Jose Mas, son of the late Cuban exile leader and terrorism supporter Jorge Mas Canosa, will gain a little notoriety the old-fashioned way Friday night when MasTec, the Coral Gables-based company his father started and which he now runs, features on the season finale of Undercover Boss.
"Can he live up to his dad's legacy?" the promo asks.
To anyone who knows Canosa's history, that's a ridiculous question.
First of all, the idea that Jose Mas could create a legacy for himself via reality television that might even approach the fame and notoriety of Jorge Mas Canosa is absurd. The man founded the Cuban American National Foundation. He's credited with mobilizing anti-Castro political action across the broad Cuban community in South Florida. And until he died in 1997, he was the most powerful exile in the country. Hell, the downtown stretch of Biscayne Boulevard is named after the man.
Look, we here at New Times need electricity and phone service just as much as anybody else. But letting a film crew follow you around as you learn about the inner workings of your own company isn't gonna get any streets named after you.
We're also guessing that the producers at Undercover Boss have decided to skip the shadier details of Canosa's history -- the part where he funded terrorist activities, for example. MasTec has its own sketchy skeletons: when the company was known as Church & Tower, it was paid over $1 million for a roadway striping job that was never completed in the '90s. More recently, the company has dabbled in politics, donating $32,350 to Democratic candidates in 2008.
Now that we think of it, though, there is one way Jose Mas is likely to follow in his father's footsteps on Undercover Boss. Most employers reward the people who work hardest for them with cash or other gifts at the end of the show. It's a way of thanking them for their loyalty, and for carrying out jobs the bosses can't or don't want to do. Like handling dangerous electrical equipment, for example. Or blowing up Communist ships in Mexico. Either way.
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