When Maria discovered Shakira’s album “Pies Descalzos” at 12 years old, her brain chemistry got altered. Shakira was a revelation: her alternative leather pants, her messy makeup, and that blackest of black hair. Shakira was the antidote to the different shades of blonde that dominated MTV in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the bastion of hope for brunette Latinas. Until the year 2000. The year the world changed. The year Shakira… went blonde! In this episode, Maria analyzes how Shakira’s hair reveals something about an entire generation’s relationship to beauty, assimilation and longing. 

Watch this episode on YouTube.