Leonardo DiCaprio Says He Is a “Pupusa Man”
Never mind that pupusas are a Salvadoran food and he was asked about Mexican cuisine.
Jeff Spicer
Once upon a time, a Hollywood actor, having been asked to name his favorite Mexican food, said “pupusas” – and Internet commenters, not surprisingly, had some things to say about that.
See, pupusas aren’t Mexican food (they’re Salvadoran, and you can learn more about making them here) – and it’s not clear if the actor was aware of that.
I mean, maybe he was …?
The Hollywood actor in question was Leonardo DiCaprio and this all went down during an interview with Univision in which he, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood castmates Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie, and the film’s writer/director Quentin Tarantino recently participated.
The actors and director were asked by the reporter Luis Sandoval to name their favorite Mexican dish. (The country’s cuisine is discussed in the movie, notes the Latin culture site Remezcla, which also posted video of the interview in question.)
Pitt said, “You cannot live in L.A. and not love Mexican food.” He didn’t hesitate in naming a favorite: a taco.
“You can’t beat a taco,” Pitt declared, uncontroversially.
Tarantino enthusiastically endorsed “chicken mole, baby!” And Robbie, after identifying herself as an omnivore, when urged, put her chips on “chips and guac.”
But DiCaprio, looking like he was ready to stir things up, let loose with this revealing statement: “I’m a pupusa man, myself.”
To be fair, the actor didn’t seem too surprised when Sandoval noted that pupusas were a dish from El Salvador, and he quickly doubled down, saying that, in his estimation, pupusas were “better than tacos.”
The social media response to DiCaprio’s declaration was swift.
"And y’all think *I’m* controversial," quipped Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter.
Yet a number of Salvadorans seemed downright tickled about DiCaprio’s culinary endorsement.
“Salvadorans are ecstatic!” one person tweeted.
“I didn't have plans to go see #OnceUponATimeInHollywood but since
@LeoDiCaprio loves #pupusas I am gonna support him,” wrote another.
One guy said he felt “pride in my heritage” when he heard DiCaprio say he preferred “pupusa, the food of my mothers land, over a very popular Mexican taco,” adding, “I've always been a fan of you[r] work and movies and today I'm an even bigger fan of yours.”
Aw, let’s call that a happy ending, shall we?
Photo: GettyImages
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