Gente de NAHJ: Michelle Cardoza empowers Latina journalists one brush stroke at a time
Michelle Cardoza never starts with makeup.
Before brush touches skin, she studies the face in front of her. She notices the expression and body language that linger before someone settles into her chair. Then she reaches into her kit, fingers gliding across palettes and foundations and chooses the first color.
As a journalist sat down at NBCUniversal’s makeup pop-up at the National Association of Hispanic Journalists conference, Cardoza scanned her collection of products.
Dab, dab, dab.
Every face, she said, asks for something different.
“My favorite thing is when somebody asks me to make them look like themselves,” she said. “Seeing that and teaching people how to do it every day — that’s a win.”
Originally from New York, Cardoza moved to New Orleans in 2001, where she fell in love with the city’s rhythm.
“There’s no place like New Orleans. The culture, the music,” she said.
At 33, Cardoza has spent more than half her life in cosmetology. She enrolled in hair school at 17, while working part-time at Subway and taking every opportunity she could find. Live events, films, television, commercials, advertising campaigns and weddings all became classrooms.
“I was always willing and open and learning, assisting all kinds of people, doing free work,” Cardoza said. “Once I went to hair school, I saw that you can really make a difference in how somebody feels.”
She had once imagined studying psychology. Instead, she found herself practicing it in her makeup appointments, helping people to leave her chair with a new confidence.
This week, Cardoza’s chair rarely sat empty. Some days, demand outpaced time, forcing her to turn people away.
Cardoza called working the NAHJ conference her favorite job “ever.” As she explained why, tears rolled down her face.
“The event itself, it’s for Hispanic people,” she said. “It’s motivating, and it’s really touching, and I’m glad to be here.”
Now firmly established in her career, Cardoza dreams of teaching others how to navigate an industry she once entered by trial and error. She wants to create courses in New Orleans that prepare aspiring makeup artists for the moments that can change a career, from negotiating rates to answering the phone with confidence.
“They just need to know how to act in these rooms,” she said. “I want to guide the way.”
The same hands that had spent the day retouching other people’s appearances reached for a tissue. A gentle dab restored her own makeup, but it could not wipe away the emotion behind the moment: the pride of a Honduran American artist seeing her work appreciated and her heritage celebrated.
Thai Theodoro is a senior at Grinnell College in Iowa, where she is pursuing a degree in political science with a concentration in Latin American studies. Reach her at theodorot [at] grinnell [dot] edu. Learn more about her at thainatheodoro.com.br.
