start em young

As a preface, I am temporarily living in Mexico City and have experience living in other parts of Latin America too. Latin American spirituality and sexuality is...different. I have been raised with a very EEUU type of spirituality. Of this I am aware. But I do appreciate Latin American devotions, in a way. Today I went to the Basilica de la Virgen de Guadalupe, where the virgin Mary appeared to Juan Diego. It's pretty cool. I climbed the hill to where the apparition happened, and while looking in one of the stalls for a keychain I saw this bad boy. A virgen de guadalupe coloring book. how nice.

Not only that, a Virgen de Guadalupe coloring book with a cover that reads "Virgencita plis mandame un novio," which for all you non-spanish speakers out there translates as "little virgin, please send me a boyfriend." other pages in the book say things like "virgencita, take care of my boyfriend," or "virgencita, take care of my baby" or "virgencita, give me a boyfriend."

ok now. it's a cute coloring book. but there are plenty of problems in Latin American culture that involve girls getting boyfriends and then getting pregnant way early, plus the whole machismo thing. There was no boy coloring book saying "please virgencita send me a girlfriend." No other page in the coloring book asks the virgen for anything. only a boyfriend. And what kind of message are we sending to little latina girls when we say "pray to the virgin for a boyfriend?" I think we're saying, "hey, you're not worth anything unless you're in a relationship, so if you find someone who is willing to date you, even if he's abusive and treats you like crap, he's your novio so stick with it." maybe I'm biased because I've seen so many women stay in so many abusive relationships in Latin America (as an aside, there are good ones too). But this is where it starts. Telling little girls that what they most need in life is a boyfriend? no thank you. Though I did buy this coloring book. It is totally hilarious! and inappropriate.