‘Antes Muerta Que Sencilla’: Exploring the Love-Hate Relationship Latinas Have with High Heels

Walking in high heels is a struggle English biologist Charles Darwin would be proud of. After all, it is the survival of the fittest. 

Trying to stay upright as you balance on your first stilettos is not exotic or sensual — it’s bloody uncomfortable. Just ask any Latina. 

As one totters down the street to the sound of the clack-clack-clack of the heels hitting the pavement, in your head, you repeat the mantra to justify the pain: “Antes muerta que sencilla; Antes muerta que sencilla.”

Wearing these height-defying shoes twists the foot into an angle and distorts the alignment of muscles and joints. It does a number to your back, neck, and shoulder, leaving the wearer with throbbing (sometimes bloody) feet.    

It doesn’t matter how much science of foot anatomy goes into the design of a high-heeled shoe; invariably, they are agony.