WASHINGTON — Aida Rodriguez has made a successful career out of comedy, making people laugh on television and in comedy clubs nationwide. But her upbringing, and journey to the comedy stage was no laughing matter. She talks about her childhood trauma in her new book called "Legitimate Kid."
She spoke with WUSA9 about her early life and overcoming a troubled childhood to find success.
"We lived in Boston, that's where I was born. My father was deported to the Dominican Republic. We went there to live with him. My mother was 15 years old. My father was in his late 20s. This is already an uneven pairing. This is a grown man, this is a teenage girl."
She said living in the Dominican Republic led to a lot of conflict within the family, and cultural differences. At one point, her mother took her back to U.S. without her father.
"She just took me one night and he never saw me again. He didn't come here because he was undocumented. We wouldn't see each other [again] until 2021 when I went there to see him," she said.
She said she wrote her book as a way to work through her childhood trauma.
"Somebody called me a bastard when I was a little girl, I was about 8 years old. I went down the rabbit hole to investigate what that meant, and it just unleashed this journey within me to figure out where my legitimacy really came from," she said. "It bled into all aspects of my life, so I decided to write about it."
Rodriguez knows her story is not unique, but felt sharing it was important.
"I wanted to share my story with other people who have experienced this and I wanted them to feel seen," she said.
Rodriguez is currently working on her next standup special. She says it could be filmed right here in the DMV. Her book is available to order on her website and everywhere books are sold.