Aileen Lopez: The Goddess of SWAG

Okurrrrrrrr! … lol … ok, A-Lo did not say that, but A-Lo could have just as easily had said it, because A-Lo is spontaneous, flip it from the hip, proud to be “cray-cray” Puerto Rican who is as “Cardi B.” as anyone. She is cuddly cute, sexy, feisty and sugary sweet. Get her on a rant, and she can compete with any sailor in the blue language vocabulary. Wanna be sweet? She will bury you in sugar. She is crazy with a heart of gold. She may be the most sensitive of all The Latin Goddesses.

Oh, yes, did I forget to mention that?..She IS one of The Latin Goddesses … but NOT just “one ” of them … she is THE Latin Goddess, meaning she plays the central character on The Latin Goddesses. She plays the girl next door goddess who is never looking for drama or trouble, but somehow it always seems to find her. She is “never a dull moment”. She says what she acts and thinks and feels … unfiltered, and that creates a roller coaster “never a dull moment” ride for all around. She is a multi-dimensional, multi-sided character, who from scene to scene, will go from swinging a bat at an abuser to praying with her daughter, to being the center of attention at a party.

In other words, to being Aileen Lopez.

She definitely was type cast for this part. Now whether the part was written for her, or whether she was written for the part, remains to be seen. But she IS the character (as they all are on TLG.) The producers and writers feel she (her part) is the gravitational center that will draw 70% of all young Latinas to identify with her, with her role. She is the part of “wannabe J-Lo” but “got too much Cardi B. to be”.

She melts and captures your heart as the character always trying to do good, but life keeps messing non-stop with her. So her part IS “The Latin Goddess”, so she IS “The Latin Goddess … which at times seems an oxymoron (like “jumbo shrimp”), as she both defines the term and is the very exception to it, depending on the scene.

In many cases, her character seems to be, to quote Kris Kristofferson, “a walking contradiction / partly truth and partly fiction / taking every wrong direction / on that lonely way back home”. But that is all of us … The journey.

That is the premise of The Latin Goddesses … Becoming.

She is A-Lo “Boom Boom” Lopez. The writer says when he first experienced her, he could just imagine her being a Puerto Rican boxer as “in this corner, wearing white trunks, we have Aileen ‘Boom Boom’ Lopez.”

Aileen Lopez looks 21, gets carded all the time as she could pass for even younger, but is actually 30 years old. She looks like the youngest goddess but is actually the oldest one. She is a single mom, but “taken”, as she lives with her boyfriend, (and, like Cardi B., will start a bar fight with anyone trying to hit on him.)

She has an adorable son, a very smart young genius, and she lives in Chicago. Proud to be from Chicago, as anyone who knows her can attest to. She is the struggling 2 job mom (3 jobs when she can) who does everything hard … works hard, plays hard, loves hard, falls hard. When she hurts, its the end of civilization. When she parties, she swings from the chandelier. That is her in real life; that is her on the show.

Your role is to be the fun and crazy Goddess? Are you good with that?

That’s fine with me … I’m all about fun and crazy, I’m Puerto Rican … lol

You are the show’s Cardi B. Your thoughts on that?

I think Cardi and myself come from “the hood”, so maybe that’s why there’s a comparison, but just like her, I’m proud of where I’m from … wouldn’t change a thing about growing up in Chicago.

How did you get cast on The Latin Goddesses? How did that come about?

I guess Lowell saw a picture of me and said “BOOM!” … lol … that’s why he sometimes calls me “Boom Boom”.

You waited an awfully long time for this project to maturate. Tell us about that wait, the struggle, and how it has made you feel.

I think I’ve been on since maybe 2015/2016 … can’t really remember … I got kicked off cause I guess at the time crazy was too controversial … lol … but nowadays it’s becoming a trend, so they asked me to come back and here I am … maybe it wasn’t the right time for a loud mouth Latina {back then} … lol.

What is a Latin Goddess in your mind?

To me, a Latin Goddess, who despite her flaws, loves herself unconditionally and shows other women to be confident in their own skin. We all have our days where we don’t feel pretty enough, smart enough, or just not enough period. Us women do so much … we get stressed between work, family and ourselves … we have to stop in the middle and tell ourselves that we are enough and we have the power to change things around.

Why you? What is it about YOU that you think made them choose you as the central character?

I think ‘cuz of my craziness … I tend to speak my mind, say things without thinking it through, and at times I have my foot in my mouth … lol … my mouth can get me into trouble sometimes … lol.