Real superheroes don't need capes

by Libby Juliá Vázquez

I hate to date myself, but I’m a child of the 70s. Growing up, I was way more into books than toys, with two notable exceptions: My Wonder Woman and Sabrina Duncan—of Charlie’s Angels’ fame—dolls.

I cannot tell you why these toys made the cut in my childhood list of “things that I find entertaining,” but I’d venture a guess that aesthetics played a role. Both characters were played by beautiful women on their respective TV shows, and though I was a quiet little bookworm, I was also very into clothes, shoes and looking cute from a very young age.

It could also have been their exciting lives, though thinking about it now, Wonder Woman’s see-through airplane seems very inconvenient for crime fighting; at the age of five or six, I thought it was a beyond-cool mode of transportation!

But my choices of childhood toys may have had more of an effect than I imagined because though the aesthetics are no longer important to me, the heroic, strong woman part of what they represented remains with me…

I greatly admire the strength of spirit in everyday superheroes and aspire to be one.

You read about Daniel Hernandez, Jr. yesterday. His selfless act has elevated him, and in turn Latinos, in the eyes of the nation. We also honored Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, a man who also selflessly put himself in the path of hate and prejudice to be an agent of change for equality. But that should come as no surprise since Latinos, along with Blacks, are twice as likely to perform heroic deeds.

Heroics comes in different forms. Not all acts of heroism require us to potentially sacrifice our lives. Sometimes it’s a different—though no less important—sacrifice, such as smiling through your own pain while you lend an ear and shoulder to comfort someone else’s or share in their joy.

Acts like these are performed everyday by people who go unnoticed. These particular heroes’s efforts don’t turn into national/global news stories, there are no holidays in their honor, and there are definitely no capes involved.

Everyday heroes find their reward and recognition in the smile of the person they ‘save’ and in knowing they contributed positivity to the world.

We all have the hero potential within us. There’s no need to be bitten by radioactive bugs, no need to twirl, and definitely no need to find a phone booth (do they even exist anymore?) to transform into a superhero. All it takes is the desire to be a regular human, who does superhuman things.

As I said, I aspire to be a superhero. You can call me Wonder Boricua!

To learn more about Libby, visit Write Media.

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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those
of the author and should not be understood to be shared by Being Latino, Inc.

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