| Their logo is my favorite color. |
Brenda Gonzalez and Ana Sheila (pronounced “shay-la”) Victorino host Tamarindo, a podcast targeted at Latino millennials. I’m part of Generation X, but I’m working on overcoming my bitterness about being in the overlooked generation. I like listening to Tamarindo and I recommend it to Chicanos of all ages.
According to Tamarindo’s 2016 introduction (why haven’t I been listening all along?), they named their show after the tamarindo fruit because their goal is to be a “flavorful” show for all Latinos, or as they put it, Latinex Millennials. Is it inevitable that Latino stuff gets associated with food and flavor? Is it our fixation, too? Maybe.
Ana Sheila and Brenda have excellent discussions on topics such as mental health, music, gay pride, racism, pop culture and — one of my favorite topics — whether or not to have children. Tamarindo features “politics, pop culture and how to balance it all con calma.”
Although Tamarindo says its audience is Latinex, it seems very Mexican American to me. As much as I love NPR’s Code Switch, Tamarindo feeds my desire for a show that doesn’t translate anything and counts on listeners knowing who Dolores Huerta and Selena are and knowing words like Chicana, pocho and chola (on their very first show they interviewed someone from Chola Pinup who said, “You can’t spell scholar without chola”). Code Switch is excellent for covering topics related to various people of color, but Tamarindo feels like the Chicana podcast I’ve been looking for: it’s well-produced, relevant, covers topics I find very engaging and speaks to Chicanas.
And it speaks to Chicanas who don’t think like most other Americans (at least not like the Midwestern Americans I live around) For instance in one episode, Ana Sheila made the point that the word “lady” doesn’t apply to everyone who presents as a woman, so we should avoid using it as a blanket term. I loved that! I can’t stand the word “lady” although for different reasons than Ana Sheila’s (you can read my reasons here and here). Brenda and Ana Sheila agreed that calling all women “ladies” as a habit, is not a good idea and I was excited to hear actual Latinas make this point. Thank you. (In the very first podcast of the show in April 2016, Brenda uses the word “ladies,” but it’s okay because I guess she doesn’t do that anymore.) To everyone reading this right now: stop calling women “ladies” as if it’s a polite honorific. It does not strike everyone that way.
Their most recent episode talked about racism against Latinas and how hiring staff can avoid it. They mentioned the recent protests in response to George Floyd’s killing, but I wanted more. I especially hope they do an episode on Mexican or Latino prejudice against Black people. I know that’s not cool to talk about, but we can’t unite while we’re still afraid of each other.
So there it is – Tamarindo. It’s now among my podcast subscriptions. And the next time I’m in the Mexican market I’ll have to see what the actual tamarind fruit is like…