Robo de Celulares y Computadoras

Éste es quizás el más común y del que fui víctima yo. Hay dos prácticas comunes: arrancárselos a peatones desde una motocicleta y sacarlos de mochilas y carteras en el transporte público.

¿Qué se puede hacer para prevenirlos?

• Estar alertas, sé que suena obvio, pero cuando me pasó a mí, iba papando moscas

• No llevarlos en lugares visibles

• No hacer ni tomar llamadas, ni responder ni leer mensajes al caminar o ir en transporte público.

• Si se trata de una emergencia, hacerlo pegado a una pared, con un buen ángulo de visibilidad de la gente al rededor.

• Caminar en sentido contrario a los coches. Si de plano no se puede: hacerlo en el carril de alta o en la acera en la que haya más arbustos, árboles, coches estacionados y demás objetos que puedan prevenir que una motocicleta se suba.

• De preferencia usar mochilas y cargarlas en los dos hombros; en caso de usar bolsas, procurar que las asas sean resistentes y de preferencia cruzarlas por el cuerpo.

• No cargar celulares ni carteras en las bolsas del pantalón (ni siquiera en las delanteras), conozco al menos cuatro miembros del “Club del Metrobús”, gente a las que se los han sacado sin que sintieran nada. Una buena alternativa es la manga del suéter o chamarra.

• Voltearse mochilas para cargarlas del lado del pecho al usar transporte público

• Instalar software para localizar computadoras y teléfonos. Find my iphone/Mac es gratuito y toma algunos minutos instalarlo. Prey es otra alternativa, también gratuita (gracias Gil por el tip)

Robo y Secuestro de Perros

Éste es el más trágico de los robos comunes en la zona, pues generalmente se roban a los animales para usarlos en maquila de cachorros. Los dueños quedan desconsolados y las mascotas viven el resto de sus días maltratados y tristes. Las prácticas comunes son: observarlos en parques y caminatas, para después llevárselos cuando están solos, o ir por ellos a casa de sus dueños fingiendo que son de la escuela o grupo de dog walkers con los que van cotidianamente.

¿Qué se puede hacer para prevenirlos?

• Tu perro siempre debe traer correa y placa.

• Si tu perro va a la escuela o lo sacan a pasear, SIEMPRE entrégaselo o asegúrate de que se le entregue a la misma persona; si la cambian, márcales para confirmar y exige que siempre se te avise por adelantado.

• Si tienes un perro de alguna raza conocida y cara, publicita que está esterilizado, aunque no sea cierto. Háblalo cuando lo saques a pasear, particularmente si se te acercan extraños a preguntarte su nombre. Esto lo hace una presa menos atractiva.

• Si lo sueltas en el parque, no dejes de verlo ni un segundo. Lo mismo si te acompaña al súpero o a comer, encárgaselo a alguien o siéntate donde puedas verlo.

• Venden collares con localizadores; sin embargo, si se lo quitan, pierde su utilidad.

Robo en Oficinas

Esto sucedió en donde trabajo hace un par de días. Llegó un individuo de traje diciendo que quería rentar un espacio, se paseó por toda la oficina solo y regresó al día siguiente muy temprano (7:30am, cuando casi no había gente) diciendo que tenía una cita con uno de nosotros; entró, revisó todo lo que había y se llevó una computadora.

¿Qué se puede hacer para prevenirlo?

• No dejar entrar gente a oficinas si no está la persona con la que viene. Trabajando en coworking spaces, es muy fácil no tener muy claro dónde está cada quién. Sin embargo, sólo toma un par de minutos asegurarse de que alguien reciba al visitante.

• No dejar visitas sin acompañante. Esto suena a sentido común… pero al menos antier, no lo fue.

• No dejar objetos valiosos a la vista y sin candados. En Innku los programadores son extremadamente cuidadosos con sus cosas, hay candados montados en los escritorios y lo único que dejan son monitores, que aunque es posible, sería difícil que alguien hurtara con rapidez. Es rarísimo que alguien deje su computadora.

En todos los casos, denunciar y dar publicidad a la información que se tenga es INDISPENSABLE, si podemos estar compartiendo cadenas estúpidas o fotos cagadas, también podemos compartir fotos y descripciones de los cabrones que se roban nuestras cosas. Somos una comunidad de vecinos, empecemos a aprovecharlo.

Photo by Alex Rodriguez

Writing about the StartupBus is never easy, I’m doing it, because I just realized that I’ll never find the perfect moment… I’ll probably never fully decompress, since I plan on staying on the StartupBus team for an indefinite period of time.

I wish I had one brilliant phrase to summarize what we did and all it meant for me. I’ll guess you’ll have to sit tight and read my ramblings, since this is my very desperate attempt at putting it into words…

The StartupBus is a hazing ritual in its purest form: it pushes participants to their limits and makes them realize that they CAN do tough shit; instantly setting apart “the boys from the men, the girls from the women and the travestis from the transgenders” as Elias put it.

ABC… Always Be Conducting

We all keep coming back because for some of us it becomes a drug: life can never be the same after it, it seems dull and uneventful; the thought of never getting a fix again is just too dire to bare. When I hit rock bottom I became a conductor, because the thought of not having other people from Mexico experience what I had experienced, enraged me to the point of losing sleep.

I honestly thought we were going to cancel a week before, because the logistics behind the bus are monstrous, and things were simply not falling into place, it was hands down the most stressful time of my life so far. I was glad to have a good friend to lean on; in the end our visions and priorities turned out to be different, but I could have never pulled this off  without Jeduan. Some entrepreneurs get the push they needed to start doing big things from the bus experience. I got mine mostly from him (message I tried to deliver between screams in a very agitated state during the finals)… he has been my professional partner in crime this far, every big challenge I’ve taken has been discussed with him, and every time I was tempted to jump alone I always asked him to come with. Until now: I finally realized I can do huge projects by myself and that they can be incredibly successful; however, the bus was a team effort, our last Hoorah! our “out with a bang”, through and through.

We also had an amazing production team, some were there only for a section of the process, others stuck by us through the entire thing. All of them made it possible: they fundraised, organized housing, made presentations, called meetings, lifted spirits. They were the beating heart of this operation.

Finally, we had the larger family. Last year Team Mexico was conducted by Eoin, so we never really got to see the amount comradery that engulfs the people that run this. Fraternities emerge from each bus, but conductors and directors are connected at an even deeper level, these are all people I consider friends and brothers in arms, even though most of our relationship has been through email and Twilio: I’d cook for them, host them, take care of their kids, visit them in jail or ask them to dog sit Moush any day of the week.

I’ve been asked to explain what makes The StartupBus different from other events: the level is definitely an important factor, since the quality of participants, organizers and judges is unparalleled; but the intensity is the one that can’t go without mention. Building in three days is no picnic, doing it with so much added pressure and complications breaks a person down… getting it done makes them come out rebuilt as a completely new being. The psychological factor is what sets us apart and what makes this unforgettable, like hiking a high peak, running a marathon or making it to the Olympics, the high comes from the pain endured. The fact that buspreneurs do it with strangers who put up, stand by and eventually carry each other through it, makes them come back as brothers and sisters.

So yeah, we’re a fraternity that hazes every new member, but only because we want to bring out the best in them…

And the anecdotes

As I said in the beginning of this post, writing about my StartupBus experience is hard, because the more time elapses; the more great details I pick up on, the more fun anecdotes I remember, the more I miss my bus and friends…

I have  a list that goes on and on of favorite moments, but since I know I have an audience, I’ll only pick three: the highest high was the euphoria we generated BEFORE they announced the finalists, Team Mexico couldn’t stop cheering, screaming and laughing, we had luchador masks on, flags, people flying, and  VERY loud cheering in Spanish, regardless of the fact that we were in Texas in the middle of an American competition. There was a LOT of us (38 to be exact, the biggest group there), so the other teams kept staring, some amused, some bewildered, some wondering if we were drunk… We sorta were, in that moment it hit us all at once; we realized just how cool our team was, how much it meant to be there, and how much fun we were having. We left that room in a conga line (enven though only two of our teams made it through), not even the winners of the entire thing celebrated that hard.

My other favorite moment happened before the previous one, when we got to the San Antonio hotel. I went to buy candy to the Walmart and got to the conductors’ and directors’ meeting late. Apparently this gave everyone else enough time to do intros and chat a little, Ray (the Master’s conductor) introduced himself to Jeduan by saying “Are you Maria?” in the most charming Southern accent, which got the whole room roaring with laughter as Jon (NYC conductor) replied “Are you drunk?… I mean, does he look like a girl to you?”. This gave for plenty of jokes later on, but I digress; during that meeting Elias explained his vision to us, he explained why he keeps making this crazy bus ride happen. He said “I’ve seen this change lives, that’s why I keep coming back”… It would have probably taken me years to see it so clearly and to express it with that much feeling.

My last one was in Austin. Since we had some housing shortage, I fitted 8 people in a room for two in a Traveler’s Lodge in Austin. We got there around 12am, it was the first time we truly got to sleep, so we raffled beds, got settled on floors and sofas and went to sleep almost immediately. At four in the morning I started hearing knocking, I panicked thinking it was the concierge who had finally figured out we had “a couple” of extra guests, so I started blabbering in English. We were surprised to hear one of our room mates replying “Guys, it’s me, could you open up?”. Apparently he sleep walks, he woke up as he heard the door close and thought “Fuck”, he knocked every other hour and slept on the floor by the door in the meantime, other guests passing by the hall stared at him, thinking he was some hobo that had wandered into the hotel with his sleeping bag. We offered him one of the beds when he got back in, “Neh, at least now I’m in the room now”, he replied as he huddled in the floor next to me. We roared with laughter every time we retold this story. I still get random texts with details from it.

I could get motivational and keep going about the times I saw teams and buspreneurs raise above themselves, or about the numerous times I saw them put their and their teams’ pieces back together, but this post would get insanely long. Besides, I will have time to write mora about that once I process and organize my ideas.

What life’s about

Right before we went into the finals I followed Eoin’s lead and sent all my buspreneurs an email thanking them for the experience, telling them how amazed they’d left me and how I considered each and everyone of them a friend.

If I had to trace my StartupBus story back to its origins, I’d have to point at a trip I took to the beach with the Sandbox crowd a few years back. I met Elias sitting on the beach, drinking beers, I was there to fundraise for a different startup. He told me about the StartupBus (he had just run the first edition), and I remember retorting “that’s the stupidets thing I’ve ever heard… so is Mexico participating?”. Things fluttered, circled, jumped and evolved from there, with the intersections, comings and goings of many talented people, unfurling in what is today: in this very moment in which I’m working with Elias and appreciating everyday I get to do it, because his vison of “the stupidest idea ever” inspired me like nothing before, to the point of wanting to change my life and do bigger and better things… all because Mexico WAS on that first bus.

Fabian, the founder of Sandbox also founded Holstee, a company that has made its manifesto very famous. He gave me a card with it printed on the last day of that trip. My favorite line reads “Life is about the people we meet and the things we create with them. So go out there and start creating”… Guess what Fabian?, I did just that!

I concluded the email I sent to my team quoting that line and thanking them for creating this with me. Now, I just hope to grasp all of it, to get peace with the parts I wish were different and to truthfully be thankful for all the wonders.

“At the end of the day, it isn’t where I came from. Maybe home is somewhere I’m going and have never been before” –Warsaw Shire

 Today is a blur; melted and fused with yesterday. During our night of travel, I took the front of the bus, so I woke every time our kind drivers needed something or stopped for coffee. I decided to make the most of it, it turns out they had some great stories to tell about long road trips, crazy passengers and adventures on the move.

 Most of team Mexico slept peacefully, but I saw some intermittent tweets and screens going on and off throughout the night. I finally decided to stay awake from 4:45 am on; the sunup was something, inn the middle of nowhere, with desert and mountains framing the scene.

I took pictures of the team sleeping, checked emails, made lists in my mind (those never seem to stop these days, particularly when I’m trying to sleep)… Finally at 7am I started screaming “GOOD MORNING SUNSHINE!” and woke up the entire bus between grunts and whines. We made a quick bathroom/ coffee pitstop and we started pitching.

Two things have shocked me this far:

1. How fast we all became brothers in arms and how fast this all became home. I’ve had great conversations with some of the members of my team, the kind one can only have with longtime friends and I’ve observed how they interact with each other: we could seriously be family

2. The amount of talent we’ve got this year, their pitches needed little work, mostly structure and timing, even the less experienced buspreneurs did one heck of a job selling and pitching everything from their mothers to their products.

 They’ve also been building at lightning speed. Cloudspotting had me playing with their demo before diner.

 We got a very warm welcome from CEDIM with fresh lemonade, healthy snacks and an amazing hacker space reserved just for us. We set our pirate and Mexican flags and got to work almost immediately.

We had visits throughout the day. Javier from Consejo de Software Monterrey came to have lunch with us (they hooked us up with some delicious burgers!). We also had some buspreneurs from last year and some friends of the project drop by and help out with everything from lines of code to beer and medicine runs.

Finally Arturo from Naranya dropped by with a truckload of pizzas and their Chief Innovation Officer ready to destroy pitches. We had a good diner and got some amazing feedback.

We knew this was going to be the longest and most painful night. Broken and dysfunctional bodies are a common place: sore throats and muscles, broken stomachs, aching heads… “all I know is it will be painful from here to Austin”, said Steven while we exchanged throat remedies. However, spirits are high, I suggested a Harlem Shake, and in a few minutes the entire bus was organized and ready. I ended up dancing on top of chair with a luchador mask in the middle of an array of jumping sleeping bags, shirtless men, masks made out of pizza boxes and all-out crazy dancing.

 The last all-night hackathon is now in full throttle. By now, the pressure has kicked in and all teams are questioning their very existence, since I took a few minutes and I went table by table explaining how if they don’t launch by 6:00 am, they lose their chance to get shortlisted and hence make it to the semifinals, finals and so on.

I’m confident that shortlisting teams from this bus will be HELL, but it’s the one pain I’m looking forward to.

I woke up in a cold sweat at 5 am this morning I looked across the room, saw my laptop open ajar and thought “shit, we’re actually doing this thing again”…

As it turns out, after weeks of hardcore hustling, sleepless nights, countless calls and overall  hair-whitening stress; we actually pulled it off: the StartupBus Team Mexico is riding again, making its way to Austin for second go at blowing it out of the water.

Before I got out of bed I thank the Force for Jeduan, I couldn’t have gotten a better partner in crime and I would have definitely thrown the towel  a while ago, had it not been for him. We both went through the launch party in a haze, it hadn’t hit us yet that this was all happening. The only thing we did realize is that we got ONE HELL of a bus together. Our night came to an end between hardcore code, biz and design discussions with a background of improv “Hey Jude!” karaoke orchestrated by one of our buspreneurs who took over Google’s mike.

Our day started much more fast-paced. StartupBus’s “backend” is a constant stream of emergencies, everything needs to be done NOW, everything is important and there is always something missing. We glided through it with a lot of help from our friends at Tec de Monterrey Campus Santa Fe. I inspired fear of God on every one of our buspreneurs, to make sure they made their way to our first pit stop bright, early and on time. We were strategic about our route, so we’re spending as little time as possible working on the actual bus (since we have no wifi or plugs in it and Mexican wireless service is shit). Therefore, our first working station was BEFORE departure. Tec was amazing, we even got ice cream for dessert!, the internet was lightning fast and steady, we had plugs throughout the room and an assortment of chips, sodas, water, coffee and delicious meals throughout the day.

This far all I know is that Team Mexico is not only filled with talent: it is a troop of hustlers, hackers and hipsters going on a journey, together; in what can only be compared to a fellowship. There are a couple teams sharing tables with each other and I keep seeing buspreneurs going back and forth, giving each other tips, bringing food and drinks, playing and making jokes with each other. They’ve been together for little under a day, and they act like lifetime friends. That’s why I love this job as much as I do, because I get to see this and I get to catalyze it.

As far as the products go, we have people building all kinds of things with all sorts of talent combinations. There’s a team with three hustlers and a team composed only of hackers; one trying to disrupt online payments and another building a cool cloud spotting app. All conformed by people with passion to build great things and a unique kind of hunger for adventure.

It takes a very special kind of person to take a week off work to push for the impossible. We found 36 of them. It has been mind blowing to see them working from the sidelines. Regardless of what happens during the competition I know great things will come out of this experience, starting with great friendships

We’re currently making our way to Monterrey. The hardest part of this journey is coming: the part where we get little to no sleep and we make the impossible happen.

Keep watching closely.

We just wanted to say thank you, (from Jeduan and I):

Elias Bizannes, for creating this crazy/amazing thing and believing Mexico could be a part of it

Eoin Mcmillan, for everything, you’ve been the beating heart and hustling brains behind the Mexican craziness this whole time. You literally conducted us through the whole thing the first time; and now, you remains our biggest inspiration, mentor and friend.

2012 buspreneurs, Team Mexico!! thank you for keeping our community alive, helping us out, cheering us on and inspiring others to join in.

2013 conductors, directors and producers, for inspiring, pushing, organizing and reminding us of just how cool and fun it is to be a part of this experience.

Fede Casas, for hooking us up with amazing presentations, weekly office space, great feedback  and amazing sponsorship pitches.

Francisco Viramontes, for, even at a distance, staying in the loop, helping us out with code, feedback and mentorship

Fery Legaspi, for making our lives easier, putting out fires, pitching to sponsors and handling media.

David Andujo, for bringing EVERYONE together and hustling like a pro to get us the funds, internet and amazing relations we needed to make 2012 happen and 2013 easier. Our hats are off for you, thank you for starting the fire.

Germán Bonilla, because without you 2013 wouldn’t be possible, thank you for hooking us up with amazing sponsors and local talent. You’re one hell of a huslter!

Luis Almanza, for understanding what we’re about and getting the message across to our amazing sponsors, helping us close the best deals.

Pedro Galván, for cheering us on all the way to the finals the first time around. And for having our back this year, we feel honored to work with a people like you.

Fabian Pfortmuller, for creating Sandbox and, in a gust of Serendipity, bringing the right people together at the right time.

César Salazar, for convincing Elias of the Mexican heart and talent, and personally overlooking social media push in 2012. Also, thank you and Santiago Zavala for talking us into doing this.

Everyone who retweeted and moved our message during 2012: we hope we can count on you this year as well, to get our broadcast out to the best candidates we can find.

Everyone who followed us and cheered us on during the competition in 2012. We need you once more. This year we’re coming back bigger and stronger, once again representing all of Mexico and Latin America. So you can bet we’ll have great stories to tell!

Hace dos años conocí a Elias en una playa y me contó cómo en una peda se le había ocurrido inventar una competencia de startups, donde el chiste era construirlos, igual que en Startup Weekend, pero en un camión viajando a 90km/hr para llegar a SXSW (el festival más grande e importante que junta tecnología, música y cine) a pitchar.

En la primera edición hubo tres camiones y como 30 participantes. Este es el sexto año que se hace y  ha crecido muchísimo. El año pasado hubo 10 camiones y más de 300 participantes; además de  patrocinadores como Rackspace, Microsoft, AT&T y Balsamiq. Del lado de prensa nos cubrió The Next Web, CNN y TechCrunch, entre las que recuerdo.  Del evento, trabajamos en los HQ de Rackspace y en Austin Caravan; la semifinal se hizo en los HQ de Launchrock y la final en el SXSW Startup Village del Hilton.

¿México qué?

Después de varias sesiones de convencimiento feroz con Elias, al fin empezó a creer que en México había talento suficiente. Pero aún así nos tuvimos que ganar nuestro lugar a la mala, promocionando que nos dieran un camión en redes sociales. Estuvimos en primer lugar TODA la competencia, nadie nos tocaba a la hora de gritar que merecíamos mostrar de qué cuerda salían más mecates. Así fue como se logró StartupBus Team Mexico 2012.

En una semana se convocó gente, el Tec dió lana y un australiano loco con un amor desmedido por México (Eoin, nuestro primer conductor) revisó cientos de solicitudes de gente que quería asistir, escogió a los mejores cuarenta y nos subió al camión que salió de San Luis Potosí.

Pero, ya en serio… ¿México qué?

Nos fuimos en el camión más pitero de todos, en la ruta más extraña; sin electricidad y con internet a ratos. Llegamos a Texas a competir contra equipos compuestos de hackers, diseñadores y hustlers de lugares como Silicon Valley, NY, San Francisco y Stanford; muchos de los cuales eran ex empleados o empleados de Apple, Twilio, Pixar, Google, Twitter… y que además de tener camiones SUPER CHINGONES traían mentores de la talla de Robert Scoble o Guy Kawasaki en sus camiones. Le pitchamos a gente de 500 Startups, Tech Stars, AngelList y Rackspace (estos últimos además nos organizaron una conferencia buenísima en sus HQ y una MEGA fiesta cuando acabamos en un bar en SXSW). Dos equipos llegaron a la semifinal, uno a la final. No ganamos, ganó una compañía de cereal de Silicon Valley.

¿Y los premios?

Estoy segura de que hay premios, probablemente muy buenos, para el que gana; la verdad es que ni los recuerdo. Lo que lleva a los equipos a partirse la madre a horas loquísimas de la noche para construir algo impresionante y llegar a todos los milestones no eran los premios: era probar que su región es la MÁS CABRONA. Es probar que México está cabrón.

Entonces, ¿México qué gana?

Relevancia. Gana que nos crean y nos creamos que lo que está pasando en este país vale la pena, porque estamos llenos de gente chingona y de ideas que van a reventar. Llevo varios meses escribiendo en TechCrunch, sería rica si me pagaran un dólar por cada idea de artículo que me rebotan porque la compañía que quiero cubrir no es suficientemente original o grande, o buena, o adinerada, o relevante,  o sofisticada, o tecnológica, o escalable… o, o, o… La verdad es que los gringos en muchos sentidos nos siguen viendo pa abajo, aunque cueste trabajo aceptarlo. Partirse la madre en una competencia donde lo único que cuenta es el talento técnico satisface por eso, porque les cerramos la boca a todos, y porque más allá de las críticas y los aplausos vemos de qué estamos hechos.

¿Quién organiza?

En lo internacional hay un equipo de directores, Elias es el big chief. Luego están los conductores, hay uno por lugar que participa (generalmente ciudades). En México hay un equipo de mexicanos que participó en la edición del año pasado haciendo que esto suceda. Decidimos agarrar las riendas porque nos dimos cuenta de que si se las dejábamos a los gringos la posibilidad de que nos volvieran a incluir era muy baja. Además, no entienden México.

¿Los que organizan qué ganan?

En en el equipo organizador nadie se está haciendo rico, lo más probable es que no nos cueste el viaje y ya. StartuBus no gana dinero, por lo pronto sólo cubre costos de operación. Cada región consigue patrocinios y los participantes pagan por su boleto.

La única ventaja que tenemos como organizadores es que podemos invitar a quien queramos para que participe y decidir a quiénes trepamos a los camiones.

¿Vale la pena ir?

Es verdaderamente agotador, pero al mismo tiempo es de los mejores viajes que he hecho en mi vida. En el camión me hice hermana de los 39 que se treparon conmigo y la relación que tengo con la mayoría es muy profunda, por lo complicado que fue lo que vivimos juntos. Así que a lo largo del año nos visitamos, nos ayudamos, nos mantuvimos conectados. Gracias a Eoin, nuestro mentor y conductor del año pasado, entré a TechCrunch. Así.

Además, tenemos el network internacional, una gran familia de locos que participó en lo mismo que también está ahí para ayudarnos. De entrada, la competencia es en SXSWi, donde hay que tener badge para entrar a todos lados; eso no aplica si vas en el StartupBus: nos enfiestamos como los grandes y fuimos a todos los lugares que quisimos gratis, porque siempre había algún busrpeneur listo para hacernos el paro. Conocimos gente IMPRESIONANTE de la industria, desayunamos y hasta nos emborrachamos con ellos, todo porque les llamaba la atención ver qué era la locura esa que habíamos hecho.

Y luego, ¿qué hago si quiero ir?

Entra a la página y haz sign in con Facebook, luego avisame por donde quieras (twitter, facebook, mail, comment), para que esté al pendiente de la base de datos y te mande una invitación; por el momento no tengo muchas, así que ayuda que me digas por qué quieres una. Una vez invitado, tú podrás referenciar a más gente que creas que merece participar.

Para subirte al camión tendrás que pasar el proceso y demostrar por qué eres el mejor hacker, diseñador o hustler. Otra vez vamos contra la crema y nata, así que sólo subiremos a lo mejor de lo mejor. Este año no nos vamos a conformar con llegar a la final. We’re coming back for EVERYTHING.

Todo esto jamás habría sido posible sin el apoyo de muchas personas que no fueron mencionadas en este post, pero a las que agradecimos en otro

The above is not a trivial critique, each Disney princess’ characteristics and story respond to the time they surfaced in. For example, Snow White’s prince doesn’t have a name, probably because back then marrying someone was all that mattered… The Little Mermaid gave up her whole world and voice (yes, literally) to be with some guy she had seen twice; Belle was the Beast’s prisoner, as was her dad; who was also gravely mistreated by the same hairy monster (a beast, in the most literal sense) she ended up with. When we take away the sugar coated love stories, a dark picture of tortuous interactions is drawn quite clearly. Those are the images of femininity that an entire generation grew up with.

The first mildly independent princesses were Pocahontas and Mulan. In the end of her story, Pocahontas chose to stay with her father and tribe, after stopping a war and deciding who to love, it was the first film in the history of Disney movies in which the princess decided to stay by herself. For her part, Mulan was strongly pressured by her family to get married, she eventually fought the Huns, saved the emperor, brought honor to her family… and got married, so the contradiction in the message is clear: you can be a badass, but happily ever after means getting married. The argument they made around it was absurd and included Captain Shang kinda crushing on a male soldier, who turned out to be Mulan.

Finally, the first princess with a goal other than marriage in her mind was Tiana from the Princess and the Frog, who wanted to be a chef and own a restaurant. But, let me point out that there’s more than ten years between Tiana and Mulan, so in a decade, we basically went from a badass that fought for her country and brought honor to her family, to a girl that wanted a restaurant. In the end of her movie, Tiana got married and was able to pay for her restaurant with the money she got from kissing the frog in the first place.

The issue here is that Disney Princesses have always been marketed as aspirational characters; which means we basically bombarded an entire generation with frail, shallow and obnoxiously beautiful female idols, whose sole purpose in life was to find “true love” –regardless of all the torment that came with it– and get married in a big and ridiculous ceremony. I wish I could insert Facebook pictures here of my acquaintances’ recent weddings, and then of those who have already signed divorce papers…

The progression of the Disney princesses happened at the same time as female liberation rights fought and won the hardest battles (parity in wages, penalties for battery, abortion… the list goes on), so in some sense it balanced out liberalism with staunch conservative values, marketed in shiny packages and spun out as sick love stories. Since the hype around Disney died down, other female icons have taken their place; that’s exactly why I have an issue with Twilight and 50 Shades of Gray.

Bella, the main female role from Twilight, belongs to a generation where women with strong characters were a common place. The books and movies were read and seen by kids who were familiar with Harry Potter, where Hermione was the smartest witch who went to war against the Dark Lord with her friends and eventually ended up with one of them; and the Hunger Games, where Katniss fought to the death twice to save her family from starvation, brought down tyranny and ended up with the good guy who protected her the entire saga. So we have women who saved entire nations, fought the Dark Lord, were great friends, witty, strong, smart… and Bella crying and getting suicidal for an entire book and movie because she doesn’t have a boyfriend.

The issue goes deeper: the first time Bella had sex with Edward she woke up filled with bruises, from the sheer brutality of him; and regardless, she went back for seconds. Afterwards, she was impregnated with a baby that started killing her from within, and never considered terminating it; she eventually died giving birth, and was brought back as a vampire. Evidently, Twilight without the great soundtracks, angsty looks and model-like actors is downright morbid story.

As for 50 Shades of Grey (Twilight fan fiction, turned into a bestseller), I’m all for sexual liberation, but I can see women getting hit and, after reading the book, thinking “he’ll change” or “he must’ve had a rough childhood”… That’s one of the central arguments in the saga: Anastasia goes back to Christian AFTER he beat the crap out of her (Rihanna and Chris Brown, anyone?) and the author makes a very compelling argument on how with some patience and cuddling, even a psycho sadomasochist will change.

So yeah, I’m not OK with those books on principle, and I’m sick of how young audiences remain passive not only towards bad writing, and filming; but towards destructive messages. Women no longer need to be put down, authors, directors, producers, movie-goers and readers need to realize that.

I have extremely curly hair and come from a family of mostly straight-haired women, so the history of my woes goes way back to when I was four and decided to have all my hair chopped off just to keep my mom from strength training by pulling on it each morning. Then I sobbed for months, because I was teased at school, where they said I looked like a boy. After that I spent approximately ten years of my life with a ponytail, then an afro and then a self-cut afro… At some point I kinda sorta figured out a better way to style it and have pivoted on that  formula ever since…

On the other side of this story, I became a huge Youtube fan almost as soon as it came out, I remember hours of looking and sharing the randomest videos with my college boyfriend who started me on the vice. At some point I stumbled onto tutorials, so that’s where I get all my DIYs and makeup tricks. Evidently, I soon found a community of curly haired women shairng tips, tricks, product reviews, dos and don’ts… I was immediately hooked.

I can’t pinpoint the first time a heard about it, but I’m sure it was in a Youtube video, “the Deva cut”… I saw a bunch of reviews that ranged from rants about how it was the end of life, to praises on it being the best invention since the wheel. I knew I really wanted to try it, especially since I saw the amount and quality of research, development and training behind it. Finally, somebody understood that curly  is nothing like straight hair; trianed stylist to cut it and built a whole line of products that are not merely marketed for girls with curls, but that differ from other products on factors other than scents and actually do something for the hair.

I came to Texas for the holidays; the months that led up to me coming here were filled with blog posts and tutorials, so I thought that I would get to my haircut at a high point… Little did I know just how badly it had been cut before. In Nene’s words, my hair didn’t look the way I wanted it to because they had “texturized the shit out of it”. Which means that it fell in a way that made me think I was getting a bald spot on the back of my head, since I had no hair there, except for a couple of oddly long strands.

My experience at the salon was great, I got a next-day appointment at Alter Image, showed up punctual and started the consulting session, Nene Tran Dean, my stylist, asked a lot of questions about the products I use and about my daily routine. She juggled between beauty conversations and filling me in on the town gossip (some girl is getting married and another one has a cheating husband); there wasn’t a lot of people, so the remaining free stylists sat around, commented on my hair and gossiped. It was, hands down, the funnest trip to a salon.

The main difference between the Deva Cut and any other haircut, is that they cut the hair completely dry “eyeballing” how it naturally grows and falls on the shoulders and back. There’s different kinds of shapes they can give it, depending on how often each client wears it straight. There’s also an entire line of products that are tailored for curly hair, looking to hidrate it (since it is naturally very dry), detangle it and maintain its natural oils.

After my cut, Nene washed my hair and carefully explained how I could replicate what she was doing and what kind of products she was using. Then, she gave me a pile of magazines and sat me under a drier, when it was done, the ends were still quite wet, so she explained to me what a diffuser does and how to use it. I told her I’m leaving town tomorrow, back to Mexico, where “the curly revolution” (as they market it) has not started, so she recommended a couple of products to me and let me help out with the final styling.

It was the first time I walked out of a salon with styling I liked, by now i’m used to running to the nearest bathroom and just redoing it all myself, yet this time I genuinely liked it, it wasn’t flat ironed and I didn’t look like the hot mess I usually look like when I ask stylists to leave it curly; lion is the first word that comes to mind. Anyways, my hair feels great, so I’ll have to figure out a way to either replicate this in Mexico or keep coming back to the States to get my hair cut…

Either way, I owe my current beautiful hair and the awesome experience that came with it to the web, specifically social media. I love how being connected means expanding horizons, even on the little things.

Updated: this is what it looks like

En fin, hoy tuve un sueño particular que me regresó a los días de diván. Cuando me desperté, me quedé un buen rato viendo la pared, reconstruyendo las partes que aún no se me escapaban, con una extraña sensación de tranquilidad que empezó a disiparse sólo cuando recordé que la conversación que tuve con el protagonista en realidad no la tuve con él, sino con la proyección creada por mi subconsciente. Al fin entendí, que la única manera de salir de esa patrón nefasto era atravesando lo que en mi sueño era un complejo laberinto dentro de un edificio subterráneo lleno de jardines y mierda; mismo que en mi vida fue algo bastante parecido. Al final, lo que más aprecio de lo poco que queda, es que siguiéndolo en el laberinto, aprendí a encontrar la salida.

Hubo un punto de la plática en el que me dijo “de lo que tienes miedo es de salir”, refiriéndose a la última frontera que se veía clara al lado de donde estábamos sentados; recuerdo que le contesté “No, de lo que tengo miedo ahorita, no es de lo que haya afuera, sino de la interacción contigo”. La despedida no fue fácil, pero justo antes de despertarme estaba muy tranquila, porque sabía que si quería podía regresar al fondo del laberinto, con toda esa gente que conocí allá abajo; pero ahora sabía salir. Aún quedaban un par de muros y caminos frente al último bastión de la fortaleza, pero el Sol brillaba y todo se veía mucho menos exótico y sucio que en las profundidades… Sospecho que una vez atravesada la última gran pared, ya no hay vuelta atrás. Al fin llegué al limbo.

Por un momento de lucidez onírica entendí todo. Y sentí paz recordando que los veintes son para romper patrones, éste tomó varios años, pero creo que al fin conozco la salida, pa la próxima que empiece…