A Few Good Reasons to Help Joe T. Hodo

The show must go on

By Fabiola Rocha
Director, The School of Authentic Journalism

October 20, 2016

I remember the first time I saw Joe T. Hodo. We were near the Monument to the Revolution in Mexico City; I showed up that day to visit some friends and try to help Greg Berger with his film Frack U Mexico.

Fabiola Rocha during the School of Authentic Journalism 2016

And in the midst of the filming, with the whole crew there, ready to click and go, Joe’s sidekick, Miss Houston, lost her shoes. We immediately tried to fix the problem, and I went from the recording site to another neighborhood where a friend of mine lent me a pair of high heels. In the end, the Miss’s heels didn’t even appear on screen, but I was there.

That video was a huge success. A lot of people tried to copy it, plagiarize it, but there were others that were really interested and wanted to meet the guy who came up with it: Greg Berger.

The impact of Joe T. Hodo’s first video was very impressive, proving what Greg has maintained for years, maybe based on the ideas of the recently deceased Dario Fo: satire is the most powerful weapon to motivate social change.

Motivated by the simple and sarcastic explanation of fracking (a highly contaminating method to extract natural gas) in Frack U Mexico, several farmers’ organizations and community organizations in the northern mountains of Puebla State have contacted him to try and to stop the imminent introduction of fracking.

I liked what Greg did and since then I have watched his work, which I consider to be creative and necessary, from a safe distance.

But this isn’t the end of the story, because Joe expanded his horizons and created El Joe T. Hodo Show, a series in which, with his terrible spanish, he interviews personalities in Mexico to talk about his presidential candidacy to get to the presidential palace with his exaggerated representation of pettiness and arrogance.

I warned him it was crazy, that this wealthy and irreverent Texan would achieve nothing, but as a good Gringo, he has high hopes, and to my astonishment, he was right. Joe interviewed the CRAC PC, the self-defense organization of the Costa Chica in Guerrero; and El Mastuerzo, the legendary rock star from Botellita de Jeréz.

And so, Joe proved me he can still try to become President of Mexico, by knocking on the right doors and continue to present his particular humor to interesting personalities in his Show.

This work is good, and I always believe that things that are worth it deserve support from people like us. That’s why today I want to ask you to support Episodes 3 and 4 of El Joe T. Hodo Show, which, in addition to making us laugh, can bring about social awareness, as happened with Frack U Mexico.

The amount is not important, any amount helps us get to the goal; and if you can’t donate money, then please share the post, the content, share the work of Joe, Greg, and all the other people who work to make the show happen.

Click here to donate to our Kickstarter campaign

Fabiola Rocha
Director, The School of Authentic Journalism

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