Hola Femmebots! Welcome back to The FACTory in Downtown snOrrrrrrrrrrlando! I’m your hostess Dr. Kat Nutmeg, and tonight’s guest is Desiree Sanchez, the main character in our 1980s must-see-TV series Model Ricans! Don’t know what a Model Rican is?
Desiree Sanchez is a “Model Rican.” Why? She is a Math Olympiad, the fastest runner in her class, washes all the dishes after dinner, and blends in easily with the Black, White, and Brown neighbors of her Nuyorican family’s suburban house in Strong Island. She is the middle child in a family of first-generation “Model Ricans:”
Dad was born in Guayanilla, a tiny town just outside of Ponce, and moved to the Bronx with his parents when he was five. After attending Brooklyn Tech, he got a scholarship to The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art.
Mom was born in San Sebastián, located in the northwest part of Puerto Rico. When she was nine, she moved with her 10 brothers and sisters to Los Sures, a Nuyorican hood inside Williamsburg, Brooklyn. She became the fastest typist at Manhattan Citibank.
Tia is the tech instructor in the Harlem Public School system.
Primo and Big Sister are about to study aeronautical engineering at Embry Riddle.
Lil Bro is a video game math whiz who skipped a grade.
When Dad decides to relocate the fam to Orlando-snOrlando-Borelando, Fla., Desiree announces she will be running away, and oh boy, does she run so far, so fast, so frequently, she keeps finding herself in a time travel vortex that transports her from the past to the future.
Subscribe now to find out how Desiree leaves 1989 and ends up right here in the 2025 version of The Femmebots FACTory!
If you upgrade to a paid, “Founding Member” subscription, you’ll also start receiving the next two parts of THE NINE LIVES OF MARIA LA GATA on Thursday nights again. The story follows Dr. Nutmeg’s bisabuela, who didn’t quite fit the goody two shoes Model Rican track; in fact, La Gata used her math skills to transform herself from a dancer on Broadway into a scrappy rum runner in 1920s Harlem and Ponce.
It’s a fun adventure so far, according to Part I beta readers. After spending January trying to decide how to finish editing it, I realized I need this Substack for deadline pressure. BUT I don’t want to give the story away for free, cuz it’s a lot of work, and I intend on pitching literary agents.
So upgrade now, my pretty little Femmebots! Gracias. :)
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