#Guadarican

[mildredbrignoni]

Try Living In Shoes Other Than Your Own

Why we Latinas - should care about the rhetoric in the media as we are portrayed.  While we are tired of watching negative comments continue to be paraded in the media from every news station, we should understand their spin in allowing their news stations to over exaggerate stories to either poke fun at, or help Trump supporters.  In Trump’s position, he knows it helps and cares about “spin” because he wants to keep his job.  Latina leaders - we need a call to action - we all need to be the voice that breaks the stigma and rise up/ speak up, just as our nations leader is doing!

As a nation, we were built on the belief that the melting pot was robust and prosperous. So long as you carried your rifle, and fed your workers, all would be ok. Well, when your workers suddenly became your leaders, everything started to shift.  The idea of civil rights threatened not only the status quo, it led to an intentional division in late 18 century between political parties noticing that poor angry white farmers were standing next to their black slaves as a fight for fairness.  Thus, the rally began by bringing in all caucasian people united against the rich black folks in the north.  That also had farmers in the south, despite that they weren’t rich, advocate to keep their only commodity - slavery.  So, what does that mean for our Latina leaders today in all industries here in the US? 

Most of us Latinas are passionate to a fault, strong, willful, and compassionate. We take on the challenges that most people believe we won’t ever be a threat in succeeding as their leader.  We not only stand up for the underdogs, we are nurturers, and believers of the greater good is our mission to carry. We are caring for those that we see need us, because we know that we can be the voice for those that cannot stand up for, or help themselves.  As Latinas, particularly in leadership roles and in media, we are strong, powerful, and scary to most men in power.  Now, the focus is shifting towards all women of color.  However, most of Latinas have had the burden of carrying a bigger stigma - sexiness.  Men in locker room talk suggest we should just stick to our bedroom habits and not get too carried away with problem solving.  But, we cannot change the fact that God also made us beautiful.

Not all of us Puerto Ricans have a Jennifer Lopez figure, nor do we dance and sing like her, but we do share one megaphone in common, - we are trailblazers that don’t back down.  We not only hold the fort down at home, bear children and cook a mean Arroz con Pollo, we are brave, humbled and demonstrate the ability to have multiple talents. I am both Guatemalan and Puerto Rican, which makes me a self proclaimed Guadarican. Well, as most men cannot fit me into a box, I get more questions asked of me about my career in film/ television, as a writer, fashion designer and social media marketer than any other of my colleagues that are white or black.  All that is true… I worked in all these disciplines and had some successes because I have had some great male leaders supporting my efforts and encouraged me. However, most men and, and some women, simply cannot believe that this (me) little curly haired Latina, has worked in all these capacities, and that can speak well of it. 

Latinas are overachievers, yet are told to wait our turn.  Also, it appears to men that it is impossible that we can spin circles around others. Well, it isn’t.  It scares conservative political leaders that a woman like Carmen Yulin Cruz – the mayor of San Juan Puerto Rico could defy the rhetoric offered of higher authority - President Donald Trump. Delivering the truth in her passion, and willingness to stand up while going against the opinion of popular views has cost her a negative image amongst the Republican establishment. She is not only walking through dirty water saving lives, she herself is living in a crisis. That is not a lie. Why should she or anyone else in her position be made to conform to the style of speech that forces her to assimilate to likings of Mr. Trump comforts?  When her island is no longer in a catastrophe, should she thank him politely and have mild manners all of the sudden? No.  

I know first hand that the island is not at all a good story, nor are they asking the world to do everything for them.  They simply cannot do it alone.  My cousin in Isabela Puerto Rico that serves as a Police Officer messaged me after 10 days of not knowing what became of my entire family.  Oscar said they were all fine minus the lack of water and electricity. He told me first that Puerto Rico was nothing short of a Catastrophe.  

Our government has put Puerto Rico on the side lines of help because of a fiscal issue.  Meanwhile, the Mayor - Carmen Yulin Cruz is seeking to share the truth that her island of Puerto Rico is in utter despair.  With no running water, no electricity, and no fresh vegetation, the lack of communication and all of the entire island’s infrastructures has all collapsed, how is she supposed to respond to the Presidents’ demonizing her? What that means for us Latinas in the US is that we cannot allow that to continue by speaking up every time we are shut down publicly.  So here I am.  Donald Trump- my people of Puerto Rico are suffering and only your golf courses on land you purchased for a tax break back in 1994 is your biggest concern.  

We Latinas work to help inspire and lead teams because we care more about people more than ourselves.  Puerto Ricans are loving, thoughtful, loyal women that want to give of themselves. Jennifer Lopez and Carmen Y. Cruz have husspa!

Having been the product of a blue collar working family, (my dad worked for American Airline while mother RIP was a hair dresser ) I have had the luxury of traveling at a young age.  Along the path of my life, like many young Latinas (eg: Jennifer Lopez from the Bronx), I had the ability to see myself out of small beginnings growing up in suburban town of California. I am a product of the public school system, and would make myself upwardly mobile.  Along with my Puerto Rican values, I graduated from University Of California Berkeley.  This was a long time ago, and yet served me a long way to earning a position as a union Costume Designer in film and television shows. I am a member of the IATSE Local 892 Costume Designers Guild, a published writer for Foxnews.com, and a Social Media Strategist. While living bicoastal, between NYC and LA, I finally settled on NYC. I learned how to get up when times were tough. In 2008 during the housing market collapse I had crafted another career in the technology industry.  I was the 1 % female in a 99% dominated NY Tech meetup.  And, I was the only Latina in the technology industry as the VP of Marketing and Business Development at any advertising agency. At the time, I had a French male boss that nurtured my career while I helped in fortune 500 fashion businesses to partner with us as their agency of choice in the US. I had to eventually resign because I was brokering deals in French and my boss didn’t like it.  Later on, I would move into consulting and found that former clients would eventually be my biggest supporters.  

So why do I say that it has been so difficult to break the status quo in perception of the Latina leaders and in media? Because, like Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz, we carry the burden of being outspoken and take chances in delivering a daring honesty of facts. Carmen was hired as the Mayor because she understood how to lead a robust touristic city of our US – San Juan of Puerto Rico.  She exposed the truth to the world about the lack of resources and challenging our commander in Chief by insisting she was in the business of saving lives, and now she was verbally and publicly punished for it. Since then, she has been asked to keep a low profile.  But she hasn’t.  

Are we Latinas expected to always surrender our opinions as leaders of large organizations and political parties simply because we are too passionate?  It could be that entertainers such as Jennifer Lopez are thought of as merely an attractive actress, therefore, that the conservative elite agree she be regulated to the visibility of their audience on their public platforms in this case, only to serve as a woman to shake her assets for world to enjoy!  Respectfully, ideas of strong Latinas in leadership roles that do not involve performance exposes this dichotomy.  It supports the problem that we Puertoriqueñas have, which is that so long as if we are attractive, and long as we are merely an object of desire for entertainment purposes, and not in direct authority of a larger political or fiscal opinion, we are not to be taken seriously.  Although she is no JLO, Carmen is a beautiful woman. Hence, the irony and the truth is that all women are beautiful and therefore, we should be treated with dignity and respectfully. I have worked across the country from Chicago, Atlanta, New York and LA. Not all Latinas see the world the same, but throughout my travels, I was always acutely aware that I am not always in the company of people that share my political views.  What is really important is that we at least recognize the contributions of Latinas around the world for their fearless efforts and acts of bravery to care for her communities.

The sad truth is that I have been a published writer for the right winged FoxNews.com unaware of the negative reaction I would receive. I delivered stories that were thought provoking. However, I only recently realized that my Latina voice was used to gain their Latino following by blending my liberal minded film articles with Latino viewership statistics.  My decision to write articles for FoxNews.com was because, at the time, they gave me the opportunity to write about a changing Latino landscape in Cinema. I covered stories about Transgenders and gay centric films in Latin America, Oscar and Emmy nominated Latinos in the media as well as Cuban stories. The direction that Fox News may have had was to strategize bringing in my stories to add more Latina/o eye balls on their website. At that time, I was offered a job and I didn’t see how spin eventually effected my story.  It inevitably trickled down to all of us drinking their Kool-Aid.