Look, it’s no secret that many Latina moms exaggerate. Like when they woke you up at 6:20 a.m. and told you to hurry up because it was already 7 a.m. – only for you to rush out of bed and realize you were duped. Or when you didn’t take seconds at dinner so they thought something was amiss. But perhaps the time they exaggerate most is when you have not telephoned them for a day or two (but as some of us know, our moms won’t phone us in that time either, so ?). As soon as they pick up, they hit you with the “ya te olvidaste de mí.”
While I know I can get away with maybe one day without calling before I start feeling guilty because I know my mom will in turn, guilt me, I’m reminded that not every mom is like mine. In a recent interview with the Daily Mail, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s mami, Blanca Ocasio-Cortez, talked about her daughter’s meteoric rise and shared a lot of interesting tidbits – like what Star Trek star Kate Mulgrew’s presence at a rally meant to AOC. But the part that most caught my eye was probably something the Daily Mail didn’t think twice about. After adding in a quote from Blanca saying that her daughter needs her privacy, the outlet added that Bianca “speaks with her daughter three to four times a month.”
AOC is incredibly busy. At 29 years old, she’s the youngest woman ever elected to Congress, and as she tries to push the government toward progressive ideals, she’s become very in-demand. It makes sense that those closest to her are as accommodating as possible, but I still feel like if I were in her place, my mom would expect to receive a phone call from me every day. (And to be honest, I feel like I would need to lean on my mom more if I were in such a stressful position.)
Turns out, I’m not the only one who thinks this. I turned to the office Slack channel and got similar responses from my peers. Isabelia, the music editor here at Remezcla, said:
Vanessa, the film editor, reminded me that she tweeted about something similar months ago when she wondered why TV shows didn’t incorporate grown adults calling their parents more often. She received several humorous anecdotes from people who also said they couldn’t get away with calling their parents once in a while.
We all have reasons why we can’t call our moms every day, so Latina moms of the world, just remember sometimes, like AOC, we’re trying to make the world a better place.