spanish.

If you didn't know the language, you would think that Catalina is cutting Joy down to size with a scathing insult in Spanish. But in reality, this is what she said:

"Quiero agradecer a todo el público latino que nos acompaña cada semana, y para los que no son latinos, les felicito por aprender otro idioma."

("I want to thank the entire Latino public that watches us every week, and for those of you who are not Latino, I congratulate you on learning another language!")

I loved it!!

Also loved this past week's Saturday Night Live, by the way, with all the Spanish spoken by Antonio Banderas, Horatio Sanz and Fred Armisen (whose mother is Venezuelan, we found out).

Viva el español ... and the producers who recognize that a second language is to be celebrated, not feared.