R.A. Ruiz Acosta
Latinx AF Interview: La Catrina Amidala with Momo Naberrie
As much as we latinos and people of color love Star Wars- the fandom has not always been super accepting of people of color, and representation is limited. The Star Wars galaxy does have a handful of latinos - Diego Luna as Casian Andor, Jimmy Smits as Bail Organa, Oscar Issac as Poe Dameron ,Pedro Pascal as Din Djarin the Mandalorian himself, and even Freddie Prince Jr voices Kanan Jarus (one of my favorites!) in the Rebels cartoon- but even with all those wonderful actors and characters- I don't think we have a single latina in Star Wars (yet! fingers crossed we'll see Rosario Dawson as Ahsoka Tano in this next season of the Mandalorian!).
Venecia Gutiérrez González aka Momo Naberrie's "La Catrina Amidala" significantly and beautifully turns that lack of representation in our fave fandom on its head- giving us an undeniable, thoroughly Mexicana/latina artform and imagery- while paying homage to our beloved Star Wars through exquisitely executed Cosplay that is currently taking social media by storm!
What drew you to Star Wars?
Well I got my first contact with Star Wars thanks to the prequels!!! I went to see Star Wars Ep. I the phantom menace in the movie theatre!!! From there my love for Star Wars began, I fell in love with everything but more with the beautiful Queen Amidala (before that I know about Yoda, Chewie, Leia, Han, Luke but only because they are part of the popular culture since… ufff!!)
What are some of your favorite Star Wars memories?
This is a difficult one to answer because I have a lot of good memories talking about Star Wars but if I need to choose one, I definitely say that my best memory is that thanks to Star Wars I could meet amazing people than right now I can call friends and its awesome because I feel I found my tribe! A place that I really belong when I share time with them! (And I not talking only people from my country, I have made a lot of friends around the world thanks to Star Wars)
How did you get into cosplaying?
Talking about cosplaying, I got into it when I started to go to the Star Wars premieres and I saw that a lot of people went characterized in some character of the franchise!! At the beginning I was not confident to dress myself as a character (but I really wanted it so badly) in December 2017 for the Star Wars premier of Ep. 8 I finally took courage and decided to dress as a Jedi (my mother in law help me making the entire outfit, she is a master talking about that) and finally I started doing cosplay!!!! (But I need to accept that since I was a child I loved to dress as a character, I always asked to my parents to made me a costume party for my B-day)
What about Padme makes her your favorite Star Wars character? Who are some of your other favorite characters?
I really love her strength, determination, courage, nerve, !!! Also she always defended her ideals no matter what, she was always true to herself! And in other hand OMG her style!!! I love her style so much! She is a fashionista!!! those are the characteristics that make me feel in love of her!! If I need to talk about other favorite character my second one and my always crush is Anakin Skywalker!!!!!! <3 <3 <3 he was my imaginary boyfriend all my teenage years hahahaha! And recently the beautiful and cuteness The child a.k.a. Baby Yoda!!!
In addition to Padme, you also cosplay Rey and baby yoda- and I think some rad looking Jedi and Sith original characters! Who else would you like to cosplay?
If we only talking about Star Wars,I would love to cosplay Queen Apailana ( I know she only appeared a few seconds during the Padme´s burial parade, but I really love her dark and mournful outfit) I love to do intricate and baroque costumes!! If we talk outside Star Wars I would love to do Mother War (from My chemical Romance video “welcome to the black parade) and The Handler from The Umbrella Academy season 2
I love your Catrina Amidala collection!!! I love how you've merged Mexican cultural expression with your love for cosplaying Padme. How did you think of this?
Thank you so much! Well every year I dress as a Catrina, I try to do one in a different Mexican folk costume per year! The last year I made a Catrina with the Folk costume of San Luis Potosi Mexico, this year I was working in my Traditional catrina when the idea came to my head! I though : What if I do a Catrina with my Queen Amidala / Padme Costumes, like the Catrina, Amidala has the same bearing, and both ware beautiful and intricate dresses, so I decided to try and see if I could bring to life the ideas I had in my mind!!!! I was afraid because I know this crossover could be a hit (everybody will love it) or a disaster (everybody will hate it) Luckily was the first one!
Do you think we'll be seeing more latinas in Star Wars (and sci-fi/fantasy in general) someday soon?
I really hope we will see more latinas in Star Wars soon and in other projects! I think these days the latino community are making noise in a good way! And we can see that they are participate more and more in different important projects (music, movies, writing, etc)
Jedi or Sith?
For me is easier to embody a Sith but im still choosing the Light side of the force! So at moment I still consider myself as a Jedi but who knows what happened in the future muahahaha!!!
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