Margarita Wednesdays

March 10, 2014
Following her forced evacuation from Afghanistan in 2007, Rodriguez (Kabul Beauty School) found herself unmoored and without a life plan. Initially she landed in Napa, Calif., moving to a secluded mountaintop with a male friend. The once exuberant, outspoken middle-aged, adventure-seeking hairdresser found herself unable to settle down and find work: “I was an unemployed drama queen without a script. What I needed was to feel alive. I probably should have been on meds.” Instead, following a cruise to Mexico, she purchased a small house in the Mexican resort city of Mazatlán and began rebuilding her life. Her once wayward son came to live with her, and there he met a local woman, married her, and had a child. Rodriguez opened a salon providing manicures and pedicures and soon found herself again immersed in the hair business as she did in Kabul. Seeking a way to help young women become independent and self-supporting, Rodriguez established Project Mariposa, providing funding for girls to attend beauty school. Fans of Rodriguez’s brash and honest tone will thoroughly enjoy this next installment in her remarkable story.