Leticia Sabater, dressed as Leticia Sabater – ultra skinny fuchsia faux leather trousers and jacket, black corset and Mama Noel hat borrowed for the photo – enters the EL PAÍS newsroom and yells “Hello, Merry Christmas!” and the ladies and gentlemen journalists, absorbed in their screens, look at them as if they have visions. Many grew up watching it on children’s television shows. Others, like the mischievous girl Hermida, as a contestant on reality shows or as a singer of lewd songs on YouTube. The last one, Santa, fill my tank for me, a Christmas carol sponsored by True Fruits, a German juice brand, and illustrated with an incredible video that gets millions of views and triumphs in the WhatsApp groups of those who don’t like you the least , you expect it “At my gigs, two or three generations come together and that has a lot of merit,” boasts the prospect, “but now that I don’t do anything for children anymore, children and young people are still the majority of my audience.” .
They still like his lewdness and see his videos as the “poop, ass, fart, pee” that makes us so funny when we’re little.
No, I think what they like about me is that I’m a mix of princess, lolita, and rebel.
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How do you become a princess, lolita and rebel at 56?
For starters, I don’t look my age. Princess, for such long blonde hair. Lolita, because I’m like a doll, because of this mixture of naivety and mischievousness. And rebellion because I always did what I wanted.
Has it been like this since you were a child?
No, I was very shy at school. They teased me about my squint, my glasses, and my eye patch. But at 14 I had a brutal change. The guys started to like me, I broke the shell and was sure of myself.
Do you need the approval of others?
Yes, I have always needed it.
Does criticism influence you?
Any. When I stopped working on children’s programming, I decided to let my hair down and be who I am. Especially since my mother died 10 years ago. She didn’t like it when I took my clothes off or got tattooed and in my modeling days it bothered her until I posed in lingerie. Later I raised my father and now he accepts me. And I don’t care about the rest of the world. Fine if they like it, and garlic and water if they don’t.
Did her mother force her to do this?
Don’t forget that I am related to Mario Conde and the Martínez-Bordiú, a good girl. My sisters graduated cum laude in medicine and architecture. I studied up to the Selectividad, which I passed by copying my then-boyfriend’s exam. Let’s say I was the rebellious genteel, the ugly duckling of the house, the one who didn’t know what to do with it, but they started respecting me when I got on TV and started making more money than you. In fact, later my sisters didn’t insist that their children graduate, but that they do what they want.
What does that say about Spain?
Well, the country is at my level. 75% of people are like me. Not everyone can be cum laude. This country has changed a lot. A plumber still earns more than a doctor. I know they call me stupid crazy broken toy But neither stupid, nor crazy, nor broken: I am a survivor. I’m not a hair fool. I’m way smarter than people think I know how to play silly and geeky when it needs to. In fact, when they meet me they tell me that of course I’m much smarter and younger and prettier than in the photos.
did you use yours sex appeal as a weapon in his career?
I think I’m crazy, honestly. I’ve always loved being sexy and showing flesh, even on kids shows. I believe meat sells and I really enjoyed teaching it. I was an empowered woman when no one was. To say: all this is mine what happens. Like the me-too thing, I don’t think so: you don’t do anything you don’t want to. And in this area I’ve always done what I wanted to do.
Some people cannot afford to be fired if they don’t tolerate bullying.
You can start scrubbing at any time.
But you have a family mattress and others don’t.
You are wrong. No one has ever paid or given me anything.
He has confessed to retouching his face and body from stomach to vagina. Is it that bad over time?
I just had a facelift on my face. Everyone is everyone, but for me the wrinkle is not beautiful, it’s ugly, and I don’t want it.
I’m your age and haven’t touched my face. Do you see me old and ugly?
um [silencio largo]. What questions are you asking me? I see you well but the difference between you and me is that you haven’t sunbathed and you have white skin, I was burned and I needed it. They all do it: actresses, presenters, what happened is that I tell it. And look, I won’t be that bad if, how can I tell you, a lot of guys send me photos of their penises on the networks. You have no idea how old I am.
And that doesn’t bother you?
It makes me laugh. It’s just that when I need to compliment a guy I tell him, and I like it when they tell me. For example, what some feminists say about not growing as a sign of freedom and feminism doesn’t sit well with me. If you want to go like a monkey, great, I don’t. I am neither sexist nor feminist.
The octopus will fall.
I already know it. But it is what I think. I’m a girl living in the real world. And I love compliments.
And if they question her to play with her body?
It’s that they don’t interfere. Also, nobody knows the secret of success, but I already tell you that the secret of failure is to try to make everyone like you. I know I’m a controversial and contradictory person. I’m out of line. But I’ve been doing this for 35 years and I’ll keep going, as long as there’s a bunch of misfits like me who don’t play by the rules, I’ll keep going. I’m not elegant? Who has the yardstick to measure elegance? magazines? Sorry, but no.
What is elegant for you?
Be different and have personality. What’s elegant to you is that I look like a whale.
His carol is, shall we say, unspeakable, with obscene gestures and various obscenities.
Did you see the whole video?
I didn’t have a body.
Too bad so much intellectual and so much journalism in EL PAÍS and you didn’t see it. Actually, it’s a Christmas carol lament, because in the end it turns out that the “tank full” is not sexual at all, but a protest against the high fuel costs due to inflation and the war in Ukraine.
So your song is a protest song? He’ll leave me dead on the spot.
It’s just not that easy to do what I do and play with ambiguities. The ridiculous line is very fine. Besides, it’s not that bad either. I’m just trying to have fun. I’m not bin Laden either.
THE AGES OF LETICIA
Leticia Sabater (Barcelona, 56 years old) has been in the media spotlight for 35 years, since she appeared on television in the eighties as a likeable and explosive twenty-something. In the beginning, Hermida was a mischievous girl in the morning show of Televisión Española. Later in the 90’s she ended stints as a sexy host of children’s shows, not so long ago as a contestant on private reality shows and now as a party entertainer, singing at popular events and celebrations and staring at some of the most shared and commented on Videos on YouTube. His latest Christmas carol, Santa Claus, fill my tank, has to be seen to be believed.
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