Cuban children dressed in Haitian costumes perform a dance in tribute to Haitian women and to commemorate International Women's Day in Havana Mar. 7, 2010.

Gallery of Celebrations Across The World

International Women’s Day is 100 years old, but I’ve only known about it for the past 5 years. Funny enough, I was in a Latin country at the time and they were gearing for this huge celebration. I question why and their response: “Dia de La Mujer!” My reply: “Por que?”

In my time on this earth, I hadn’t seen women honored outside of Valentine’s Day & Mother’s Day, and those days are specific. To be in the midst of a celebration for uplifting and recognizing every aspect, every achievement, every moment of a woman’s life floored me and elated me.

I wish, here in the US, this day was celebrated more. Be more than declared a day, but recognized as one. Because we women are amazing. I find myself in awe seeing what we accomplish from day to day. The belittlement at work, the neglect at home, the abuse from our lovers, the spite from each other. Being a woman today is no easy ordeal. YET we are Secretaries of State, Supreme Court Justices, Grammy record-setters, United Nation honorees, Academy Award winning directors.

You wake up each morning and get your children (and probably your neighbor’s) to school. You put on your uniform (DKNY or Wendy’s) and work hard & long for less pay and assurance. You deal with idiot politicians attempting to snatch your rights away at every opportunity, but yet you persevere.

We hold onto our femininity in this man’s world and are judged for it. Our achievements are described as luck instead of the result of years of hard work. Our errors are magnified and said to be the result of our woman state.

Let me be the one to tell you though and make sure you repeat to everyone that crosses your path today.

You rock!

So ladies (Fabie, Dr. A, Luisa, Nicci, Queen, Tiffany, Raquel, Phaedra, Netty, Niisha, Bahama, Susan & the rest of youse), this day is yours.  You motivate me & inspire me & push me to be a better woman every day.  Celebrate you and allow no one to make you feel less than the amazing goddess that you are…today or any day.

Feliz Dia de La Mujer!

Translated: Women...Being a woman is to be all in this life, we are the most sublime creation of God, we are what others want to imitate, we are the inspiration for many and the guide for others, we are the personification of love itself, we are simply women...therefore I desire for you a Happy Day!

Sidenote 1: Congratulations to @thatguyjr whose former boss, Kathryn Bigelow made history last night.  I don’t think she could’ve finished the movie without your assistance, and I do believe she would say the same.

Sidenote 2: I hit 3-0 today, and I think I look damn good.  LOL Thanks for all the wishes.  Now go celebrate women in honor of me!

MANDATE: I do expect you to honor women, yourself, if applicable, and those in your life in my comments.

Apparently, birth certificates from Puerto Rico are what’s hot in the streets right now.

“According to U.S. Customs and Immigration, a Puerto Rican birth certificate runs for about $5,000 to $10,000 on the black market.”  Source

Who knew? Supposedly, 40% of identity fraud in the US involves birth certificates from Puerto Rico. As all of you should know but as evidenced in daily American conversation, most do not so allow me to inform you. Puerto Rico is an US territory granting all of its inhabitants US citizenship as dictated by the Jones-Shafroth Act. They don’t have full rights given natural-born citizens, but they are Americans. That puts us in a better position than our Latino/Hispanic counterparts from other countries. Thus, it’s being reported that our brethren have been stealing our birth certificates to gain citizenship.

So Puerto Rico, the brightest light in the Caribbean, enacted a law in December that will void and revoke all previously-issued birth certificates from Puerto Rico as of July 1. *pausing so that sinks in* Yes, they are declaring an entire subset of US citizens null & void. If you were born in Puerto Rico, you have to be reissued a new one.

Puerto Rico, more importantly Governor Fortuño, has had some dumb ideas in the past, but this just may be his worst. This new birth certificates will have higher security measures that will make it harder to use in fraud. This will also completely erase the monetary value of the current birth certificates. They make it sound really smart and simple. After July 1, send in a copy of a current photo ID and $5 money order, and your new birth certificate will be mailed to you.  (More on the process here.)

Really?! This is the best you could come up with to deal with this immigration issue?  Why are you disrupting my life? Why aren’t you penalizing these government orgs that are allowing themselves to be fooled?

Pendejos.

Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I don’t believe this will work that smoothly. You’re talking about reissuing birth certificates for a few million people who already have issues proving their citizenship. This is coming from someone who was born in Puerto-Rico and have had hiccups at every step of my life in the US. From being registered for grade school to applying to college, obtaining my license, voting. Having a Spanish last name forces you to jump through hoops even when you’re a citizen by birth. I’m forced to prove my citizenship at every opportunity and now you’re suggesting to add to that by revoking my birth certificate?  Now I know what Obama must feel like.

Why is it that every new law or solution to combat immigration is always focused on Latinos/Hispanics? And I refuse to believe that political opportunists will not use this new law to argue against immigration and make it even harder for Puerto-Ricans to live in the US.

Govenor Luis Fortuño, I don’t trust you. You truly think they’re going to allow you to run for President, and you’re doing whatever you can to make that happen.  US Government, I do not trust you either.  $5 to prove my birth?!  Just to rebel, I’m not going to file my taxes and I’m going to sell my birth certificate…as soon as I find it.

This law was passed in December, and you still have not done a major push to educate those of us living in the US of it! I do believe you’re going to manipulate and restrict this new opportunity to fuck me over. You may not take away my citizenship, just my ability to not feel like an immigrant at every opportunity.

Besa mi culo.

To mis puertorrriqueños :

You are now NOT free to move about the country.

(In case I do need a green card, I do appreciate all of you who have stepped forward willing to marry me. There was so much interest, however, that I’m going to have to outline some rules for “Who Will Marry Reina?” Please submit your request to songdereina@gmail.com and I will be in touch.)

Over the next few weeks, both my best friend and I will be turning 30.  (Her first, yes!) We’ve both dreaded this day for YEARS.  So this past weekend, in hopes to hold onto our 20s for as long as we could, we decided to reminisce over the past 10 years, and well…

We came to the conclusion that I’m a “maneater.”  Well, she did. I refute this claim wholeheartedly.  Every man I’ve transgressed is still standing (as far as I know), and I’m pretty sure I made him a better man.  If for naught else, I was a perfect example of the type of woman he should avoid in the future.

Indeed, I was that girl mothers warned their sons about.   I was that female your boys said wasn’t nothing but a tease.  I was that chick that you just had to have, you needed to flaunt.

So I behaved accordingly. I wielded the power those things gave me.  And it all came so easily because I didn’t have to change who I was.  All it required was an exploitation of that which came naturally.

College taught me the most important thing about men.  They like to brag.   And what a woman needed to be was brag-worthy (just made that word up).  We women want to be exalted for more than our mere bodies.  There is so much more to us: personality, character, intelligence, accomplishments.  But you know what?  Men are visual. Your best bet is to have those things in physique that draws them in.   So I made sure I did.  I also made certain that the demand for me was always higher than the supply.  The more elusive you are, the more they desire to conquer.  Sword in the stone, anyone?

Sex drives men, and it is definitely the most powerful thing a woman had in her possession.  So why would you play your Ace early in the game?  I sharpened my skills by treating sex as if it wasn’t an option, and most times, it wasn’t.   I wanted to win without ever using my Ace, and once I got the results I desired, I could hold up my Ace in victory.  Hell, for the majority of my 20s, my Ace never left my hand.

I could spellbind a man so thoroughly, he’d wake up the next morning thinking we’d had sex when our date only ended with a peck on the cheek.  I was the most predatory prey known to mankind.   There’s never been a need for me to approach a man because I could always draw him to me while allowing him to believe it was his decision all along.  And I’d always leave them wanting more. My friend, Mark, who has known me since college and comments here daily (Thanks for your support!) used to joke that men in my past held Reina Anonymous meetings.

I spent the majority of my 20s single and sexless, which was a byproduct of the mentality I had.  I could ensnare a man, but keeping him happy…eh?  I was too selfish to worry about that; thus, my relationships never lasted.   That’s why my best friend is married, and I’m not.  However, my mentality has changed or is changing.  Nowadays, I’m more concerned with a man being drawn in by my intelligence and building something with him than leaving him panting in a corner like a fiend.   It’s hard to shrug off the ways of old, and I’m sure I could still lure men in that manner if I wished.  But I’m at that point that men that fall to such apparent bait is not the man I want in my 30s.

I am a work in progress, but you know what? Being a “maneater” was fun.  I would do my 20s again the exact same way.