Roselyn Sanchez, the Puerto Rican singer/actress and star of Lifetime’s Devious Maids, has bowed out as co-host of the Miss USA pageant, citing Donald Trump’s comments in his June 16 presidential-bid speech.
“I was very excited and proud to have been invited to participate in Miss USA, but as a Latina, that is now inconceivable,” Sanchez said in a statement. “Although I am not Mexican, I am Puerto Rican and a proud Latina, and his comments were an insult to our culture. I won’t sponsor anything produced by Donald Trump.”
J Balvin Cancels Miss USA Performance After Donald Trump’s Comments on Latins: Exclusive
Sanchez was slated to co-host the Spanish-language simulcast of Miss USA alongside actor Cristian De La Fuente, who also pulled out.
Likewise, on Thursday (June 25), Univision announced it was ending the company’s business relationship with the Miss Universe Organization, based on his remarks.
Sanchez is the latest Latin artist to raise her voice in protest following Trump’s speech, in which he referred to Mexican and Latin American immigrants as criminals and rapists.
Following rock band’s Maná very public denouncement of the speech during a Los Angeles show, Colombian star J Balvin canceled his Miss USA performance. It would have been his first mainstream TV performance in the U.S.
Early on in his speech, Trump said: “The U.S. has become a dumping ground for everybody else’s problems. When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people […] It’s coming from more than Mexico. It’s coming from all over South and Latin America, and it’s coming probably — probably — from the Middle East.”
Sanchez, herself a former beauty queen (she won Miss Puerto Rico Petite and Miss America Petite), played FBI agent Elena Delgado on Without a Trace and now plays Carmen Luna on Devious Maids.