Finally! Mi Gente!

I am shining all my shoes. And my boots and sandals, too. St.Peter might call me and I want to look presentable.

Why, you might ask, am I preparing for looking my best for the next chapter?  I have spent the past week holed up in front of my TV avoiding the coronavirus like the rest of the planet.  And a miracle happened. In 65 years of watching more television than I care to calculate, I have finally seen Mi Gente!

My people! People of the Americas. Indigenous, mestizo, mighty and in all our multiplicities. On two --count 'em-- not one, Netflix series. This qualifies as a miracle of the media kind in this retired Communications and Journalism teacher’s eyes.

Gentefied is set in Los Angeles and Undone is set here in Texas. Both are so worthy of praise and being cited as a media miracle.

My shoes are shined Saint Peter you can take me now, but I hope you take your time.  I want to see more of this miracle of finally seeing Raza portrayed in complex storylines with fully rendered push and pull of young and old, traditional and modern, and chingos of diversity.

The miracle of 2020 is that I have lived long enough to finally see television that portrays people that look like me: Not white, not black,  not brown, not yellow, but everything all at once. Throw into this mix the beauty of our armful of languages, music, art, and spirituality and you have a glimpse of the true Raza Cosmica whatever that might be shaping into.

I know portraying raza was a lot for Madison Avenue and Hollywood to take in with their tendency to flatten and simplify. Then, bam! Like the Big Bang only with a great soundtrack. Now that it's here, I'm still picking myself off the couch in disbelief. And boy, have I been waiting.

Besides being ecstatic, maybe, as Anne Lamott might say, some of us might be a little pissed with TV for only showing us as anything but hookers and gangsters. But it seems that if you wait long enough miracles sometimes do happen.

Now when and if I ever do make it past St. Peter’s gate, I plan walk in muy dueña wearing my shiny shoes and I'm going to ask what the hell took so dang long for TV to finally show our cultura’s beautiful diversity and dignity!??

I hope St. Peter understands I’m not ungrateful, just a little moody about the long-ass wait.