By Wendy Mateo
Storytelling is at the crux of the Latino experience woven through the fabric of our own American histories. I grew up mostly as a single kid surrounded by a ton of cousins and family. During the weekdays, those cousins weren’t around, so most of my time was spent listening to my grandmother tell me stories of her childhood and of moving to the United States. My imagination would then run wild and I would picture her beautiful and young in the ‘40s and ‘50s, glamorous the way that media always portrayed it. I know now, it wasn’t glamorous at all for my grandmother, a Dominican immigrant transplanted to the South Bronx in an era where it was tough to be anything but a white American. Nevertheless, I was enraptured by her stories.
My mom’s stories were drastically different, being born in the South Bronx to immigrant parents. My mom attended Washington Heights High School, whose claim to fame was having the first installation of metal detectors in the country. But I would still fantasize about growing up in the ‘60s and ‘70s, people protesting the war, and speaking out about what they believed in. I thought everyone back then was a hippie. She would tell me I was crazy when I asked her if she went to Woodstock. She was like, “Qué, que?! With your strict Dominican grandfather?! No way!”
“My imagination would then run wild and I would picture her beautiful and young in the ‘40s and ‘50s…” | Photo from hungrysofia.com, “Abuela’s bachelorette party.”
And so I began to learn that the history mainstream media feeds its viewers and that schools feed their students, is most assuredly not the only history to tell. I began to realize that my family’s stories were not being told. And when I began to share my family’s stories with my friends and peers, they began to share theirs. My friends were Peruvian, Cuban, Mexican, even Filipino, Jamaican, Indian and Pakistani. Some were immigrants, and some were first generation or second generation, all with their own story of assimilation, acculturation and feeling out of place in their own homes. I was not hearing or seeing these stories portrayed anywhere around me.
When I began writing comedy, I started with what I knew. I created my Abuelita character, modeled after my own abuelita. I mostly created her out of missing my abuela who had recently passed. But I began to learn so much more about her as I brought her to the stage. She was not only wise and relatable, but she was also tragically flawed, because that is the truth of the human experience. I realized when people approached me after shows, whether they were Latino or not, they could relate to Abuelita, they would liken her to their own grandmothers or matriarchal figures. Our stories are not just for us, these are universal themes that affect us all at some point in our lives and who am I to keep that from mainstream audiences.
Right now, Chicago is a hot bed of storytelling, whether on the comedy stages, in the theaters, or bars, there are true histories being shared. There is Gwen La Roka’s stand-up bit about her mom chasing her around the room with a chancleta after disrespecting her. And I’ll never forget Elizardi Castro’s story of going back to Puerto Rico with his law degree and his aunt, so proud, wouldn’t let anybody in her family eat dinner until Eli ate his. Or what do you think of the upbringing of Jasbir Singh a comedian who grew up in Wisconsin with an Indian dad and Argentinian mom.
These are our true stories. We are writing the history to a new America. The America we grew up in while cognizant of the legacy we leave behind. Pícaro Media is at the heart of the telling of this new history. We are hunting for authentic stories and new ways to tell them.
At the same time, we are teaching the brands and media executives that we work with: “There’s more than one way to speak to us and we’re not just talking Spanish or English.” The language of the American Latino is bicultural, bilingual, furiously creative, innovative, smart and funny.
I will hopefully have a curious little granddaughter or grandson one day, and I will want them to know their true history, the one we are writing today; the one we are working for, so that they can recognize a piece of themselves in the characters portrayed on screen.
Wendy Mateo is one of two Executive Producers at Pícaro Media, a content production house geared toward creating content for the New Generation Latino across all screens. Ponte listo. Ponte Pícaro.
