Mi Pobre Hijo, My Ass

Tonight I heard something come out of my boyfriend's mother's mouth and I wanted to ring her neck. It's not as if I haven't heard what she said come out of her mouth before, but tonight I was feeling in one of those moods where it was impossible to tolerate stupid behavior from a fellow woman.

My boyfriend, his mother and I were sitting at the kitchen table chatting about his brother having just placed a bid on a foreclosed house. His mother gave me an apple to eat and I stood up to wash it off at the kitchen sink. As I was standing there, she said, "Mi'jo [my son] wants a plate of food".

I turned around to look at him because we had just eaten prior to going to her house. He stared at me with a smirk on his face, because I'm sure that he was well aware that shit was going to soon hit the fan and sparks were going to start flying.

I said, "We just ate. He doesn't want anything".

She said, "Oh, yes he does. I know he does. Please serve him a plate of food."

Are you antagonizing me, bitch?

I said, "If he's hungry he can make a plate for himself".

She said, "Oh, mi pobre hijo!!! (my poor son). He has a woman who doesn't even care if he starves to death."

I flipped around and told her, "If your pobre hijo wants something to eat, then he can make his own damn plate. And he can serve me a nice plate too, while he's at it".

Then she said, "Oh, I wish he would have married a nice girl like Marielena. She would have given him a plate".

Who, the Marielena on the corner with four kids and a cheating husband? Marielena the doormat? I don't think so.

I sat there for another twenty minutes and listened to her whine about whether or not I would ever marry her son, how we should live together, when will we ever have children, why will I not baptize my children if we ever decide to have children, blablabla. I wanted to slap the hell out of her, but honestly she is very, very ill and I just didn't have it in me to beat the shit out of a sick, old lady. So I just let her go on and on.

This is the thing about so many Latina mothers that makes me want to vomit. This kind of mentality has been shoved down my throat since I was a wee little girl. I'm so sick of watching Latina women baby and coddle their pobre little hijos. It happened to me as a child with my brother, it happens in my family, and I've even seen some of my former friends do it when they have little boys. Enough already, please. I would like to hope that my generation is not pulling this same crap, but deep in my heart I know that many of them are.

It's little things like these, that even happen in our very own families, that the unconventional women of the world have to deal with on an everyday basis.