Aida Rodriguez is a Puerto Rican and Dominican comic, actor, and creator. In 2019, she had her personal 30 minutes particular on Netflix’s hit comedy sequence “They In a position,” executive-produced by means of Tiffany Haddish and Wanda Sykes. In November 2021, she launched her first-hour stand-up particular “Preventing Phrases,” which premiered on Max, and in October 2023, Rodriguez launched her memoir “Respectable Child.”
For Psychological Well being Consciousness Month, we requested Latine comedians we respect how comedy has supported them in overcoming trauma and confronting lifestyles’s most vital demanding situations. Learn the items right here.
I have all the time considered comedy as a coping mechanism for people who find themselves in decrease financial eventualities or simply coping with very arduous instances. Within the phrases of Kevin Hart: “Snigger at my ache.” My upbringing was once no other. I did not truly have interaction in comedy as a lot when I used to be more youthful as a result of I used to be an overly shy and timid child. However humor was once all the time round me, and I discovered at an overly younger age the facility of laughter.
My grandmother was once an overly humorous girl. She had this wonderful skill to give heavy subjects like poverty or even loss of life in ways in which have been funny. To start with, I used to suppose it was once insensitive, however I temporarily discovered that it was once only a coping mechanism and a approach to make issues digestible as a result of lifestyles was once already arduous sufficient. Rising up, I noticed all of it. There was once poverty. There was once violence. There have been medicine, adultery, and misogyny. For some other people, laughter was once the one software they needed to navigate all that.
It was once in school that I truly began to seek out my comedic voice. Comedy become my method of surviving bullies and imply other people. It become my armor and method of defending myself from the youngsters who have been obviously going via stuff at house however had to poke a laugh at others to really feel higher about themselves. As a substitute of being confrontational or unstable, I used to be simply humorous.
My grandmother and mom closely influenced my comedy and humorousness. They have been naturally humorous girls. My mother is an overly confrontational girl. She would get into it with the opposite girls within the development or in the community, and would all the time pop out profitable as a result of she knew the best way to close other people down along with her phrases — and oftentimes, the issues she stated have been simply straight-up humorous. My grandmother was once all the time so witty with it. It is humorous after I pay attention other people say that ladies don’t seem to be humorous, or I will infrequently pay attention Latino males say they do not truly like girls comedians, and then you definately pay attention them inform their tales. They are all the time speaking about how hilarious their grandmothers or their moms are. Latinas are truly the comedians within the circle of relatives. A large number of us are naturally humorous — it is in our blood.
I began observing stand-up comedy when I used to be little. My uncle used to hear Richard Pryor. That was once my first creation to stand-up comedy. I cherished Johnny Carson, and I cherished “I Love Lucy.” I used to observe El Chavo and L. a. Chilindrina with my grandmother. In Miami, that they had a display referred to as “Qué Pasa USA.” It was once a display a couple of Cuban circle of relatives, and the grandmother at the display was once probably the most funniest other people I have ever noticed. I began appreciating humor and skilled the relaxation it equipped at a rather younger age. Nevertheless it was once no longer till later in my lifestyles that I spotted I sought after to try this for a dwelling.
Comedy got here after appearing. I used to be a fashion for years, and I moved to LA in 2000 to turn out to be an actor. I began doing stand-up in 2008. I had long gone out for brunch to have fun a chum’s birthday, and he or she requested us to roast her. I roasted her, and a chum there stated, “Oh, you will have to be doing stand-up. You are naturally humorous.” He gave me the deal with and data to an open mic, and I went and did it, and I by no means stopped.
After I began functioning at open mics, I began noticing how therapeutic comedy was once — no longer only for the target market but additionally for me. I did not truly get started with observational humor. I went immediately to the wound. My first jokes have been about my modeling profession and turning into anorexic. I addressed tough issues I had skilled in my very own lifestyles, and it helped me heal from the ones reports whilst additionally making other folks who may just relate really feel noticed.
My paintings become cathartic after I began writing subject matter about my early life. Other people would means me after my units and say, “Oh my god. Thanks. I have by no means noticed a model of myself or a mirrored image of myself.” My early life began to steer such a lot of my subject matter that it become like treatment for me. I began unpacking and therapeutic from many traumas I skilled rising up, ultimately inspiring me to put in writing my memoir, “Respectable Child.” It made me notice how a lot our tales subject, and we mustn’t belittle them as a result of white The us is telling us they do not subject. That’s what has stored the gasoline going for me.
Making jokes about my circle of relatives, my group, and the arduous issues I skilled rising up has allowed others to look themselves in my tales. In the case of my very own therapeutic, that relatability was once a part of it. It was once seeing that I wasn’t on my own and that there are others who additionally did not develop up having their fathers of their lives. It was once the primary time I began to really feel happy with the place I got here from, and it helped me paintings via one of the stuff I used to be coping with. Even with the jokes about my mother, many of us would come as much as me and inform me their mother was once the similar method. In some ways, it is also healed my courting with my mother as a result of appearing and having other people heal via my phrases contributes to my very own therapeutic.
As a Latina, we are raised with this mentality that you do not proportion the circle of relatives’s industry. So, whilst I to begin with had my hesitations, they authorized each comic story I have ever advised in regards to the circle of relatives prior to it made it to the level. I all the time ensure that they are cool with it. I used to be particularly cautious when it got here to my mother and my daughter as a result of sexism and misogyny, particularly in our communities, are rampant and actual, and other people like to demonize girls. So, I used to be all the time very leery about presenting them in some way the place it might take off by itself, and other people would communicate shit.
Making jokes in regards to the issues I skilled rising up has additionally allowed me to look the wonder in my upbringing. It wasn’t all darkish, and it wasn’t all dangerous. After I began doing stand-up, I used to listen to always other people say such things as, “These kind of Black and Latino comedians discuss is their lives within the hood, meals stamps, and being broke.” You possibly can pay attention that from white comics how our comedy wasn’t “increased.” However I by no means allowed them to push me right into a nook the place I felt like I needed to emulate them to be of worth as a result of numerous other people do. At first of my profession, I indisputably noticed that there was once numerous drive put on comedians of colour to not perpetuate stereotypes, however actually that a few of our kin are hood. A few of our kin did behave a definite method, and there is not anything fallacious with that, and that is the reason no longer simply unique to other people of colour — there are white other people like that as smartly.
Comedy brings us all in combination. There is a connective tissue there, particularly in a group with such a lot range. Thru humor, we will be able to in finding each and every different and in finding relatability. Other people cherished when George Lopez mentioned his grandmother as a result of that is one thing many people have in not unusual. Comedy additionally works as a common language. Even supposing we aren’t from the similar tradition, everyone laughs as it has this connective tissue. Comedy connects other people of all backgrounds and walks of lifestyles via laughter.
— As advised to Johanna Ferreira
Johanna Ferreira is the content material director for POPSUGAR Juntos. With greater than 10 years of revel in, Johanna specializes in how intersectional identities are a central a part of Latine tradition. In the past, she spent with regards to 3 years because the deputy editor at HipLatina, and he or she has freelanced for a large number of shops together with Refinery29, O Mag, Attract, InStyle, and Smartly+Excellent. She has additionally moderated and spoken on a large number of panels on Latine identification.