By Wendy Carrillo/Guest Blogger
Ask a Chola has been a minor Internet phenomenon for a few years now. Inspired by the Ask a Ninja character, Chola is a self-described “new media artist/cultural critic/anarchist/killer/blogger.” She has thousands of followers on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.
But there have always been questions about Chola’s real identity, which recently came under the scrutiny of several individuals who questioned her race, ethnicity, objective, and her sense of comedic timing. The latter, of course, being the most offensive.
And now her identity has been revealed. But, first, the blow-by-blow:
It all began when journalist Aura Bogado asked Chola via Facebook where she is from. The back-and-forth became heated and Aura sent this message to mutual friends of Chola and herself:
Have you ever wondered who “Ask A Chola” is, behind that green guise? Do her ridiculous accents and sordid attempts at humor ever leave you doubtful that a real Mexicana/Chicana/Latina could possibly create such humiliating attempts of humor? If so, you’re not alone.
Since “Ask A Chola” has willfully turned herself into a public entity, I made the mistake (or, should I write, had the pleasure?) of inquiring about her real identity. She responded:
“Aura: You think I’m too white? You think I’m not brown enough? Well, you know what? I am whatever the f**k I want to be. My identity is something that is negotiated between me, myself and I. There is no you in that negotiation. I am brown. …I am Aztlan. I am Mexican. I am whatever the f**k I feel myself to be. And you’re just going to have to deal with it. Where I reside and my finances and where I vote and whatever the f**k else you asked are really none of your business. I suggest you ask yourself why I bother you so much…. I suspect that you have your own issues with identity, disconnect with homeland… whatever the f**k is going on, I don’t f**king care. But please take your issues elsewhere.”
Aside from making some ridiculous claims about me, “Ask A Chola” made several ludicrous assertions about herself. Namely, she states, “I am Aztlan. I am Mexican,” when the reality is that she is white. Chloe Michalopoulos was educated at Berkeley, UCLA and Harvard, and she thinks it’s perfectly acceptable to capitalize off of a particularly vitriolic form of brownface. What she cannot accept is being questioned. In other words, she’s a complete bigot.
In response to Aura, Cal State Northridge Chicano Studies Professor Gerard Meraz wrote:
I understand blackface/brownface and its negative implications, but we can point out how some Raza artists/satirists/writers walk a fine line of satire and brown face as well. One person’s art statement or wit is another person’s insult, cliché or stereotype.
Is Guillermo Gómez-Peña’s thick accent real or part of his character(s)? Are calaveras and virgens cliché or representing la cultura? Is saying you are “post-Chicano” an insult to Chicanos who fought, died and got locked up for Raza to get into college and art schools? Chola may be funny to some, not all the time of course; she does bring up some issues, mildly; she is insulting, she is transforming cholas into art school speaking theorists.
Is she an ally? Or just bad representation for Cholas? Bad for Raza? Bad art? Simply racist? Clearly she is not a Chola and if we believed for minute that she was, then maybe we have been too far removed from the real as well.
How about middle class privileged blacks and browns who play thugs and gangsters in order to sell records and movies? See Ice Cube, Lil Wayne, Dr. Dre, Cheech Marin, etc. They bought into the white gaze that expects them to be as such. Are we calling them out on this as well? I mean, since we are on the topic.
Obviously, identity and authenticity play a role in what we perceive to be genuine forms of satire, mockery and art. I would argue that the Chola character borderlines Dave Chappelle and that the artist’s background, ethnicity and education are not relevant to her choice of art form. I am not offended by her, just like I am not offended by cartoonist Lalo Alcaraz’s recent depiction of California gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown as a cholo with the slogan “Brown Pride.” The same can be said of David Cordova’s “Obama for President” poster where Obama is sporting a flannel shirt and bandana. It’s obvious satire and not everyone is going to like it. If Chicanos put a “brown face” over a white or black politician, who’s to say that a white girl can’t put a “brown face” on herself? What’s the difference?
Debra Wilson and Nicole Sullivan are neither Latinas nor cholas, and their characters Lida and Melina on Mad TV were spot on with the culture:
In addition, the music industry is obsessed with chola culture. Gwen Stefani was a chola in “Luxuries,” Fergie was one in “London Bridge,” and Jennifer Lopez played not one, but two cholas in “Get Right.”
On TV, George Lopez just gave Sandra Bullock a chola makeover. I’m not even going to get into how many movies about cholos and cholo culture have been produced and sold to mass audiences. It’s not surprising to see cholas are now “mainstream.” Cholas in every sense of the term are fierce females.
What is surprising and telling is the negative attention Ask A Chola has received as of late. I reached out to get her perspective and was surprised to learn a fake YouTube account has been created that reveals personal information and implies she seeks to make fun of Mexicans and other minorities because she is white, rich and, well, because she can. The fake account contains one video of Chloe portraying a typical white girl from Orange County who goes to an anti-war march and makes the entire march about herself and where she wants to eat and shop.
“That video circulating is making fun of white liberals who like to be political for like, fashion and s**t,” Chloe told me via Facebook. “How could they twist it and say I am making fun of Mexicans because I say I want to get Mexican food when I hear Spanish???”
Clearly, the satirical objective is lost in translation. To set the record straight, her real YouTube account has 55 videos and has her trademark green as the background color, as well as a banner for her website in the mandatory Old English font.
To add more chile to the tacos, a fake Facebook account was also created that linked Chola to the KKK and radical, racist ideologies including those of David Duke, white nationalist and former Grand Wizard. That account has been taken down by the Facebook team, but damage to the Chola brand has been done.
“They wrote me this message saying they were going to make me look racist,” Chloe added. “I am NOT the racist person they want me to be, so they are going to MAKE me into the racist person they can hate.”
Saying she feels she is living in the Twilight Zone, Chloe adds, “After the elections on Tuesday, they f**king got rid of ethnic studies in Arizona, why are they wasting their time with me?”
Before she pulled down her Facebook profile, Chloe defended herself thus:
This is not black face because it is not mockery. If you think Ask A Chola is mocking brown people than I don’t know what to say to you. (If fact, it makes me sad that you think that.) I don’t know how to explain my art. Maybe talk to my fans and they will explain it to you. All I can say is that Ask A Chola is strong, intelligent, articulate and witty. And I have a whole lot of fans of all colors and races and ethnicities that are also strong, intelligent, articulate and witty that get it.
The thing is, she should be able to explain her art—she’s a bonafide academic. As a UCLA Latin American major, her research papers included “Las Mujeres de Rap: Music as an Ideological Tool in Contesting Ideas of Race and Gender” and “Mantendo a Real in ‘A Realidade Dura’: The Appropriation of Rap Music by Brazil’s Marginalized as an Effective Instrument in Identity Formation and in Contesting National Discourse.”
Still, the idea that Ask A Chola can’t be a chola because she’s white or well educated seems a bit far-fetched. Does it change the interpretation of Gloria Anzaldua’s “Borderlands” and José Vasconcelos’ “La Raza Cosmica”? Academically, are Chicanos ready to admit that white people can also claim different ideologies of identity? Even if that identity is traced to Chola culture?
Aura is Argentine, I’m Salvadoran, Chola is a white girl. Does it matter?
As Professor Meraz pointed out, is it any better when Chicanas put on the brown face and interpret Chola culture, as does the East Los Angeles based comedy troupe Las Ramonas?
Is it any different or less offensive because they are brown?
Lastly, if the portrayal of cholo culture is so negative and taboo, are we implying that actual cholos and cholas and those who act and look like them are the lowest scum of our Latino/Chicano society and should be all together ignored?
If that’s the case, then why does the Chicano community continue to glorify the image, and then get upset when someone else joins in? Maybe everyone should have paid more attention to the clues that Chola offered. On her Facebook page (now deleted), among her heroes that she listed were two world-class put-on artists: Steven Colbert and Sacha Baron Cohen—aka Borat.
As the Latino/Chicano community grows not only in Los Angeles, but nationwide, assimilation will take place not only within our community, but our norms, culture and identities will also be integrated with the rest of America—and that, is something that we may need to come to terms with, real fast.
Or maybe, as someone wrote to me earlier, this is all post-modern pendejadas and it doesn’t matter anyway. Which begs the realization that I just wasted a good part of my evening writing about cholas—those who love them, and those who hate them.
Wendy Carrillo is a multi-media journalist from Los Angeles. You can read her blog here.