It’s not every day you hear a fellow Ecuadorian-South Floridian has created a television show, let alone one premiering on Adult Swim. The trailer of Gonzalo Cordova’s latest animated project Women Wearing Shoulder Pads, immediately piqued my interest, and of course, I leapt to share the news with my Ecuadorian mother. Here was a show set in her native country, in her native tongue, in the era of her coming-of-age. I knew I would be thinking about her as I watched the series, but I did not anticipate an astute, operatic 80s tale deeply invested in mothers and daughters and the messiness in between.
If her name didn’t give it away, main character Marioneta Negocios is all work and no play. The Spanish businesswoman, interested in domesticating “cuy” (guinea pigs), declares in the first episode: “Quito, the center of the world, and here I am… about to make it revolve around me!” Rounding out the ensemble are Coquita, Marioneta’s assistant/maid, Doña Quispe, a butcher-restaurateur and Marioneta’s rival, Espada Muleta, a passionate cuy fighter, and finally, daughter and vegetarian Nina Quispe, who is caught in the crossfire of said feuding women in said shoulder pads.
The series excels both in the relatable themes found with ambitious women working and fighting, and in the cultural specificity it achieves in just eight episodes. Women Wearing Shoulder Pads is not simply about Ecuador, but about the capital city Quito, a mountainous landscape much different from the coastal area of Guayaquil, where my mother is from. When I asked her how the two cities distinguished themselves in the 80s, she mentioned two elements that epitomize Women Wearing Shoulder Pads – food and fashion.
In Guayaquil, cuy isn’t as popular a cuisine because as a port city, seafood reigns supreme. Doña Quispe even menacingly reminds her daughter Nina in episode two, “Fish isn’t meat, my girl.”
“In Quito, there was more culture,” my mom expressed, “Everything was fancier. The people dressed nicer because it was cold. They dressed more elegantly, in boots and sweaters. En Guayaquil, hace un calor de mierda.” To her point, the clothing in Women Wearing Shoulder Pads is evocative and impressive. The wealthy women don long, glamorous sleeves, and their frizzy hair is somehow alluring. Color springs from the screen, not only through the hues that characterize the women’s personas, but the architecture and landscape. The latter half of the series especially shows off the production design’s mastery, with stunning cliffside sunsets and monochromatic NYE parties. Pink carpets and pink pants galore!
Attention to detail is imperative when making stop-motion, and even the music in the series, composed by Kevin Smithers, will sound familiar to 80s Latin pop listeners. The first song heard, as listened to by Coquita, seems inspired by the 1985 tune “Bazar” by Mexican girl-group Flans, a favorite among the Ecuadorian women in my family.
While the accents may not be identical to local Ecuadorians, hearing dialogue like “Chuta madre!” or “Cuerpa-sa-sa-saso!” is sure to ring true. Seeing Año Viejos (the papier mache characters set ablaze at midnight on NYE as per Ecuadorian tradition) play a role in the plot is truly a treat. Rarely is our culture in the spotlight, and it’s impossible not to smile at its presence.
Art also plays a powerful role in the narrative itself, as the show depicts the work of fictional artist Oswaldo Huancahuari, modeled after the Ecuadorian painter Oswaldo Guayasamín. Through this reference, Women Wearing Shoulder Pads refuses to limit itself to surface-level cultural touchstones and instead comments on Quito’s political and social tensions, including class disparity, which Guayasamín was vocal about. Though Nina Quispe may be young, only a year younger than my mother would have been at the time, she notices and criticizes the wealthy who dominate her country. Suddenly, the cuy transcends the punchline and becomes a symbol of revolution and freedom.
Another one of the series highlights is how queer it is. For these women, sapphic sex is sweaty and maddening! My mom shared that in her early 20s, she and others suspected a couple of lesbians were among their group, but naturally, no one was out of the closet, nor did any of them have the privilege to be as brazen as the women in the series. In that way, it’s touching to imagine a reality in which lesbians in 80s Ecuador were commonplace and, as Marioneta predicted, the center of the story.
And the show portrays all these social and cultural signifiers with telenovela flair and campy humor. Women Wearing Shoulder Pads doesn’t take itself too seriously, and that’s an asset too. It is, after all, about a world where cuys are big enough to require their own toreadors. The series is silly and excited about the genres it blends and satirizes, and viewers should be excited too.
Women Wearing Should Pads is Adult Swim’s first Spanish-language series. It premieres Sunday, August 17 at midnight ET/PT on the network with episodes available the next day on HBO Max.
