21 Comments
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Faye Boam's avatar

you've done it again, Caroline. with each of these stories you write, the way women are erased, and erase themselves, becomes clearer, more devastating. but also more hopeful - i know you know you're shedding light on something that needs to be seen

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Caroline's avatar

Thank you so much, my friend! I like that you see the hope too despite the sadness. That’s my goal 🤍

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Marco & Sabrina's avatar

100% agree, Faye. Yet another great piece, Caroline

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Caroline's avatar

Thank you so much!!!

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Isabel Cowles Murphy's avatar

Once again I knew none of this! So heartbreaking and insightfully… what a gift to these women to have their stories retold.

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Caroline's avatar

Thank you!!!!! Appreciate it!!

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Jenovia 🕸️'s avatar

"Think of it as cultural diplomacy with a side of maracas." This made me belly roll laugh out loud. Still TO THIS DAY, I sing the same Carmen Miranda song in Portuguese and have no idea what I'm saying. Her voice and image forever singed into me.

I had no idea she had such a rough time at the end and she died so young!! 😭

"Because every icon is a person first. And sometimes the brightest spotlights cast the darkest shadows." mic drop 🎤

In regards to another comment, Latin women are still very much fetishized here, it just isn't done on such a grandiose scale. Although Sofia Vergara's character in Modern Family exists so...

As a Latin woman myself, I experience comments, stereotypes, assumptions. Weeeeeee 🫠

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Caroline's avatar

Ahhhh sing sing sing! I think she’d love that! And it really does suck how we fall in love with these people/characters when we’re young and we have no knowledge of all the background noise…But damn the fetishizing never ends right? It just morphs into less obvious ways so that it’s more “acceptable” for modern times.

Let me see somebody comment something like that to you…🔪

🫂🤍🫂

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Jenovia 🕸️'s avatar

Hahahaha 😍😍😍❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥

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Lily Yee's avatar

Beautifully told. Wow. I did not realize she died so young. Such a tragedy. Thank you for magnifying Carmen’s abundance beyond the fruit basket. Love your exploration of these classic women!

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Caroline's avatar

Thank you so much for this comment! 🤍❤️

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Arty Cweiber's avatar

Thank you for bringing her story to light… it’s truly sad how so many people (especially women) are exploited and stripped down to a caricature of themselves all in the name of “entertainment.”

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Caroline's avatar

Thank you my friend!!! 🤍✨

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appleton king's avatar

the shrinking down of others to "qualities that suit us best" necessarily deserves some contemplation...it is tempting to arrange personalities on a shelf for organisational purposes if nothing else but there is something else: the surrender to the messiness of human depth and complexity...its worthwhile risk-taking

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Caroline's avatar

Definitely worth the risk!!!

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Eileen Dougharty's avatar

Loving your closer looks at vintage famous ladies. Terribly sad she was reduced to such a one note role and subsequently died too young.

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Caroline's avatar

Thanks Eileen! Not a terribly happy one for today…

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J just J's avatar

I didn’t realize she died so young. That is sad.

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Caroline's avatar

Lots of sadness!

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David Perlmutter's avatar

She represents one of the ultimate examples of the United States fetishizing "exotic" cultures presumed not to be their own- which was easier to do when there weren't many actual people of those nationalities actually living there. Now, however, the Latin diaspora in the U.S. is an extremely strong political group and would forbid this happening.

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Nov 16
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Caroline's avatar

Thank you, Mike!!

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