- Don't let this makeup fool you.
I'm in pain right now.
But I'm gonna look cute while being in pain.
(upbeat music)
I feel like an E-Harmony thing, like, this is my dating.
Hi, I'm Andrea, I am Cuban and Puerto Rican,
I have Spina Bifida which is a disability having to do
with my back.
And I create videos online about disability
and how that intersects with my Latina identity.
(mellow acoustic music)
And today I am here answering some
of your disability questions
and talking about how disability affects someone
who is Latina.
So I was born with Spina Bifida, it is a birth defect,
and how I acquired that disability was that
my father was in the Vietnam War.
While he served there, he came in contact
with a chemical called Agent Orange.
And because of that chemical, I came out
with the disability.
I think one of the reasons a lot of Latinx people
don't understand disability is
because we don't talk about it in our culture.
We usually hide it away so much so that
my Abuela, we never actually told her about my disability.
We just told her I had a bad back
and sometimes I had to go to the hospital.
As I've grown up with my disability
and accepting both of my identities as a disabled Latina,
the only real issues I had was interacting
with other Latinx adults.
Especially when it came to dancing.
In our culture, dancing is a thing,
especially in the Caribbean.
But for me, when I do a lot of these traditional dances,
I have to accommodate for myself.
Some people will tell me that I'm not a real Latina
because I'm not doing the dance traditionally.
And so that was a hard adjustment along
with drinking culture.
Everyone's go to drink is tequila
and I am allergic to tequila.
I really am, I will die if I drink it.
So let's get into the common questions
that people have for disabled people and some are Latinx,
but as I said before, we don't really ask questions
about Latinx people and disability.
So you're just gonna have to deal with this.
So this is a common one that like viejitas will say
or ask you if you're disabled, and it's,
did you pray hard enough?
Yes, I have prayed to all the deities that exist,
including Satan, 'cause I gotta cover all my bases.
All of them put me to voicemail, they don't wanna answer.
So I don't know how I'm gonna get cured at this point.
I've tried all I have, I'm willing to do blood sacrifices,
but, I guess I didn't pray hard enough.
Another question is can you even have sex?
Yes, and it's great.
I have a sex swing, and let me tell you,
if you've never had accessible sex, your sex is boring.
Like date disabled people.
Get a sex swing.
This one I personally get a lot, especially if I'm
riding the metro with my cane and all dolled up,
and it is you don't look like you're disabled.
I don't know what disability's supposed to look like.
Am I supposed to look sick, and I'm supposed to look sad?
Don't let this makeup fool you, I'm in pain right now.
But I'm gonna look cute while being in pain.
This question I have a love/hate relationship with
and it's how does it feel to inspire people?
The reason I don't like this question is because
people are more inspired that I haven't given up
with my disability.
They're more focused on just the disability being bad
instead of just me as a person of,
oh I just do cool things.
They always say the "despite" being disabled.
And I don't do anything despite being disabled,
I just do things and I just happen to be disabled.
And most of this inspiration comes because
we know how hard life is but I wouldn't have to do these
so-called "inspiring" things if we
just made everything accessible.
The next question is can disabled people vote?
Yes and no.
The government doesn't want us to have a voice,
they'd rather see us dead.
I said it.
But a lot of disabled people do vote by mail.
It's the most accessible because, fun fact,
polling places are not wheelchair accessible.
And some of them don't provide accessibility for
blind people or deaf people.
So voting by mail is usually what we try to do.
But they make it very hard for us.
I love this question.
It is my favorite question, 'cause I love fighting
with people, it's that Caribbean-ness in me.
But the question is, is disabled a bad word?
No it is not.
Disability is a community, there is a culture.
Disability is not a bad word.
The thing that is bad about disability
is not the disability itself.
Take a shot every time I say disability.
It's the fact that there's nothing accessible in the world.
That's what makes our lives hard.
Not our disability itself.
You can say someone is disabled, you don't have to fear.
Although a lot of disabled people
have different ways of self identifying.
Some like person with a disability.
Some don't like any identification that has to do with it.
And others like me, I only like being called
a disabled person.
Mainly because I can't separate my disability
from who I am, it is just one important part
of my personality and the way I interact with the world.
Disabled's not a bad word, it's a very empowering word.
And I love it.
There are disabled Latinx and we still wanna engage
with our culture, we still love it.
We just have to do it a little bit differently.
Actively seek out disabled voices.
I'm just only one voice.
I don't represent the entire disabled community.
And in order for us to thrive,
we need that kind of ally ship.
(upbeat music)
- [Child] Pero Like.