As I hung up with my sister, I vowed to get her a list of gift ideas. And as trivial as my assignment seemed compared to everything else I had to do at home and at work, I realized that finding toys that are developmentally appropriate for my preschool daughter and that are “culturally’’ appropriate is a daunting task. While I prefer not to think about, I know I have to because of the impact that culturally-appropriate images have on my daughter. After an exhaustive online search I realized there is no one source that has compiled mami-approved suggestions for Latinas and other moms who are raising socially conscious, multi-cultural kids. When I set out to look for toys that defy stereotypes for girls and reflect our skin tones and cultural values, I found a lot of blond Barbies—who after all these years still have the unrealistic breast-to-waist ratio that I thought feminists had done away with long ago.
