NBC5 Street Team

Desiree, NBC5 Street Team

I am obviously the last in the loop on the American Girl Doll trend. I’ve passed by the store on Chicago and Michigan Avenue a million times, heard about parents spending upwards of $800 in an hour on dolls and accessories, and endured countless blows to my breasts from the gigantic American Girl red bags parading down Michigan Avenue. Finally, Sunday was my lucky day. Enamored by American Girl ads, my out-of-town girlfriend insisted on dragging me to the store for my first time to help pick a doll out for her two-year-old daughter.

I enjoyed staring at the cases of Bitty Baby Dolls, Colonial Dolls, and…The Hispanic Girl Dolls, accompanied with the tagline, “A Story of Heart and Hope.” Inside were several bizarrely dressed dolls. Have you ever seen the movie, The Last of the Mohicans, or Pocahontas? Well, that’s what they looked like. The dolls’ backdrop reminded me of the Wild, Wild, West, complete with a carriage and horses (because Hispanics don’t own cars, nor do they live in the 21^st century). Similarly, The Hispanic Girl Dolls all had long black hair and black eyes (because we Hispanics all look exactly alike). Forget the fact that I was in Monterrey, Mexico last week and met many blue-eyed and green-eyed girls with blond or red hair, or that I was in Spain a few months ago, where the women possessed similar features. I was surprised that the manufacturers didn’t accessorize with some queso and an old-fashioned tortilla maker too.

To throw another log onto the southwestern camp fire, I did not find the novel Anglo-American Dolls. However, I did find that The American Girl Doll Company gets around these inappropriate affronts to race and politically incorrect dolls by calling them “Historical Characters.” Which makes it even more interesting to point out that no other historical character is referred to by her race, but rather the era in which she is living in, The Great Depression, Civil War, World War II, etc. In fact, Josefina Montoya, the token Hispanic Doll (with the token Hispanic name), lives in New Mexico outside an adobe, along with her accessory: a baby goat.

When will Hispanics get to be just an American too, you may ask? Similar to their Anglo counterparts, many Hispanics do not speak the language of their ancestors any more, and many have actually been on North American land longer.

Perhaps I am just desperately using this example as an outlet for my own racial insecurities. And, perhaps I just really want to be the American Girl Doll, Julie Albright – a fun-loving San Francisco Girl, who does not get badgered with everyday questions of, “so you must speak Spanish, right?” because of the color of her skin. Who knows, perhaps Julie does in fact speak Gaelic or German or something foreign herself (but I bet she is not expected to). To check out the educational dolls for sale at our very own Michigan Avenue, log onto http://www.americangirl.com/.