I promised the author of the quip (a good journalist friend) that if I ever interviewed Antonio Moreno, I would start with that double meaning joke. Basically to see how the new mayor fits these kinds of jokes. Antonio, sitting in front of a coffee in the bar in his town, bursts out laughing and explains: “It’s okay, because I’m the first to joke about this. If you’re the first to drop the joke about yourself, you defuse whatever comes next.”
Well played. And it is that Anthony Moreno (Albacete, 1984) comes from an unusual profession that lends itself to this type of joke. Antonio has been an altar boy before he was a friar. Or rather, gay porn actor before mayor elected by the Popular Party. He worked under the nickname Hector De Silva. And that is why his name became popular during the last electoral campaign.
has happened in Jail. A town from La Mancha with 600 inhabitants included in the list of the ‘magical towns’ of Spain, whose main tourist attraction is its torch race on August 23. A legendary place that lives from mills and agriculture. And where the elections have left an unprecedented result: after three consecutive terms in command of the PSOE, the popular sorpasso has just occurred. For the first time in 12 years, the PP will govern.
They have won with a list of young people, thirtysomethings almost all, without experience in politics. “We couldn’t be complaining without doing anything and not getting our ass wet to improve the situation. And people asked us for a team of new people”. They clamored for the inaction of the socialists. They claimed that the people need a change. A wiggle. And the head of the list chosen to give it to him is Anthony Moreno. A guy from Albacete who met Carcelén when he worked as a forest firefighter and fell in love with the town. Now, he gives his first interview to a written medium (to EL PERIÓDICO DE ESPAÑA, from the Prensa Ibérica group) after the electoral success.
They have rebuked me for presenting myself with the PP, not for being a fag
vocational rancher
“I was born in Albacete, but 6 years ago I came with my partner to live here. I no longer do adult films. Now I am a farmer. I have 750 goats and we get up every day at 5 in the morning to milk them. From a very young age I always liked animals and livestock. My grandfather had sheep and he always loved them. When I came here with my partner we said: why not?”
From firefighter to gay X movie actor. “Actually I combined it. In fact, since I had to travel a lot, my colleagues changed my shift without problem when I was a forest firefighter and I had to travel to go filming. I have been in Miami, Las Vegas, London or Los Angeles. They are places that I would not have traveled to if it weren’t for porn,” he explains, accompanied by Pedro and Aída, two of the young people who went with him on the lists.
It was an interview to a local newspaper, The Digital of Albacete, the one that raised all the dust. There he recognized what his work was for three years. From there the maelstrom. Dozens of media outlets asking him for an interview that he refused to give until there were election results. “We thought that with what there was, there was enough, that perhaps an interview could harm us.”
However, where they have shown their unconditional support has been at the polls. They have won by 13 pyrrhic votes“but that’s how it is here. We didn’t reach 500 inhabitants and the results are always very tight. Only two lists were presented: ours and that of the socialists who have been ruling here for so long. Now, the Popular Party has obtained 4 councilors and they 3”, summarizes.
citizen support
And what of his? How did it affect, for better or worse, that his former occupation was known in such a small town? Anthony assures that “It has not been an easy campaign, because this is a very political town. You live a lot and there are people with very closed ideas. We have met people who have scolded us or have stopped talking to us. But look, I had never had any problems in town because of my sexual condition or because of my old job. They have rebuked me for presenting myself with the PP, not for being a fag.”sentence Moreno.
He also says that they have tried to leave this issue on the sidelines, although it has been impossible: “We did not remove it because it was not necessary, not all the people knew about it, so it was not something that was necessary to remove to carry out the campaign. Whoever took it out, totally campaigned against us. Because after that, Carcelén was not only heard nationally, but internationally. We do very well to publicize our environment and our traditions. Bad has not come to us. And there are people who did feel bad that someone had taken it out to use it against us. So I think that still gave us the chance to win more votes.”
We ask him if he has detected any dirty war during the campaign, because we have learned that there were even neighbors trying to convince the elderly not to vote for the PP because of the candidate’s past. The anecdote comes to us that there were people who went to the house of an 80-year-old neighbor to say things against Antonio to prevent him from voting for them. But the man said to them: “Look, as I said Barbara Rey: each one with his body does what he wants “. Both Antonio and his teammates refuse to get involved in those aubergines: “We are clear that we have won well and running a very clean campaign. We want to leave it there. And we are going to govern for all the people.”
And it is that, they add, Carcelén is not a homophobic town: “Last year we celebrated Gay Pride Day for the first time. It was the first time it was celebrated in one of the 24 towns in the La Manchuela region and we had the support of the previous government. Things went very well, it was done a water festival and a bar and music were set up. This year we will do it again”, explains his partner Pedro.
The complaints
Mayor, do you have Onlyfans?
I don’t.
How not? I follow him on networks, Héctor De Silva, and he usually promotes his Onlyfans…
You can’t follow me on networks because I don’t have one. I took them all off.
So those accounts?
Those accounts are from people who impersonate me. We are aware that they exist and we have already denounced some, but we cannot do anything to remove them.
Antonio does not deny his past, but neither does he currently exploit it. He is now a rancher and will continue to be: “All of us who have entered the City Council are going to continue living from our jobs. No one is going to live off politics. The PSOE did have a person released, receiving a salary as a politician. But that with us is going to end. With that money we are going to create an employment plan to hire one or two people. To do maintenance, construction or gardening tasks. Here in the town there are always things to do”, explains Antonio.
And as projects for the town, they have several priorities: “The biggest brown are the Fiestas de los Montones, which are in August and we have to organize them quickly, as the main festival of Las Casas de Juan Gil, which is a district that depends on Carcelén”. It’s essential. Or improve the quality of the water, which has an amazing amount of lime. We also want to lower taxes. We have both the IBI and the circulation tax that are very high”.
Another of the pending issues is the license for the bars, many of which are closed due to the conditions of the concession. “Right now we have two bars, although we are waiting for the concession of another two, which has been deserted the last three times that the City Council put them up for auction. We continue like this and they are bars that are very good. But it seems that the conditions that have since they don’t like it very much, because very high amounts are being requested for three months, not even for a full year”.
Why the PP?
Given the situation, it only remains to ask why they have joined the Popular Party, when the LGTBI claim traditionally comes from the parties more to the left than from the conservative sectors. However, they remember from the list that “in Chueca has won the Popular Party. Things have changed a lot”.
“The Popular Party has been a party that has given us the option of a list of new people who have nothing to do with politics. And who trust us without any conditions. Yes, it is true that most of us are from the right, but on our list there are people from the left. It’s not an ideological question”.
“Not only the voter, but even the party has radically changed. The party has evolved, just like the socialists 30 years ago. They wouldn’t be as progressive or liberal as they say they are now. We have to normalize this. That’s why I, when They ask me any questions about my sexual condition and I try to answer as briefly as possible to give them true normality, because if we really want normality, we cannot be thinking about whether one is gay or not gay or whether one is lesbian or not. I think it is something that in terms of the personal condition of each one will not affect. The fact that I am one thing is another… it doesn’t matter. I will remain the same person“, he concludes.
