Mama Cax

My hero is Cacsmy Brutus, also known as Mama Cax. Mama Cax is an American-Haitian model and disabled rights activist. She was born in 1989 in Brooklyn, New York, but soon moved to Haiti and grew up there. At the age of 14, she started having severe pain in her hip, which is when she found out she had aggressive bone cancer in her leg. She went to have hip replacement surgery, and when that turned out to be unsuccessful, they had no other choice but to amputate her leg. Mama Cax battled depression for a long time, but soon started to love herself, which is when she decided to get into modeling. Mama Cax was heavily influenced by fashion, and during this time she was living in New York. Sadly, in 2019, Mama Cax passed away at the age of 30. She left a big impact on the world of fashion. Mama Cax is important to me because she used her disability to her advantage and showed people that beauty is limitless. She used her social media to not only show off her sense of fashion, but also discuss body positivity and self-love. 

Mama Cax confidently changed the standard of beauty. She explained that when she first started on social media, women would DM her asking how she was able to confidently put herself out there and show her prosthetic. She explained, “It’s important to show people who have physical disabilities because there are people out there who buy products and never see themselves represented in any way, shape, or form.” In 2017, Mama Cax made her first appearance for a commercial. Not too long after the advertisement aired, agencies were reaching out to her. She decided to sign with the model agency JAG Models in New York. She modeled in shows for Chromat and Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty. Once she started getting more exposure, she started doing more ad campaigns for companies such as Sephora and Tommy Hilfiger. 

No topics were off limits to Mama Cax. On her website, she wrote little blogs here and there, and one that caught my eye is called “A Reflection on Rape and Disability.” Mama Cax explains how one day her and her friend were having a photo shoot outside. It had just started to rain so they decided to take a cab home. “As we got in a cab, P [her friend] and I started talking about our college days. She casually stated, ‘I remember that time I almost got raped’, no tears, not an amount of emotion. This wasn’t the first time a female friend recounted tales of harassment and/or assaults…” She went on to explain how she wrote her senior thesis on the exclusion of people with disabilities in international development, and when she started doing research she found shocking statistics on disability and health: “80% of women with intellectual disabilities have been raped, 83% of women with disabilities will be assaulted in their lifetime, and 50% of girls who are deaf have been sexually abused compared to 25% of hearing girls.” Mama Cax touched on any topic, whether heavy or not. She is a role model to women with and without disabilities because she wasn't afraid to talk about topics that most people try to avoid. She raised awareness to all her followers, and made sure people knew what’s happening out in the world, which makes her a hero. 

In her efforts to raise awareness for disabilities, with the help of Challenged Athletes Foundation, Mama Cax received a grant for a hand cycle and learned to train with it. Mama Cax said, “They’re basically an organization that provides equipment for anyone who’s interested in joining sports and wants to find adaptive ways to do it… [and] what I really like about them is that you don’t have to participate in sports competitively to be able to get a grant for equipment.” Mama Cax used the hand cycle in a NYC Marathon, and her finishing time was 3:31:37. She explained how she was obviously happy with her time, but wished she could’ve gotten under 3 hours. Mama Cax is such an inspiration because she stayed determined and confident. 

I’m not too into fashion, but I am very into makeup. Makeup and fashion fall under the same category, which is why I look up to Mama Cax. To honor Mama Cax, I will make a video doing my sister’s makeup the way Cax would do her own makeup. In the video, I’ll talk about how inspirational she was and the impact she left on this world. Mama Cax doesn’t let her disability define her. She stays confident even through her struggles. Mama Cax raises awareness to all her followers about disabilities and the rights for people with disabilities, and that’s why Mama Cax is my hero.