La Chicana Pamela Ponce

I AM PAM By: Pamela Ponce Mascorro I am Pam. I am another American Dream kid. I am my parent's pride. Like many, I am Mexican. Like many, I faced many challenges as a kid. Like many, my family was on welfare until they could catch a breath. Like many, I am the oldest sibling who always had to be a second mother. Like many, I was looked at. I was the expectation. I NEEDED to be better than my parents. I needed to succeed. I needed to be what they were not. What exactly is success? Success is hard to describe. For many, success is a big house, a dream car, a fat bank account. It took me years, but now I know what success is. At least to me. Success is happiness. How happy you are determines your amount of success. For many years, I was not successful. I had it all. College education, Great paying job, Dream car, Husband that cared for me, Family that loved me unconditionally, Physical health. You might wonder, Why...

FRIDA KAHLO An effort in being more inclusive or a marketing stunt? I must admit: I am an avid makeup shopper. When I am stressed, I like to shop and my category of choice is usually makeup. I can go to Ulta beauty and walk through the isles for hours and not get bored.    This week, I took a trip to my closest Ulta beauty and was surprised by what I saw.   In one of the main store displays, I saw that the Ulta brand created a Frida Kahlo collection.  My initial reaction was "cool!" but after thinking about it, I began to wonder if Ulta Beauty was simply doing this to try to look inclusive without really caring about Frida Kahlo and what she represents. In her time, Frida was seen as an icon for Chicanos and will go down in history as one of the most influential women in the world. After coming home, I did some research and found that there were various articles online that mentioned that  Ulta received backlash over this collection. One...

The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House Women have fought to be seen for decades. At last, women began being seen. However, if you were a woman of color, poor or had a different sexual orientation, you were still invisible. In the Master's tools speech, Lorde was trying to get a message accross that everyone needs a seat at the table. You cannot preach that you are fighting change by ignoring it. As a reader, it is easy to think that this does not occur in our current society. When reading this essay, I couldn't help but think how many women have seats at important tables. Politics: in the U.S., we have yet to have a female president. In congress, only about a fourth are women. In coorporate America, about a fourth of its Executive Officers are women. Why is it that men are the ones who are primarily trusted to be in positions of power? "Too emotional" they say. In my case, I am a Chicana, middle class woman who is empowered in not ...