Rodriguez is a DominiRican woman warrior who fights hard and loves hard-for her family members, her children, motherhood, and respect. (A brother named Chino, “I ain’t gotta tell you how he looks ” a sister, “the white one, she gets us in the club ” another brother “who looks Latino, his name is Carlos, of course!” and Rodriguez herself, “the indigenous/negra, depending on who you’re asking.”) The white friend was further confused when Rodriguez said their father’s name was Colin, “I was like, yeah, colonization bitch!”
When Rodriguez’s white friend came over for a visit, she was confused by Rodriguez’s half-siblings, who share the same mother, but phenotypically vary in hues and facial features. Race is a social construct that Rodriguez hilariously tackles within her own family, particularly against tired tropes that Latines have long perpetuated. “‘Cause if you ever want to piss a Puerto Rican mother off, you come home with somebody who doesn’t believe in Jesus or eat pork.” But Rodriguez’s mom wasn’t actually racist towards her Black American son-in-law, because their entire family looked like a ”Benetton ad”, she just didn’t like that he was a Muslim. Its variations, adelantar la raza, or blanquear la raza, are ugly racist mantras that’ve been ingrained in our heads to routinely center anti-Blackness over and over again within Latinidad. “Until I got pregnant from a Black dude… then they became pro-abortion in the name of Jesus.” This, of course, stems from the all too familiar, all too toxic, and all too harmful three little words commonly heard in Latinx/Latine households: mejorar la raza. She candidly describes growing up in a “super religious” family, including Pentecostals and Seventh-Day Adventists who were staunchly anti-abortion. Rodriguez’s comedic ministry in Fighting Words revolves around misogyny, sex, dating, family dysfunction, and particularly, anti-Blackness and colorism within Latinx/Latine communities. At the Hudson Yards screening, Rodriguez was dressed in the same cobalt blue power suit she wears in the promo images, exuding the boss comedienne energy of a woman who fully owns and understands her narrative. Rodriguez enlisted Afro-Puerto Rican and Bronx-born Hallgren, and Puerto Rican filmmaker Kristian Mercado ( Pa’lante, Nuevo Rico) as directors, hired Puerto Ricans and Dominicans on both islands during production, and passed the mic to emerging Dominican comedians at a stand-up show in Santo Domingo. Written, performed, and co-executive produced by Rodriguez, Fighting Words is in many ways a love letter to her Puerto Rican and Dominican cultures.
#Aida rodriguez tv
At HBO’s headquarters at Hudson Yards, the bold and outspoken DominiRican comic was joined by Fighting Words co-director Nadia Hallgren (Emmy-nominated for Becoming) for an intimate conversation moderated by Hunter College professor and Puerto Rican scholar Yarimar Bonilla to unpack the personal, the political, and the problematic, in her new TV project.įighting Words is an hour-long special, broken up with a 45-minute stand-up set in the Bronx, where Rodriguez digs into her complicated family dynamics and gives a brutally honest hot take on cancel culture, and a 15-minute documentary where she travels to Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic to soul search, awaken, and honor her roots. “I capitalize a lot on talking about being Puerto Rican and Dominican, so it was very important to me that I gave back to the community,” shared Aida Rodriguez while onstage in early November following a New York screening of her latest HBO Max comedy special Fighting Words.
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