El Salvadorian beauty Jazmin Siguenza
TIM, Entertainment, Dennis J. Freeman
She goes by the name moniker of La Flora Venenosa, which means poisonous flower. And if you step out of line with this El Salvadorian beauty, you’re likely to end up on the short end of a left cross or overhand right punch that Jazmin Siguenza throws with as much regularity as water dripping out of the faucet.
One glance at Siguenza, though, suggests something different from a woman who is a three-time Golden Gloves champion. Siguenza has the striking loveliness of a runway model. Her alluring sex appeal turns heads at video shoots, record recording and on film sets. When Siguenza walks into a room-that room is usually quiet with all eyes dead set on the smoldering Latina beauty’s every move.
But don’t get it twisted: There’s a lot more to Siquenza than her flowing brown hair, ripped six-pack abs and mesmerizing good looks. She’s a fighter. She’s had to fight all of her life just to keep the demons of depression and rebellion from overtaking her spirit. But anger resisted against her struggle anyway.
Her biological father was forced to stay in El Salvador because of a prison sentence. She got pregnant at the age 15. Her mother was later sentenced to prison for participating in a fraud ring. Her brother, Sunny, whom Siguenza regards as perhaps her closest friend, was recently sent to a federal correctional facility as well. The streets soon became her haven.
She didn’t have much growing up. She learned early, not just to live, but how to survive. For Siguenza, who is now in the midst of becoming a budding hip-hop artist and a full-fledge entertainer, she didn’t have much of a choice. Her family life was in a mess. Her mindset seemed bent on destruction. She turned to boxing. It was in boxing that Siguenza finally found her refuge.
Unfortunately, Siguenza carried the visible reminder of seeing her mother being handcuffed in a federal courtroom and being sent away to prison. Rage and indignation nearly engulfed her as the whole scene played itself out.
“It was very upsetting,” Siguenza said. I normally don’t cry in front of people, but when she was sentenced and when I spoke to the judge…I couldn’t hold everything in. It was a whole another rush that your body gets. I have different rushes when I get on stage or when I’m in the boxing ring. This was one I’ve never felt before.”
Siguenza took her rush for boxing serious enough to spend 12 years applying the sweet science in a formidable way. Boxing under the tutelage of Robert Alejandre, Siguenza kicked butt and took names later all across the country. She beat down all comers on her way to becoming national champion.
It was Alejandre who shaped and molded Siguenza’s toughness. Alejandre didn’t care whether or not she was a female boxer. He treated her as just another fighter. He wanted her to succeed. So it was no big deal with her mixing up in the ring with male boxers, Siguenza said.
“It was really hard, physical, intense and mental training, every day,” said Siguenza. “I don’t know why he was so hard on me.”
Alejandre rode her so hard that Siguenza reached her breaking point during a sparring session and almost quit.
“I think that is the one time I started watering up,” she said. “I told myself that you have to suck it in, breathe a couple of times because you know what’s happening; you feel so much heat and emotion inside you. I finished what we were doing, and then I kind of went to the bathroom and let it out. I pulled myself together and came back out.
“I was embarrassed. I was embarrassed because you’re training in a world of mostly males, and you don’t ever want anyone see you break or break down or anything like that. Nobody said anything, but I felt like…you have to give yourself a little bit of time to heal because I was embarrassed. I know that a few people probably saw me, but they avoided looking at me to give me my own space. I respected that.”
The hip-hop world had better respect the poisonous flower. Despite what’s she’s been through, Siguenza is on her way to stardom-sooner rather than later.
She has a bangin’ body, can drop you with a nasty left hook and rhyme with any female MC out there. She’s got attitude. She has an edge to her. She’s gritty, but exudes a razor-sharp tongue that can make you wonder if you’re listening to the female version of Tupac Shakur with her poppin’ CD, La Flora Venenosa.
“My mom and a couple others had just got caught of a federal crime and them being threatened with over 20 years of a sentence,” Siguenza said. “There was a whole bunch of things being thrown at me all at once. I was done with boxing and I wanted to pursue the entertainment world. All of my efforts, all of my training, I guess you can say, created the Poisonous Flower.”
She can pop out a rap tune with the quickness just as easily as throwing an overhand right punch. And don’t forget about her turn-your-head, striking good-looks that can simply turn you into mushroom soup.
Pretty impressive stuff for a quiet and humble farm girl who grew up riding horses in Derrysville, California. That’s because Siguenza is pretty impressive herself. She’s shared the stage and toured with rap icons such as Too Short, T-Pain, Bones-Thugs-N-Harmony, 2 Live Crew and Sir Mix-A-Lot while promoting La Flora Venenosa. Now she’s moving on to bigger and better things. Siguenza has already graced the pages of Low Rider magazine and is expected to be featured in Maxim’s Hometown Hotties.
“She turns heads and she carries herself with class,” said music producer Gritsitory, Ceo of Pole Power Records in which Siguenza recorded her album on. “I’ve never seen a girl with a six-pack like what she has.”
Siguenza isn’t just depending on her exquisite looks to make things happen. She has a budding film career, has turned down Playboy Magazine to appear in its publication and kicking down the down the door to her future. So, what’s the big deal about Siguenza? Well, she’s hot. The 27-year-old mother of a nine-year-old son has quite a story to tell. The world will soon be her stage.
“I feel very strong and powerful,” Siguenza said. “For the entertainment world, everyone is watching.”
