Actor Benicio del Toro is the official spokesman for “Aprendi a quererme” (I learned to love myself) a campaign aimed at urging people in his native Puerto Rico to love themselves and reject domestic violence, organizers said Wednesday.
Del Toro, who won an Oscar for his role in the film “Traffic” in 2001, will have the job of giving motivational messages along with the Christian pop rock group Sueño de Hormiga in the general media, on Facebook and the Web page http://www.aprendiaquererme.com.
“Who the heck said that to really love you have to put up with so many insults, shouting and humiliations. Get out of here ... Learn to love yourself,” Del Toro demands in one of the television ads.
The campaign is also seeking to get people to avoid falling into a pattern of mistreatment and for the aggressors to value their family and learn to keep their anger under control.
Sueño de Hormiga’s Richie Dalmau added that the campaign is designed to get people to recognize that families need to inculcate positive values and family members need to treat each other with respect.
The campaign comes in response to the wave of violence on the island, where a record number of 1,136 murders were committed in 2011.
