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Capitalizing on the Mamiverse : Preliminary Thoughts

9:04 am By Maegan La Mala · Media · 30 Comments

19 Jul 2011

I came across the article from the Daily Beast as it made it’s way across my twitter stream. The article, titled, Meet the Fútbol Moms, focuses on the launch of a new website targeting mamis, that is Latina moms. The website, Mamiverse, which I have yet to explore in depth, promises to give Latina mamis, a huge demographic, “the Oprah treatment”.

Who said we wanted that?

According to the article, what the Mamiverse wants to do is to prove that all Latina mothers are not undocumented anchor baby makers. Well those words weren’t used. These were:

In a period when American-born Latinas have been caught in the national freakout about “border security,” Mamiverse offers them a new spokeswoman. She’s a particular kind of Latina mom—an English-speaking, all-American gal. “The young, acculturated, affluent, online Latina is speaking English, and is imbibing media in English,” says Rene Alegria, the site’s 36-year-old founder and CEO.

In other word a Latina who is happy to pass? All- American meaning anything but Latin American. The website wants us all to be Gabriela Solis apparently. Oh and Rene Alegria – not a mami.

From the article:

He was born in Tucson, Ariz., in 1975. His family is a case study in the acculturation process he now trumpets. Alegria’s grandparents immigrated from Sonora, Mexico, in 1955 and still don’t speak English. By the time he was 19, Alegria was living in New York and working at the publisher Simon & Schuster…At 25, as a young editor at HarperCollins, Alegria founded Rayo, the first major Hispanic imprint in New York publishing. He insisted that most of Rayo’s books, from authors like Ray Suarez and Jorge Ramos, should be in English…The imprint began producing mostly Spanish-language books. “It ended up being the Telemundo of book publishing,” Alegria moans. He left in 2009.

According to the article, Alegria was “horrified” at the calls for a boycott when Arizona’s SB1070 passed. The Mamiverse – again not started by a mami – is based in Arizona.

The Mamiverse has started with a star lineup of mamis including Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, Maria Hinojosa, Daisy Fuentes. It has also started with one exclusive retailer ready to sell to the new demographic- Target.

The end of the article tries to make the Mamiverse political – saying that it is the mamis who will determine the 2012 election.

Alegria thinks Mom will be the one brokering the conversation. “The next César Chávez,” he says grandly, “is going to be a Latina mom.”

Because apparently Latina moms have never done anything politically before this moment.
Based solely on the article (again I have not really analyzed the actual site) it seems the success of the Mamiverse is based on the notion of erasing the idea of otherness which means that any mami who does not fit into this upwardly mobile, English speaking, non-pork eating mold gets further pushed into the shadows.

Pass me the pernil because I am not sitting at that table.

Have you checked out the Mamiverse? Does it represent your mami’hood?

Single moms=”broken”?

7:54 pm By la Macha · Celebrities|children|Family|society · 3 Comments

27 Mar 2009

madonna No, I’m not the biggest fan in the world of white celebrities adopting brown babies from across the world. I think it’s shady on so many levels–and what the hell is wrong with foster care? They are some of the few people who actually have the resources and time to make it all the way through a foster adoption, it doesn’t make sense to me why they feel they need to go outside of their own countries to adopt.

Having said that, I read about Madonna’s attempts to adopt again with interest. Apparently, her newly single status is causing problems for her:

Madonna’s trying to adopt another baby, a little girl named Mercy, from Malawi, but may have a tougher time without Guy Ritchie at her side. “Our official policy is that we do not encourage our children to be sent into broken homes,” a senior official from Malawi’s Ministry of Women and Child Welfare Development said. “Her relationships may negatively affect the adoption of Mercy.”

And of course the LA Times blurb follows up with a swipe at single mother Nadya Suleman.

What about going after one of Nadya Suleman’s little ones?

It’s interesting how this small blurb juxtaposes so much of U.S. cultures biases against single mothers. Single mothers are always suspect and wrong, but some single mothers invoke sympathy in their “wrongness” and others don’t. It’s interesting how the single mother’s that invoke sympathy are invariably well-off and white.

Dr. Phil is a Turd in my Toilet Bowl

10:54 am By la Macha · children|Women · Comments Off

27 Feb 2009

This Nadya Suleman story just won’t go away.

The latest news is that Dr. Phil felt the need to bully Suleman until she finally admitted on national television that it was a mistake to have her very much alive children (who will one day get to witness said admission, hooray!).

The thing that cracks me up here (in an ironic sarcastic way), is that as somebody who was mildly interested when those sextuplets were born years ago (the ones that Diane Sawyer kept interviewing), I know that that family *also* was counting on the resources friends, family, and neighbors/community members were willing to provide. I remember that they started off living in a small house and only finally moved to a bigger house because corporate sponsors provided them with one. And I have yet to see *any* of the houses of these families (including the oh so on top of it Duggar family) that don’t look like train wrecks.

So why are all these things (messy houses, lack of resources, getting help from friends and family) so cute and wonderful when it’s other families and so horrible and terrifying when it’s Nadya Suleman?

And why does Dr. Phil think it’s his right to act as representative of the U.S. when interrogating Suleman’s choices?

I know a lot of people will point to the fact that Suleman has 14 children and seems economically unready to handle them–but I have to say, as a mother of two, it makes nary a difference if you are living on welfare/student loans with 2 children or with 50. When you don’t have money–you simply don’t have money. You can’t get “more” broke than broke, right? So is it *really* an issue how many children she has?

Or is it more just a fact that like *all* single mothers, Suleman seems to be flouncing in the face of the world that heterosexual relationships are simply unnecessary to have and raise children? Or like all mothers of color, Suleman keeps bringing all these little brown babies into the world like they have a right to be here? Or like all women who may have mental health issues, Suleman is continuing to live life as if she has a right to live life, even though people with mental health issues are supposed to be locked up with the key thrown away? Or does it just piss the poor Dr. Phils amongst us off to no end that women can (ARGH NO) get *rich* off of having kids? Rather than working our big white butts to the bone like Dr. Phil so clearly has?

If we get over the fact that she has 14 children (so the hell what), we can start to uncover some truly disturbing trends in how U.S. culture treats women and mothers specifically. Will we be brave enough to do that?

Celebrity Families=Irritation on La Macha’s Behind.

2:22 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Celebrities · 1 Comment

2 Dec 2008

I discovered this morning that I spend a lot of time truly irritated at celebrity news. These days, the sole function of celebrity news seems to be to make me feel paranoid about my parenting abilities.

Take, for example, the incessant reports on MSNBC about the Duggar family and their debt-free-picture-perfect-17-children-and-pregnant again selves. I firmly feel the only reason that family exists is to prove that white folks can outdo everybody on everything.

And then there’s the beyond irritating Brad Pitt:

I guess if I were awesome enough, I would have realized that my kids decide everything about my life, including who and when I will marry, not just when I can go to the bathroom in peace and how I put peanut butter and jelly on a sandwich.

I really need to stop reading celebrity news.

Maegan La Mala: Thank you Ana. You have always had a kind word and great example. As I tweeted yesterday the biggest [...]

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Posts Tagged ‘motherhood’

Capitalizing on the Mamiverse : Preliminary Thoughts

Single moms=”broken”?

Dr. Phil is a Turd in my Toilet Bowl

Celebrity Families=Irritation on La Macha’s Behind.

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