Catalina Cruz on Porn, Politics and What's in a Name

CYBERSPACE—Name recognition is a crucial asset these days in an online landscape dominated by Google and social media chatter. Whether seeking stardom as an entertainer, success as an entrepreneur or a higher profile in a political race, it’s vital that one’s name rise to the top of those all-important search results. Adult star Catalina Cruz, who began her career in 2000, is more adept than most when it comes to cultivating name recognition. Cruz won an AVN Award in 2009, taking home the trophy for Web Starlet of the Year, and she’s built her name mostly through online adult content produced for her own site, CatalinaCruz.com—facts one can quickly find on her Wikipedia page. But apparently of late Cruz’s name has been appearing in online searches for those seeking another Catalina Cruz: a Colombian-born attorney who has resided in New York City since she was nine. According to the news outlet Quartz, this Cruz has a history of working on tenants’ protection, immigration law, and workers’ rights. She’s also a DREAMer: a beneficiary of DACA, the program that gave temporary protection to undocumented migrants who arrived in the U.S. as children. And she’s the first DREAMer to run for office in the state, where she’s vying in the Democratic primary for the New York State Assembly seat representing Queens. The article on the Quartz site details the travails of a veteran Wikipedia editor who wanted to create a page for Cruz the candidate and a “disambiguation page” to help those looking for either Catalina Cruz get to the right place. It’s a fascinating look at the interior politics of Wikipedia, but that’s not what concerns us here. What’s more interesting is that media outlets are now reaching out to the adult star to get her reaction on her newly prominent namesake. “I was taken by surprise when the media let me know what was going on with Wikipedia. I had no idea until they contacted me,” Cruz said. When asked if similar situations had come up earlier, she said, “I have never had this happen before in the past, although I do understand that Cruz is a common last name to have—but it’s not every day it comes together in politics and porn.” The two have come together before, however, in the form of parodies produced by Cruz for her membership site in which she plays a fantasy version of the current first lady. According to Cruz, she’s played Melania Trump three times. “So far we have released three First Lady parodies inside my site. The members absolutely love when we release them. It seems to never get old to them,” Cruz said. “What was interesting is the increase in getting members from Russia.” Cruz got “a variety of responses overall,” she said. “Some of the public thought it was disrespectful to do, but I truly felt like I wanted to empower the first lady in the scenes I did. There will be another episode coming soon—an interracial scene—in the near future.” Read more about the episodes here. Photos above and below, courtesy Catalina Cruz