As my mom tried to unlock the front doors of our new house in Salt Lake City, I couldn’t help but notice the giant marble mansion peeking out from the white firs in our front yard. It was only one street away from us, but it was so big that it made an illusion that made it appear like it was right in front of our eyes, claiming dominance over the streets by standing big and tall. “I wonder who lives there,” I said. “They’re probably one of the richest people in town,” my sister, Lauren guessed. 

By the next three days, we finished unpacking the boxes and the cookies coming in as welcome gifts from our neighbors started to slow down. As I was setting up my lamp, I heard the doorbell ring. “Ugh,” my mom exclaimed. She opened the door to reveal a boujee lady wearing a white dress with shining teeth that could make anyone blind. 

“Hi! Well you must be our new neighbor. It’s so nice to finally meet you! My name is Lisa! I live a street away from you. That house over there, it’s hard to miss it.” She pointed at the tall white marble house. “Anyway, these cookies are for you,” she said. 

“Oh hi! I’m Carla. Thank you for the cookies. Your house is so pretty by the way!” As my mom revealed her strong Spanish accent to the lady, the lady's smile seemed to get bigger as if she had hit the jackpot. 

“Thank you! Oh my god, I can already feel a connection between us. I have decided that we’re friends already!” 

My mom was slurring her words since she didn’t know what to say to that. “Oh, okay I would love to be friends.” The lady invited us to her house for a cup of coffee, and my mom couldn’t say no. As they said bye to each other, my mom said, “That was weird.” 

It was morning, and my mom was already in the closet trying to decide on an outfit. “Should I wear this dress or this one?” my mom asked my sister. My sister told her to wear the first dress. A white dress. The color rich people love to wear. “Okay. Oh and by the way, please behave guys,” my mom told us. We all hopped in the car to drive to the lady’s house, which was awkward since it took about 40 seconds, but my mom says walking would have been more awkward. 

As my mom reached out her hand to knock the door, the lady opened the door first. “You made it!” As she let us in, I noticed a bunch of other ladies sitting on a couch surrounding a glass table. A camera was capturing their every move and every conversation. “You guys sit next to me,” Lisa said to us. I was shaking in my boots. I never felt so pressured to be someone else. I could see my mom feeling the same way. 

My mom, my sister and I were just looking at each other wondering why she didn’t mention cameras and other families that were going to be in the house. “You guys, this is… uh… Carol!” 

“Carla,” my mom corrected her. 

“Yeah, Carla, same thing. She moved into my neighborhood recently!” My mom was greeted by 5 rich families. It was the scariest thing we have ever heard. They were so in sync.

 The camera men led us to another room. The room had this cheesy 90’s background with a stool. They told us to introduce ourselves. This was clearly a reality TV show. My mom was really mad at Lisa, but she knew to control herself before she gave the show the content they wanted to record. We all reluctantly agreed to introduce ourselves to the camera. 

“Hi, My name is Carla, I’m 45, and I moved recently to Salt Lake City.” 

I could see the camera men happy. I knew exactly why. They loved her accent. They thought it was hilarious. I was really angry, but I wasn’t going to put on a show, so I just asked the cameramen where the bathroom was so I could collect myself. 

As I was leaving the bathroom, I heard a conversation between Lisa and another lady. “Why did you bring her here, are you guys really friends?” 

Lisa responded, “I basically told that to her, and yeah I’m up to make an actually friendship with her, but I guess I want her to be more like a sidekick, you know? Like, for the show. Like, an accessory, I guess.” 

“Oh, yeah that makes more sense,” the lady says. I couldn’t believe what I just heard, I just wanted to leave this house so bad. I was frozen in shock, until the cameramen snapped it out of me. 

“Tom, it’s your turn! Hello? Tom!” 

Lisa looked to the voice’s direction, where the room’s doors were, and she saw me, just standing there staring at her with a noticeably shocked expression. “Oh snap,” she said. I quickly walked in the room. I was feeling 10 emotions at once. I told my sister what I just heard. I had to. 

“They said what?” my sister shouted. 

“Can you keep quiet? I don’t want mom to hear,” I said. 

“Why would you not want mom to know? They’re using her as a laughing stock for this stupid show that we don’t even know the name of! I can’t believe this.” 

I didn’t mean to make her as mad as I was, honestly, I wasn’t expecting her to react that way. I have never seen my sister so mad before. She ran to mom, telling her everything. She stared at her as stated, “I know, I noticed ever since she let us in and I saw the camera, but we can’t just leave.” As we wrapped up our introductions, we went back to sit. 

 Lisa was still smiling. “Hey! How did it go?” 

“Why didn’t you tell me about all of this?” my mom asked, her hand firmly planted on her hip. She was finally ready to address the bizarre, shiny woman and her film-set household. 

“What?”

“You said we would just talk. You and me, drinking some coffee. Why are there cameras everywhere?”

“Oh, did I not tell you?” Lisa’s smile widened, her white teeth threatening to blind the whole room. “Oh Carla I’m so sorry! I’m in this show called The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City and we’re just recording an episode for the day. I hope you don’t feel like I put you in the spotlight!”

My mom started whispering phrases in Spanish that I can not repeat. But she kept her chill. She had to. The rest of the day, it was me and my sister on the couch, tired from anger, and my mom acting like she was loving her day, talking and talking. Two hours passed. Families started leaving, so we left too. We drove back to our house, silent. The rest of the day was silent too, but all three of us could feel our furious energy. 

A month passes, and I’m on twitter. The hashtag “#RHOSLC” is trending, which is an abbreviation of “Real Housewives Of Salt Lake City”. I scroll through the tweets. “This lady’s accent is so funny!” “The Carla chick needs to go take English classes! Her voice is so annoying.” “Someone tape this woman’s mouth shut.” I quickly went downstairs to tell my mom to turn the TV on and to go to the FOX channel. There I was, and so was my mom and my sister. 

“Oh no,” my mom said. She was biting her nails out of embarrassment. She was shaking out of anger, but you could tell she was holding it in. 

I felt morally obligated to tell her about what people on the internet were saying too, so I showed her. She turned the TV off and went to her room. I have never seen an adult so sad ever in my life. My sister and I felt like we had to make a statement to the internet, whether my mom liked it or not, so we did. We recorded a video. 

“Lisa’s use of our mom as a laughing stock for her show solely because of her accent is disgusting and problematic. This show needs to cancel any further episodes they were planning to make.” The next day, our video was going viral. We were shocked. In fact, it went so viral that my family was invited to a talk show in Los Angeles to get our story straight. So we did. 

Lisa faced her consequences. So did the producers of the show. As my mom’s story started gaining national attention, we gained a lot of money, while Lisa’s sponsors and shows were getting stripped away from her. We loved the feeling of the table being turned. 

Nos encanta la venganza.