Category Archives: Director Cruz

How Enrique Cruz became a UrbanDictionary.com definition

In the late 1990’s before going into comedy I moonlighted for about 10 years as my alter ego Adult Video Director Enrique Cruz — my birth name is Henry Cruz — not a huge stretch to for me to flip it & use the Spanish version of Henry, which just happens to be Enrique — drum roll — my porno name as a porn director became Enrique Cruz

remember as a kid growing up in the Bronx my grandma — who spoke very little English — used to call me ‘Rigue — short for Enrique — or Pee-Wee another great family nickname because my height was the short size.

Every director will say they have the best fans, hold my drink while I whip out some of my fan praises — starting with CypherAvenue.com dropping words like these just made me blush with pride that I was doing the work of Jesus — if he lived in modern times and drank too much wine:

“things took an up-swing after the mid 90’s under the guise of “Blatino”. Director Enrique Cruz came on the scene and revolutionized gay porn with Off Da Hook, Tiger’s Brooklyn Tails, Off Da Hook 2 and Aprende…Enrique Cruz brought forth men who looked like me, had my swagger and showcased a youthful attitude to match.”

And there’s this gushy five-star-out-of-five-review for my Aprende movie:

“I have been a HUGE fan of Enrique Cruz since I saw Tiger Tyson’s breakout role in “Sweatin Black”…I loved how Enrique seemed to have an eye for the visual and enjoyed new camera angels and somehow had the HOTTEST black and latino actors, guys you see on the street and just wish they were ‘down’!!!”

Over the years its been the fan love for my Enrique Cruz films that I feel lead to being featured in a Out Magazine profile, a Village Voice newspaper interview, written up in The National Enquirer, written up in a history book on Gay Porn, and even a mention in the Arts Section of the New York Times Newspaper

and of all that big media love, my personal favorite kinda nails what I was really trying to do in the films mixing things like “homothugs” “Down Low Gay Culture” “hip-hop culture” hence this lovely Enrique Cruz definition for UrbanDictionary.com

Enrique Cruz is a famed director of black and latino (blatino) gay pornographic films based in New York City…In the mid to late 1990s, Cruz’s films helped to usher in a new era for black gay pornography. His films were innovative in that hip-hop culture influenced the behavior of the models/actors filmed on screen…” click here for full Urban Dictionary definition

Wow, I did some usher-ing of a NEW era…so why NOT
* Follow me on Twitter @HenryCruz101

Throwback HAIR-day – hair tells a very gay story

A very confused young teen Cruz growing up in the Bronx (that’s me, all hair) — ‘rocking the 80’s Michael something (during my gang years)

yeah, some pictures where meant to be destroyed…this hair tells a story of things to come

* Follow me on Twitter @HenryCruz101

Cruz Art show reviewed in the New York Times

Remember in 2003 when I screened my behind-the-scenes ‘making porn‘ video apart of that ‘DL: The Down Low in Contemporary ArtGallery show and it got reviewed in the Arts Section of the New York Times newspaper? – What — No, you say…let’s roll that videotape bob

Okay, I only got one line in the NY Times review, but how many artist can say they got reviewed in the mother-fucking-NEW-York-Times-Arts section??

“Enrique Cruz, known primarily for his gay porn films, makes an art gallery debut with clips of dramatized encounters that combine gansta machismo with same-sex eroticism in subtle ways…”

Nowadays, you can listen to me debate on my new podcastOur HeadSpace Episodes # 1 – 28 on our Souncloud channel

* Follow me on Twitter @HenryCruz101

Cruz Book Quotes: Bigger Than Life…

Today’s quotable book is from the 2010 book by Jeffrey Escoffier Bigger than Life: The history of Gay Porn Cinema from Beefcake to Hardcore — picked because it’s a well researched look at the history of Gay Porn, and well, ’cause I’m in it

Enrique Cruz (that’s ME — or my Porn-Alter-ego and that inner-part of myself is pretty much all ego) — gets mentioned a bunch of times, but this line on page 368 is my personal favorite: “In 1997, Enrique Cruz set out to do for gay porn what hip hop had done for urban black culture, “Hip hop music has given urban culture more allure,” Cruz explanined
(damn, don’t I sound smart?)

This goes’s into my Bio, and why not…
* Follow me on Twitter @HenryCruz101

Debating being Gay versus being Straight

Having had sex with both men & women allows me to walk in many shoes with a soft spot for understanding bisexuality — although, now when asked if I’m gay my answer is I’m selectively gay — which I’m sure stirs up some folks that firmly believe for a dude, once-you-go-cock — you’re locked into the gay camp for life.

I‘ll take a moment to explain myself here: selectively gay is more a sign of slowing down — and getting older — looking to settle down on a long term with that right human being you want to wake-up-next-to-on-a-daily (and it will probably be a dude) but it’s nice to be open minded.

We shot this Debating Being Gay or Straight! video back in 2007 and it went viral on YouTube with the most comments on any of my videos and 10 years later I’m sure the debate will continue

Nowadays, you can listen to me debate on my new podcastOur HeadSpace Episodes # 1 – 28 on our Souncloud channel

* Follow me on Twitter @HenryCruz101

Birth of a web cartoon world?

It started a few months back when I bought a stylus for my iPad. Around the same time I was seeing cartoons made-of-dust on my bathroom wall –

the logical brain says it was just dust but my mind says: ‘ooooh no, that’s a fully formed cartoon cat on my wall’ — maybe I need new glasses, but that resulted in more doodles and finally I came up with this cartoon on modern dating:

and when it snowed, I sketched some more and came up with this called Snow Day:

here’s a rare making of video – me inking over my pencil sketch on my iPad to clean up the lines (impressed yet?)

Over the coming weeks I hope to turn all my doodling into a weekly web comic with characters and a story line – all right here.

* Follow me on Twitter @HenryCruz101

My fun Podcast Our HeadSpace Ep # 27

In Episode # 27 myself (Henry Cruz) and Comedian Keith Fuerstenberg chat “Art of Learning” and “speaking clear to be heard” and other rants and funny side trips…

with the Our HeadSpace Podcast we’re on a journey to become better people & forming better relationships. (re-share often on your own social media)

You can listen to old Our HeadSpace Episodes # 1 – 26 on our Souncloud channel

* Follow me on Twitter @HenryCruz101

Out Magazine: The Porn Kings of New York?

Here’s a Out Magazine (June 1999 issue) blast from the past — & a really chubby porn director (yeah, wow that…is…me on pages 85-89 with some other NY-porno-dudes)

I can barely remember saying any of those quotes by me in my interview here, I guess nowadays I can call them alternative facts — although most of what I said there in that Debby Harry issue is correct. Yeah, me & Debby go way back…or I can really say I followed Debby Harry (in a major magazine story)

and we can’t stop there, here’s a more recent-me a full 18 years later doing my Stand-Up comedy thing…without much hair.

where has the time gone?

* Follow me on Twitter @HenryCruz101