The Mexican Dynasties Cast Explains How They Break From "Traditional" Mexican Family Roles

The women of Mexican Dynasties don't want to be labeled as (just) housewives.

Businesswoman Doris Bessudo instead noted her family, especially her mom, “completely shatters Mexican stereotypes,” which has been a positive influence on her family.  

“She’s not a stay-at-home mom, she never cooked. My dad swept her off her feet, and so my brother, my sister, and I were taken care of by nannies because she wasn’t really that present of a mom, to be honest,” she said, adding, “She was a working woman which was way ahead of her time, she had a career, she wasn’t just there to look pretty although she looked pretty anyway.”

Doris explained that while it was her grandmother who took on the more maternal role, cooking and doing “all the things that a typical stereotypical mom would do,” she looked up to her mom with respect.
 
“I was very cosmopolitan as a young girl, and that’s not a typical Mexican thing, because in Mexico it’s all about cooking and family and staying together. And we are about staying together, but it’s not necessarily with the cooking and the food,” she reasoned.

Her mom, Raquel Bessudo, says the reason Grandma was always around was because her own “husband was very demanding and he had so many social things for his work so I had to be with him — so I left them with the nannies, well, nannies and my mom... my mom was always there.”

“That’s my problem too, because my mom was everything, she did the cooking, she did everything, and all the festivities — we were doing it at my mom's,” Raquel said. “The traditional duties of a daughter in our country as a family is first respect. To be educated, because education for us is very important. And love. We make them feel they are lovable and they have to give us love too.”

“She’s right, the respect that a child gives to a parent in Mexico never happens in the United States,” she added.

Mari Allende also explained why she’s “not a traditional Mexican wife." She was born and raised in Puerto Rico and so she has different views on being a wife. “I know how to sew, knit, crochet, I can cook any dish you can possibly imagine, because since I was a little girl I was sent to classes to learn how to be a real housewife. Because usually the housewife would stay at home and the men go to work. But then I decided to go into business school, which I did, and you know, I do all the housewife things, but I also work. So I’m on 24/7.”

Her son Adan Allende describes his parents as both breaking tradition. “In the olden days when the mother would be the housewife and she’d take care of the kids and the husband would go out and work and it’s got this machista atmosphere...  my parents are a lot more of a team, of a unit, my mom works just as much as my dad. My dad is not a macho man, he’s not machista, he respects women and he values them, and he believes in equal rights and equal rights in the workforce.”