Hermosa Vida is a defender of the B.A.S.H. and mutant superhero of the early Modern Generation. Her mutation gives her control over and empathy for plants including the ability to grow and mutate plants off of existing plant matter. She was introduced in Caballeros Del Calle! in 2012 as an attempt to bring a lighter touch to Los Caballeros Del Calle.
Personality[]
Hermosa Vida has a vision for the future and it starts today. She believes in community engagement and claiming all of the things that are wonderful about the B.A.S.H. rather than trying to "clean it up" by gentrifying it. She is passionate, driven, and caring with a firey streak that makes her hard to ignore.
Appearance[]
Rosalinda is a 29 year old Dominican Afrolatina woman who looks young for her age. She stands 5'4" tall though she often wears short heels to get a bit of an edge above that. She has mocha brown eyes that turn bright green when she uses her mutation and curly natural black hair that she often pulls back into a bun.
In Costume[]
Hermosa Vida wears a green bodysuit with forest green embroidery with vine and leaf motifs. She has a dark green pair of boots and gloves that have clear thorn decoration at the sides. Her mask has a leaf motif and covers the upper half of her face leaving her hair free.
Out of Costume[]
Rosalinda wears a variety of clothing, but tends to favor comfort and movement. She primarily wears jeans to have a layer of protection from snags and dirt as she spends a lot of her non-hero time gardening. When she was first introduced, she frequently would wear printed t-shirts of other more established heroes, but now she mostly only is shown wearing these when she is home alone.
History[]
Rosalinda was introduced as a young mutant living in the B.A.S.H. and engaging in civil disobedience in protest against F.A.L.C.O.N.'s efforts to deport immigrants with dangerous mutations. F.A.L.C.O.N. marched into the B.A.S.H. to end the protest and round up mutant agitators. Rosalinda joined some of the mutants present in fighting F.A.L.C.O.N. to a standstill, but they weren't able to turn them back until Los Caballeros del Calle showed up to help.
Rosalinda joined los Caballeros in fighting to make Protean City a sanctuary city and went on to rally others in support of it. After a year of hounding los Caballeros she was able to convince Crackdown to let her join as an official member. She created the identity of Hermosa Vida as a promise for the beautiful life that exists within the B.A.S.H. and her dedication to improvement of the community.
Once Hermosa Vida was more established in los Caballeros, she began a project of community gardening and youth mentorship. This has created an additional team that has struggled between a variety of names but is scheduled for a 2018 comic release.
Abilities[]
Hermosa Vida's powers are related to her connection with plants and life essences. She is able to shape and grow plants into various shapes, imbue strength into the plant fibers, and heal plant-life and soil. There have been implications that she may be able to do healing of animals as well, though this hasn't been confirmed.
Her mutation also means that her body is more similar in some ways to a plant than animal flesh. She is more susceptible to fire than humans but gains strength from sunlight and water over time.
Relationships[]
Rosalinda comes from a large family with roots in Protean City. Generations of the Valdez family are still present in the city and she maintains a strong connection to both her living family and her deceased ancestors. She sees her family frequently and cares for them deeply.
She additionally was recently married to Windshear another hero from Los Caballeros del Calle. When they first met, Rosalinda expressed that she intended to be with him and he turned her down because of their age difference and the danger to her civilian identity and family. Windshear remained separated from her for years until Los Caballeros del Calle No. 412 when very after an enormous world threatening fight she revealed her identity publicly and professed her love to him. The two were married three issues later in an arc that brought back a who's who of the B.A.S.H.'s history and foreshadowed the eventual fall of Los Caballeros with Santo Sangre.
Trivia[]
- Although her identity is public, Rosalinda has quite a few names. Her mother calls her Rosa, her grandmother calls her Linda, her father always calls her Hija, her friends call her Lini, and Ramón calls her Rosalinda with a deep weight of affection for every syllable.