Tenoch Huerta Calls Out Media For ‘Attacking’ and ‘Defaming’ Him

Mexican actor Tenoch Huerta, 42, issued a statement about media outlets allegedly “attacking” and “defaming” him. He says this negative press has “affected” his “credibility.”

In his statement, the actor described several articles that he says harmed “his reputation” as a public figure. He even says outlets used “bots” to make sure the negative press about him remained a “trending” topic. Why such a focus on him, though? Huerta says the attacks “grew” after he posted a photo watching soccer with Mexico’s president Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

Tenoch Huerta says the negative press is a response to his “anti-racist and anti-classist” discourse

As you can read in Huerta’s lengthy statement, the actor believes the “defamatory” and “aggressive” press got much worse after posting a photo with Mexico’s president back in November 2022. During the World Cup, the two watched the Mexico vs. Argentina game together.

At the time, the “Narcos: Mexico” actor wrote about the meet-up on Twitter, explaining: “This afternoon I met with [AMLO], we watched soccer and talked about the importance of culture, supporting it, and about anti-racism.”

He said he hoped “all authorities would join the fight that transcends political parties, colors, and presidential terms.”

Afterward, Huerta posted a photo of the two sitting on a couch watching the game:

Now, the actor says that photo and his “clear and firm” anti-racist, anti-classist discourse is exactly what set off the media alarms to go against him. He says these “groups” got involved in his “career, privacy, [and] family” and even exposed information about his daughters.

In fact, Huerta says his growing fame has set off “grotesque” rumors about him. He also stated that outlets have published personal “addresses, names, family members’ places of work, and personal photos.”

Even worse? The star also says they have published where his daughters go to school, even though they are minors.

The actor’s statement comes after a controversy involving a cape made by a Purépecha artisan

So what “attacks” is the actor talking about in the first place? Well, he might be referencing a controversy that bubbled up after he wore an artisan feather cape to Milan Fashion Week in September 2022. As he posted on Instagram that month, Huerta proudly wore the cape originating from the Purépecha people to the fashion event. He wrote that designers named the cape after Tezcatlipoca, the Aztec deity “known as the creator of heaven and earth.” One issue? Some social media posts allegedly left the original designer uncredited.

As reported by The Yucatán Times, Purépecha artisan Feliciana Hernández Bautista sold a handmade shawl to “an intermediary,” which was eventually made into a cape by designer Diana Buendía in collaboration with Hijos Del Maíz. However, the original artisan allegedly did not know the plan was to “cut” and alter the shawl.

This month, Huerta clarified that he did know the original artisan of the garment, and credited her, which was “the least they could do.”

However, he says “the brand that approached” his team “made mistakes,” and that important information got lost in translation. For this reason, “errors” were made on social media — but Huerta says he found out “later” on. Still, he says it was “wrong” and that leaving any artisan possibly uncredited affects “our fight.”

The actor said he met with Hernández Bautista later on, which he describes as a “very significant” moment in his life he will never forget.

Huerta may be taking legal action soon for “attacks” and “defamation”

The actor says that although he did give credit to Hernández Bautista, many articles about the controversy left that bit of information out. He called the publications “journalism with minimal standards.”

Even more, he said the media is “attacking him for absurd reasons, instead of attacking the racist and classist system that hurts us.”

Now, the Ecatepec de Morelos-born celeb says that he received legal counsel to “stop the multiple attacks and defamations” against him.

He finished his message with, “We will keep fighting for what we believe in, we will keep working and take responsibility for our mistakes. But… we won’t carry guilt for things we didn’t do.”