OK, Sean Connery fit the bill. I see little Black African in this guy.
Posted on 11/04/2023 11:36:57 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Actor Chris Rivas was in his early 20s when he found out that the inspiration for Ian Fleming’s suave, classic spy character James Bond was Porfirio Rubirosa, a Dominican diplomat, playboy, racecar driver and spy. The revelation changed his life. In his one-man show “The Real James Bond… Was Dominican,” Rivas explores identity, representation and the man with the ultimate cool factor.
Porfirio Rubirosa was everything now associated with the James Bond character. He was charming, handsome, savvy and a quick draw. He played polo, raced cars and worked as a diplomat and spy under Rafael Trujillo’s dictatorship. In the 1940s and ’50s, he was known for his jet-setting, indulgent lifestyle and philandering — he had five wives and countless mistresses during the course of his life. He was also an Afro-Latino Dominican man. Though Rubi, as Rivas affectionately calls him, was a celebrity, he was still othered for his Blackness, often referred to by racist labels in tabloids.
“Rubi was an opportunity to meet myself,” says Rivas. “That’s why the story is so special, because it’s not about him. It’s about that 67 years ago, this man of color was experiencing the same things I’m experiencing today.”
Upon initially discovering the history of Rubirosa, Rivas was elated. As a young boy, Rivas worshipped Bond, and now he could see some of his own Dominican culture in the character. But as time went on, Rivas’ relationship with Rubirosa became more complex. Although Rubirosa was impossibly cool, he also represented the toxic machismo culture, supported a dictatorship and didn’t always treat women well. It’s also worth thinking about how this history was lost, especially as Rubirosa was such a celebrity in his time. How did that history become a whitewashed British version of the spy answering to the name James Bond?
“There are many bodies of culture who are as fascinating, that have been lost to time,” says Rivas. “Because unlike whiteness, bodies of culture don’t have the historians or the resources that whiteness has gotten.”
In “The Real James Bond… Was Dominican,” Rivas parses these feelings in a humorous 70-minute show peppered with audience participation. After every performance, audience members are invited to join a story circle, a communal conversation about what memories and experiences the performance brought up. The show runs at ArtsEmerson Nov. 8-12.
Historians continue to debate the official inspiration for James Bond, whom Fleming always said was an amalgamation of many people. Rivas explores the history in his podcast “Rubirosa,” during which he travels across the globe interviewing primary sources who knew the playboy and tracing links between Fleming and Rubirosa. Newspaper clippings from Rubirosa’s life also indicate he existed on a very public stage.
“It would have been literally impossible for Fleming to have not taken careful note of Rubirosa prior to penning the Bond novels, especially since he was a favorite subject of Caribbean and European journalists,” writes historian and lawyer Daniel J. Voelker in an essay titled, “Will The Real James Bond Please Stand Up?”
Regardless of which qualities were plucked from Rubi’s playbook and assigned to Bond, the figure launches an important discussion about representation. What would it be like for children of color to grow up seeing heroes and cool guys that look like them? For Rivas, that representation came in the form of a live performance by Colombian actor John Leguizamo, an experience that inspired Rivas to become an actor. Now, he wants to provide that same representation for another generation.
“I saw someone who looked like me on stage, and I got enough courage to be the artist I am today,” says Rivas. “Imagine if young bodies of culture had that armor more consistently, where they got to see themselves or they got to be themselves. It’s really powerful.”
A Caribbeaner?
He said he worked for Universal Exports.
And here I thought the inspiration came from a Zulu transsexual.
Glad we got that settled.
OK, Sean Connery fit the bill. I see little Black African in this guy.
Not believing. More revisionist malarkey. Maybe this Dominican dude factored into the makeup. Maybe not. Riveras pinning it entirely on someone he favors is just, like, his opinion, man.
Fleming based his creation on a number of individuals which he came across during his time in the Naval Intelligence Division during the Second World War, admitting that Bond “was a compound of all the secret agents and commando types I met during the war”. Among those types were his brother, Peter, whom Fleming worshiped and who had been involved in behind-the-lines operations in Norway and Greece during the war.Whoops, Chris: Wikipedia says you are fibbing. Going to rewrite their page now?
Aside from Fleming’s brother, a number of others also provided some aspects of Bond’s makeup, including Conrad O’Brien-Ffrench, a skiing spy whom Fleming had met in Kitzbühel in the 1930s, Patrick Dalzel-Job, who served with distinction in 30 AU during the war, and Bill “Biffy” Dunderdale, station head of MI6 in Paris, who wore cufflinks and handmade suits and was chauffeured around Paris in a Rolls-Royce. Sir Fitzroy Maclean was another figure mentioned as a possibility, based on his wartime work behind enemy lines in the Balkans, as was the MI6 double agent Dušan Popov.
In 2016, a BBC Radio 4 documentary explored the possibility that the character of Bond was created by 20th Century author and mentor to Fleming, Phyllis Bottome in her 1946 novel, The Lifeline. Distinct similarities between the protagonist in The Lifeline, Mark Chalmers, and Bond have been highlighted by spy writer Nigel West. …
Rubirosa was charming, handsome, savvy and a quick draw. He worked as a diplomat under Rafael Trujillo’s dictatorship. Some say Rubirosa was an assassin.....sent to embassies to make sure Trujillo got his share.....or else.
However he was not 007’s inspiration.
Bond’s creator, Ian Fleming, likely drew inspiration from more than one secret agent he learned of, from his own real life experience working with British naval intelligence.
Inspirations for Bond might have included secret agents and double agents Fleming knew of.
Rubirosa also looks like the character of Dax Xenos in the novel The Adventurers by Harold Robbins. Also a pretty good movie made in 1970.
Yeah that’s what I always heard. OSS types in WW2.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Bond
Someone go and break his shoes. Please.
Mr. Rivera claims:
"He was also an Afro-Latino Dominican man. Though Rubi, as Rivas affectionately calls him, was a celebrity, he was still othered for his Blackness, often referred to by racist labels in tabloids."
According to Wikipedia, Mr. Rubirosa was of Spanish and Italian descent on his father's side. There's no mention that his maternal grandparents were African descent, either.
It sounds like Mr. Rivera came across some news articles from 67 years ago. But, as a young man, he does not understand the thinking at that time. Back then, people of southern European descent were sometimes considered "not quite white" by other people, and sometimes the newspapers made an issue out of it. A case in point was Johnny Cash's first wife.
Oops. Typo.... That should be Mr. Rivas.
After Dunkirk, Churchill recruited Peter Fleming to look into irregular warfare and to train and recruit soldiers to fight in this new way of war. Peter had a younger brother, a writer, named Ian.
And of course, Ian Fleming isn’t around to confirm or refute this assertion.
Shh! You’re not helping the narrative.
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