Tag Archives: Bigger than life: The history of Gay Porn Cinema from Beefcake to Hardcore

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

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