On Our Radar: Push Girls
By Latoya Peterson
Browsing the Thick Dumpling Skin blog, I came across a short mention of a show called Push Girls, being produced for the Sundance Channel. The core conceit is that it explores the lives of four women in wheelchairs–but it caught my attention for featuring multiracial friendships and a reality show that doesn’t revolve around petty fights and getting wasted. And, as if I needed another reason to watch, two of the main characters are women of color –Angela Rockwood-Nguyen and Auti Rivera.
Angela, who seems like she is the core friend holding the group together, is mixed Thai-German. She’s also got an amazing (and tragic) connection to some major players in pop culture. In 2001, Angela was paralyzed in the same car wreck that killed Thuy Trang (who was famous for playing Trini, the original Yellow Ranger on the popular Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers series). At the time of the accident, she was married to 21 Jump Street star Dustin Nguyen. People Magazine did a write up on the couple in 2007, noting:
For Dustin and Angela, it was the beginning of a different kind of love story. All but abandoning his career, Dustin devoted himself to Angela’s care, bathing her, feeding her, tending to all her needs. The first time Angela cried was six months after the accident as Dustin inserted her catheter. “It hit me what our life was about,” she says. “I said, ‘You don’t have to live this life. You can just go.’”
Six years later, he’s still there. “The idea of leaving is ridiculous,” says Dustin, 45. “I’m not trying to be saintly or noble. But there is only one thing to do: take care of the wife I love. Things happen. You react and move on.”
Sitting in their cozy, wheelchair-friendly 1920s-era house in L.A., the couple laugh easily and trade affectionate gazes.
But as the story opens, it is revealed that Dustin and Angela separated in 2011, and there are many tense conversations about where each wants the relationship to go.
In the sneak peak, Angela notes “she’s got a mortgage to pay” and throws herself back into her work, but the producers hint at more personal drama to come.
Auti Rivera (stage name: Auti Angel) is the other woman of color heading up the series, who is married and about to have her first child with her husband Eric. Getting to this point, wasn’t easy though–in an interview with Disaboom, her past is revealed:
Auti has found the strength to rise above tough situations in her life. She grew up in a gang-infested neighborhood in Torrance, California.
“I’ve dealt with it all: child abuse, molestation, and rape. When I married at 18, I went through a living hell and then escaped him,” Auti details. “I’m lucky to be alive.”
With growing attention from the record industry, Auti Angel was headed on the fast track in the Hip Hop, R&B world.
“I was J.Lo before J.Lo,” Auti says with a laugh, “I danced with LL Cool J. I went on tour with Rap artists and I was about to sign a record deal as part of an all-Latin female Hip Hop group. Then, the tragic car accident happened, severing my spinal cord and leaving me wheelchair bound. That was May 3, 1992, a day I will never forget. The record company wasn’t willing to wait, but I told them, ‘I’m still me!’
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