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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | August 2005 
'Simpsons' Voice Actors In Mexico Jeer Shakeup
 Chris Hawley - Republic Mexico
Mexico City - Dozens of voice-over actors and their supporters marched through downtown Mexico City on Wednesday to protest the replacement of the actors who provide the Spanish-language voices for The Simpsons and other TV shows.
"Reject the impostor voices!" chanted about 90 protesters as they walked through the business district, slowing traffic to a crawl along busy Insurgentes Avenue.
They carried pictures of Bart and Homer Simpson, along with those of other cartoon characters.
Simpsons fans here have been in an uproar ever since the Mexico City firm that does the voice-overs for Latin America, Grabaciones y Doblajes Internacionales, canceled its contract with Mexico's actors union last year after the company changed hands.
The move led to the mass resignation of 10 actors who supplied the voices for The Simpsons, Malcolm in the Middle, King of the Hill and other shows. Their voices are known all over Latin America and Spain, thanks to the popularity of The Simpsons.
The first Simpsons episodes with the new voices already are appearing on Canal Fox, Fox television's Spanish-language cable channel.
"We made that show a success, and now we're being treated very badly," said Gabriel Chávez Aguirre, who voices Seńor Burns, Homer Simpson's boss.
At a news conference after the march, members of the National Association of Actors called for an international boycott of the cartoon and an upcoming Simpsons movie.
GDI, as the dubbing company is known, said its contract with the association ended with the change of ownership.
In April, an arbitration board ruled in the company's favor. A court upheld the ruling, and the union now has taken the case to an Appeals Court, said Raymundo Capetillo, the group's secretary of labor conflicts.
"We consider it unjust to just toss (the actors) aside," he said.
The actors who voiced Homer and Marge Simpson did not attend the protest. The association's lawyer, Claudia Patricia Juan y Pineda, said they were taking a low profile out of fear they may be blacklisted by other voice-over companies.
The actress who formerly voiced Bart, Claudia Motta, told The Arizona Republic she did not attend because her car broke down Wednesday.
GDI's general manager, Magdalena Questa, could not be reached, but her assistant, Gabriela Najeli, said the company considers the case closed.
Fox has refused to intervene, saying it is a dispute between GDI and its employees.
Capetillo said the actors association is afraid the firing could encourage other companies to dump their unionized actors. The association has 13,000 members in Mexico, including about 200 who specialize in voice work, he said. |
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