Aida Rodriguez Used Comedy to Unpacking Childhood Traumas

Aida Rodriguez is a Puerto Rican and Dominican comic, actor, and author. In 2019, she had her personal half-hour particular on Netflix’s hit comedy collection “They Prepared,” executive-produced by Tiffany Haddish and Wanda Sykes. In November 2021, she launched her first-hour stand-up particular “Combating Phrases,” which premiered on Max, and in October 2023, Rodriguez launched her memoir “Legit Child.”

For Psychological Well being Consciousness Month, we requested Latine comedians we admire how comedy has supported them in overcoming trauma and confronting life’s most vital challenges. Learn the items right here.

I’ve all the time considered comedy as a coping mechanism for people who find themselves in decrease financial conditions or simply coping with very laborious circumstances. Within the phrases of Kevin Hart: “Snort at my ache.” My upbringing was no completely different. I did not actually have interaction in comedy as a lot once I was youthful as a result of I used to be a really shy and timid child. However humor was all the time round me, and I discovered at a really younger age the facility of laughter.

My grandmother was a really humorous girl. She had this wonderful capability to current heavy matters like poverty and even demise in ways in which had been humorous. At first, I used to assume it was insensitive, however I rapidly discovered that it was only a coping mechanism and a technique to make issues digestible as a result of life was already laborious sufficient. Rising up, I noticed all of it. There was poverty. There was violence. There have been medicine, adultery, and misogyny. For some folks, laughter was the one instrument they needed to navigate all that.

It was in school that I actually began to search out my comedic voice. Comedy turned my means of surviving bullies and imply folks. It turned my armor and means of defending myself from the children who had been clearly going via stuff at house however wanted to poke enjoyable at others to really feel higher about themselves. As a substitute of being confrontational or unstable, I used to be simply humorous.

My grandmother and mom closely influenced my comedy and humorousness. They had been naturally humorous ladies. My mother is a really confrontational girl. She would get into it with the opposite ladies within the constructing or within the neighborhood, and would all the time come out profitable as a result of she knew the way to shut folks down together with her phrases — and oftentimes, the issues she stated had been simply straight-up humorous. My grandmother was all the time so witty with it. It is humorous once I hear folks say that ladies aren’t humorous, or I will sometimes hear Latino males say they do not actually like ladies comedians, and you then hear them inform their tales. They’re all the time speaking about how hilarious their grandmothers or their moms are. Latinas are actually the comedians within the household. Numerous us are naturally humorous — it is in our blood.

I began watching stand-up comedy once I was little. My uncle used to hearken to Richard Pryor. That was my first introduction to stand-up comedy. I cherished Johnny Carson, and I cherished “I Love Lucy.” I used to observe El Chavo and La Chilindrina with my grandmother. In Miami, they’d a present known as “Qué Pasa USA.” It was a present a couple of Cuban household, and the grandmother on the present was one of many funniest folks I’ve ever seen. I began appreciating humor and skilled the reduction it supplied at a comparatively younger age. However it was not till later in my life that I spotted I needed to do that for a residing.

Comedy got here after appearing. I used to be a mannequin for years, and I moved to LA in 2000 to turn into an actor. I began doing stand-up in 2008. I had gone out for brunch to have a good time a buddy’s birthday, and he or she requested us to roast her. I roasted her, and a buddy there stated, “Oh, try to be doing stand-up. You are naturally humorous.” He gave me the deal with and knowledge to an open mic, and I went and did it, and I by no means stopped.

As soon as I began acting at open mics, I began noticing how therapeutic comedy was — not only for the viewers but in addition for me. I did not actually begin with observational humor. I went straight to the wound. My first jokes had been about my modeling profession and turning into anorexic. I addressed tough issues I had skilled in my very own life, and it helped me heal from these experiences whereas additionally making of us who might relate really feel seen.

My work turned cathartic once I began writing materials about my childhood. Individuals would strategy me after my units and say, “Oh my god. Thanks. I’ve by no means seen a model of myself or a mirrored image of myself.” My childhood began to affect a lot of my materials that it turned like remedy for me. I began unpacking and therapeutic from many traumas I skilled rising up, ultimately inspiring me to write down my memoir, “Legit Child.” It made me notice how a lot our tales matter, and we should not belittle them as a result of white America is telling us they do not matter. That’s what has stored the gas going for me.

Making jokes about my household, my neighborhood, and the laborious issues I skilled rising up has allowed others to see themselves in my tales. When it comes to my very own therapeutic, that relatability was a part of it. It was seeing that I wasn’t alone and that there are others who additionally did not develop up having their fathers of their lives. It was the primary time I began to really feel happy with the place I got here from, and it helped me work via among the stuff I used to be coping with. Even with the jokes about my mother, many individuals would come as much as me and inform me their mother was the identical means. In some ways, it is also healed my relationship with my mother as a result of performing and having folks heal via my phrases contributes to my very own therapeutic.

As a Latina, we’re raised with this mentality that you do not share the household’s enterprise. So, whereas I initially had my hesitations, they permitted each joke I’ve ever advised concerning the household earlier than it made it to the stage. I all the time guarantee that they’re cool with it. I used to be particularly cautious when it got here to my mother and my daughter as a result of sexism and misogyny, particularly in our communities, are rampant and actual, and other people like to demonize ladies. So, I used to be all the time very leery about presenting them in a means the place it might take off by itself, and other people would discuss shit.

Making jokes concerning the issues I skilled rising up has additionally allowed me to see the sweetness in my upbringing. It wasn’t all darkish, and it wasn’t all dangerous. After I began doing stand-up, I used to listen to on a regular basis folks say issues like, “All these Black and Latino comedians discuss is their lives within the hood, meals stamps, and being broke.” You’d hear that from white comics how our comedy wasn’t “elevated.” However I by no means allowed them to push me right into a nook the place I felt like I needed to emulate them to be of worth as a result of lots of people do. Initially of my profession, I undoubtedly noticed that there was a variety of stress positioned on comedians of coloration to not perpetuate stereotypes, however the fact is that a few of our family members are hood. A few of our family members did behave a sure means, and there is nothing fallacious with that, and that is not simply unique to folks of coloration — there are white folks like that as properly.

Comedy brings us all collectively. There is a connective tissue there, particularly in a neighborhood with a lot variety. By humor, we will discover one another and discover relatability. Individuals cherished when George Lopez talked about his grandmother as a result of that is one thing many people have in widespread. Comedy additionally works as a common language. Even when we’re not from the identical tradition, all people laughs as a result of it has this connective tissue. Comedy connects folks of all backgrounds and walks of life via laughter.

Johanna Ferreira is the content material director for POPSUGAR Juntos. With greater than 10 years of expertise, Johanna focuses on how intersectional identities are a central a part of Latine tradition. Beforehand, she spent shut to 3 years because the deputy editor at HipLatina, and he or she has freelanced for quite a few shops together with Refinery29, O Journal, Attract, InStyle, and Effectively+Good. She has additionally moderated and spoken on quite a few panels on Latine id.