Desi or Deshi refers to the people and culture of the Indian and South Asian
diaspora. It includes British Indians, British Pakistanis, Indian Americans, and
any other persons of South Asian heritage with ancestry from India,
Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, or Maldives living outside of South Asia.
Emigrants from South Asia, and their descendents, are thus known as Desis.
The word is originally from Sanskrit, literally meaning from the country or
of the country.
Desi Arnaz was born on March 2, 1917 in Santiago de Cuba
to Desiderio Alberto Arnaz 1894-1973 and Dolores de Acha 1896-1988.
His father was Santiago's youngest mayor and then served in the Cuban
House of Representatives. The 1933 revolution, led by Fulgencio Batista,
overthrew the American backed President Gerardo Machado, landed his
father in jail for six months, and stripped his family of its wealth and power.
Arnaz's father was released when U.S. officials, who believed him to be
neutral during the revolt, intervened on his behalf. Arnaz and his parents then
fled to Miami, Florida.
On October 15, 1951, Desi produced and starred in
the premiere of I Love Lucy, in which he played a fictitious version of himself,
Cuban orchestra leader Enrique Ricky Ricardo.
His co star was his real life wife, Lucille Ball, who played Ricky's wife, Lucy.
Television executives had been pursuing Ball to adapt her very popular radio
series My Favorite Husband for television. Ball insisted on Arnaz playing her
on air spouse so the two would be able to spend more time together.
The original premise was for the couple to portray Lucy and Larry Lopez, a
successful show business couple he a band leader, she an actress whose
glamorous careers interfered with their efforts to maintain a normal marriage.
Market research indicated, however, that this scenario would not be popular,
so Arnaz changed it to make Ricky a struggling young orchestra leader and
Lucy an ordinary housewife who had show business fantasies but no talent.
Desi would often appear at, and later own, the Tropicana Club which, under
his ownership, he renamed Club Babalu. Initially, the idea of having Ball and the
distinctly Latino Arnaz portray a married couple encountered resistance as they
were told that Desi's Cuban accent and Latin style would not be agreeable to
American viewers.
The couple overcame these objections, however, by touring together in a live
vaudeville act they developed with the help of Spanish clown Pepito Pérez,
together with Ball's radio show writers. Much of the material from their
vaudeville act was used in the original I Love Lucy pilot, including Lucy's
memorable seal routine. Segments of the pilot originally ran as the sixth episode
of the show's first season.
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