‘I was raped’: Boy-band members allege abuse, exploitation in disturbing doc | Entertainment Exam

‘I was raped’: Boy-band members allege abuse, exploitation in disturbing doc

Members of Ricky Martin's old boy band Menudo, one of the most popular Latin bands of all time, were living a nightmare prior to his "Livin' La Vida Loca."

Angelo Garcia, who joined Menudo when he was just 11 years old, claimed in a recent documentary that he was sexually assaulted while performing with the group from 1988 to 1990. In "Menudo: Forever Young," a four-part docuseries that debuts on HBO Max Thursday, he describes the sexual assault, which he said occurred in his hotel room after he was served wine by an unidentified stranger.

"The only thing I can recall is passing out. I knew I had been violated because I was bleeding and naked when I woke up, Garcia claimed in the documentary. "I had these burn marks from the rug on my face," I was really perplexed and ignorant.

Garcia claimed he was harassed by the group members on several occasions in addition to that one. He said in the documentary that predators would take advantage of him by repeatedly raping him while he was living in Menudo.

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In "Forever Young," other members of Menudo, which during its first 20 years featured 32 different guys, also made sexual assault, bullying, drug scandals, and restrictive working conditions claims. They said that such carelessness and exploitation occurred while they were employed by the boy band's creator, Edgardo Dáz, who is referred to as "their manager, producer, and father surrogate." (Daz has consistently denied any abuse and any misconduct in his management of the organisation. He did not reply to demands for an interview or to comment on the documentary's charges.)
Ray Acevedo, who worked in Menudo from 1985 to 1988, claimed that "we were pawns of his business."


In "Forever Young," Dáz describes how his creation, Menudo, came into being in Puerto Rico in 1977. Dáz decided to replace group members after they turned 16 as part of a "Fountain of Youth plan" for the organisation. Many of the boys' low-income parents would give the manager a large amount of control over their children.

In 1984, Menudo discovered its most well-known member, Martin, after initially blowing up in Venezuela and later igniting "Spanish Beatlemania" in the US. Ricky was the "golden kid" from the start, claims Acevedo.


Sergio Blass, who was a member of Menudo from 1986 to 1990, claims that Martin, who is not included in the documentary, didn't make things easy for the other members.

Blass added, "Being with Ricky was hard because he had seniority over me. I had to open the door if someone knocked, thus. I had to answer the phone if it rang. He had a housewife like me. (Martin's representatives did not respond to a request for comment from The Post.)

In fact, there was a lot of hazing of new guys and bullying in Menudo. Acevedo even recalled being held over a balcony by another member. The boys were exposed to substances, including cocaine and marijuana, without receiving adequate supervision or security.

In the documentary, Blass said, "We were in Colombia once. "I'm travelling to the hotel with Rubén [Gómez], a fellow Menudo member. We go into our room. All of a sudden, this unknown man enters. He then removes what must have been around a kilogramme of cocaine. We were alarmed since we had no prior knowledge of this guy. However, the man was a producer and publicist himself.

After being arrested for marijuana possession in 1990, Blass and Gómez were expelled from Menudo. However, fresh members continued to enter through the rotating door.

In the documentary, Andy Blázquez, who was a member of the group from 1991 to 1997, recalls feeling uneasy about the "severe sexualization that happened from the very beginning — like highly sexualized jokes that you shouldn't utter in front of youngsters." You know the joy you get when you're pooping, Edgardo said, I recall. That is the sensation of anal sex.


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