Satirist Alberto Gonzalez Turns Miami's Exile Politics Into Radio Farce

Over a plate of carne asada and arroz con frijoles, Alberto Gonzalez answers questions from staff members who keep interrupting from the newsroom next door. The newsroom belongs to Diario Nacional, Gonzalez's newest daily newspaper. The 62-year-old is the creator of La Mogolla, a Spanish-language political satire program, and calls Miami a gold mine for material. He compares the city to Ali Baba's cave, with one difference: Ali Baba had 40 thieves, and Miami has 400.

Gonzalez argues that exiles have spent more than 30 years attacking Fidel Castro while ignoring what happens locally. "This is the other Cuba," Gonzalez says, adding that it is in many ways just as corrupt as the real one. The humorist insists that no one is off limits if they have done wrong.

The show, whose name is Caribbean Spanish slang for a muddle or tangle, runs about an hour and is modeled on a news broadcast in the style of Saturday Night Live's "Weekend Update." Its jokes lean on Cuban slang and pop-culture references that outsiders may miss. In its skewed version of Miami, Mayor Xavier Suarez is nicknamed "Luther" and chases black votes. Commissioner Victor De Yurre sits in a highchair to look taller, and Commissioner Miriam Alonso entertains in a designer garbage bag. Jorge Mas Canosa of the Cuban American National Foundation hexes the program with coconuts and a dead cat.

In one sketch, correspondent Jose Candelario Seispatines reports on the travels of city commissioners. The script says De Yurre made nine trips in 1990, including a cultural mission to Italy and a visit to Brussels, and that Miller Dawkins made twelve. It says Alonso took only two and that Suarez did not travel much. The sketch puts the combined tally at 21 trips and ends with a pun on the Low Countries and De Yurre's height.

De Yurre, the target of that sketch, says he has never listened to the show and never will. His mother listens occasionally, he says, and gets upset. He describes Gonzalez as talented but, like Castro, someone who uses that talent "for the wrong reasons."

The humor lands in a community with a long record of political violence. In the 32 years since Castro took power, bombings, assaults and death threats have been common in the pursuit of la causa. South Florida radio, both licensed and clandestine, has long carried commentary calling for violence in Cuba and intimidation of anyone in Miami who favors flexibility or dialogue with Castro. La Mogolla has been among the most scathing of these outlets, and critics call its sarcasm racist and slanderous.

Its history has been stormy. The show debuted in June 1989 on WRHC-AM 1550 and was later removed from that station and from WOCN-AM 1450 for political and financial reasons. It left behind unpaid bills and allegations of fraud, political extortion and censorship. Its audience includes older exiles who are most firmly opposed to Castro, and members of La Mogolla Club, which raises money for the program. They took to the air two weeks ago after Gonzalez was arrested on bad-check charges dating to 1984. The club said the January 7 arrest, the same day Diario Nacional first appeared, was no coincidence.

For now the program is off the air after a dispute between Gonzalez and its star, veteran Cuban comedian and impersonator Tito Hernandez. Its latest home was WWFE-AM 670, where it ran weekdays at 1:00 p.m. Orlando Ramos played the straight man while Hernandez supplied the voices of the show's cast. That cast includes Seispatines, who is prone to convenient mispronunciations and puns, and Dieguito Temblequera, whose "Political Traffic Report" is delivered from a helicopter. It also includes Chan Li Po, an investigator who disguises himself as whatever he is investigating. When he looked into the Miami Herald, he dressed as a newspaper.