This season of dull, boring, stupid lists keeps rolling, but luckily with this being the ninth of twelve episodes in season two, it's almost over! So to break the monotony of random bullshit that neither you nor I care about, I decided to spice it up.
As you may or may not know, I'm responsible for a four year old little girl. She's an absolute handful. She's entirely too affectionate. She talks back entirely too much. She pees the bed with reckless abandon. But every now and again, she's capable of some kinda cute or pretty cool shit. I have to give her credit where it's due. Sometimes she'll come next to me and show me her best Gator Chomp or tell me she can't wait to go see the Marlins again. See, to a dad, especially one who never wanted nor liked kids, that's the shit I like. But I do realise, she's a girl who will become a woman and she needs feminine role models. Hence this list. I've come up with four women whom I hope she could look up to and admire. I only had one criterion--the women had to look like her.
Why? Well, she's of African and Salvadoran heritage. As a little one, right now, she idolises (much to my utter hatred), the Disney whores. They look absolutely nothing like her. Nothing. And don't give me that Tiana shit. So it's important that she knows there's important people of similar racial or ethnic and cultural backgrounds. It's hard work being a woman already, but being one of colour too, you've just compounded the issue tenfold. So here we go. Four women my kid should admire.
4) Sonia Sotomayor. Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court, which without a doubt, is the most significant branch of our federal government. She's a Bronx girl, which gives her some street cred. She's the first person of Latin heritage (Puerto Rican, to be exact) on the bench, and more remarkable, only the third woman. (See what I mean about being a woman?) She also graduated from Princeton! In the seventies! I used to live in Princeton and spent some time on the campus, usually doing illegal stuff. That's become somewhat less homogeneous in its student body, but when Sotomayor was there, Princeton had less than 25 people of Latin ethnicity. You can only imagine the woman count was pretty low too. And she got into Princeton on a full ride. That alone, that's something the kid should admire. But long story short, she's been a private practice lawyer, she's moved through almost every single rank a judge can hold, she's been a professor of law, and is currently writing a memoir. That is an impressive resume indeed.
3) Celia Cruz. The Queen of Salsa and all Cuban music. Now, I admit, the kid has little rhythm and even worse dancing talent. However, this one is more about breaking ground, even more so than Justice Sotomayor. When you think of music, especially Salsa, you think of men--Blades, Colon, Puente, Pacheco, Valentin, etc. And yet, as huge as some of those names are, none have the weight nor importance as Celia Cruz does. That's saying something. She's toured the world over, she's received honours from American presidents, she's had her wardrobe in the National Smithsonian of American History, she's won seven Grammy awards, and even showed up in the movie "Mambo Kings". To say you like Salsa and not Cruz would be like claiming you're a Christian who doesn't believe in God. Impossible, right? The point here is music is and will always be such a hugely male-dominated arena, and Latin music, unless you're physically gorgeous, is no different. However, with hard work and mastery of a craft, you can smash that to pieces and be the biggest name ever. Not bad for an Afro-Latina with a Michael Strahan gap, que no?
2) Angela Davis. If you don't know this sister, you should immediately thank your lucky stars for what I'd have to assume is white privilege because there's no other reason to not know Angela Davis. I mean, for god's sake, she's only the face of one of the most famous pictures from the civil rights era ever! Writer, activist, freedom fighter, educator, and muse for a Rolling Stones song, Angela Davis...what can you really say about her? Politically, this is the woman I'd most want my kid to admire. Believe in the principles of Marxist ideology, fight for the rights of all peoples, strive for social justices and human rights, take a stand for something and defend it for dear life. I'm not even going to try to explain why the kid should emulate or look up to Angela, you should just fucking know already. Seriously. Like, seriously.
T-1) Her grandmother and her mother. Ah, some may say an obvious choice, but maybe it is, maybe it isn't. Her grandmother, good woman. Emigrated to the US from El Salvador and has been working ever since really. Taught herself English, which I find quite remarkable actually, considering how difficult English is to learn even in schools for ESL kids. The kid's grandmother's work ethic though is what I find astonishing. There's no job she won't do, no day she won't work. She really has put her family on her back and makes it look pretty easy, though she has experienced extremely difficult road blocks. I'm holding my fingers back because everything is not for me to say since it's not my mother, but if you only knew, you'd admire her too. Sure, she spoils the shit out of the kid, but she's a grandmother. And a damn good one, so here's to you.
Her mother, I can go more into detail on her. Coming out of a traditional Latin home, she seemed to know early on, a domestic life or a subordinate life was not going to suit her. Excelled in high school, got herself through college even while pregnant and eventually a mother, got herself through graduate school to earn a Masters, married a schmuck like me, picked her career field quickly and charged ahead into it. Quite amazing, really. Given the statistics of Latinas, given the statistics of women with children and blah blah blah, none of that meant anything to her. Sure, she's stubborn and bullish often, but a lot of that is how she's gotten to where she is today. Although I plead with the wife to cut the cord with the kid all the time, I hope the kid learns a lot from her.
Yeah so technically it's five women, but number one is a tie and they share DNA, so to me, that's one. Eat it if you disagree.
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