One-woman show explains Cha Cha feminist life

Maria Elena Fernandez, star of Thursday's one-woman autobiographical performance, "Confessions of a Cha Cha Feminist," showed up almost an hour late, danced on tables and threw plastic razors at the audience.\nAnd they loved it.\nFernandez, a Yale graduate and a professor at California State University, Northridge, portrayed herself in several stages of her life during the performance. The show began with her as a grade-school-age girl in a frilly white dress her mother made her wear to church. The show followed her through her life 2,829 miles from her California home to Yale, where she said she discovered feminism and fought with issues like hair removal. \n"Don't tell my mom, but I picked the school farthest away from home," Fernandez said during the show.\nThe performance tackled issues related to women, the Hispanic community and Catholic school life. Fernandez spoke about dealing with the culture clash of being raised by Mexican parents in the United States, dealing with big brothers and first boyfriends and trying to see where feminism fit in with dancing at the African-American House at Yale. \nShe explained during the question-and-answer session after the show that Cha Chas are the Hispanic club girls with huge hoop earrings, red lipstick and teased hair. \nIn the college student stage of the show, Fernandez explained in detail her "unsightly hair removal" routine. She showed how she shaved her legs and bikini line, plucked her eyebrows into the "perfect Cha Cha arch" and used a product to bleach her mustache. \n"Some days I look in the mirror and that's all I can see, and I'm sure that's all anyone else can see, too! How am I supposed to be the Cha Cha I want to be if I have a mustache?" she cried during the show. \nSophomore Keisha Echeverria said she thought the show was amazing. \n"I came here as a requirement for something, and it ended up being completely hilarious," she said. \nSeveral members from the Women's Student Association also attended the show. Senior Amy Gastelum, president of WSA, said she attended for social reasons but also because the show provided positive female entertainment. \nThe show not only related to college students but to faculty as well.\n"I'm a first-generation Mexican American," criminal justice professor Veronica Herrera said. "I grew up in California, and being in the Midwest, I want to see what's going on." \nThough a few attendees left before the performance began at about 7:45 p.m., the crowd still filled more than half of Alumni Hall. Those who remained in the crowd laughed while Fernandez cringed, re-enacting her father and mother yelling at her to sit correctly and close her legs and also when she threw pink plastic razors toward the crowd in a fit of disgust at one boyfriend in college who told her she needed to shave her legs more often. \nAs the performance came to a close, Fernandez mimed dancing with one of her Hispanic friends from Yale as a happier woman for coming to terms with feminism, hair removal and her parents.