George Lopez: The Exclusive Interview

George Lopez called Festiva to chat the other day, what with his two night stand at the Dodge Arena this weekend.

American's Mexican is no stranger to the Rio Grande Valley. In fact, he's been here pretty often and he's always down to talk to us. So we've asked Mr. Lopez our fair share of questions.

We've written about his comedy crossing racial boundaries. We've written about him bringing Mexican culture to the mainstream. We've written about the inspiration he's become for Hispanic children.

This time around, we lobbed some goofy questions and let him talk.

CLICK HERE to listen to the interview.

We gave readers on Festiva's MySpace page a chance to submit questions. We took our favorite and we asked George Lopez, using the reader's name and everything. That's right, we told George your name. Anyway, here's his question and answer. And don't forget to add www.myspace.com/festivarocks to your friends list for more opportunities like this.

We have a question a reader sent to us from MySpace. It's from David Perez, 22, from Pharr. He says, since you are a strong believer in your Mexican background, what do you think about the younger generation of Hispanics not learning much, or not caring to learn, about their culture, including the language?

That's a really big problem. I don't have a problem with it, if they were able. I have it with my daughter who is 12. It's always like a lost generation and unfortunately it's the generation that we're creating. I'm not really a big fan of, I mean I understand assimilation I think that's great, but one of the problems with us and the intolerance and the negative vibe is that we don't assimilate. So I'm for assimilation but I'm also for maintaining language and culture. I think when it's forced on you, you repel it, and I think that's the way it is in the houses. It's forced on them. Try to force anything on anybody and they're going to repel it. I'm not a big fan of it, but I understand it. I'd like to see them actually learn the language. It's such a great language and you can talk about people right in front of them. That's the greatest part of it. To answer the question. It bothers me, but I can understand it, but I wish they would learn the language.

Catch George Lopez: Tonight and Saturday at the Dodge Arena. Tickets are available at www.ticketmaster.com.

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