Who was Mama Cax? Model and activist celebrated by Google for Black History Month

In honour of Black History Month 2023, the Google doodle is celebrating the life of Mama Cax. Born Cacsmy Brutus, she was an American-Haitian runway model and disabled rights activist.

Google Doodle chose February 8, 2023, to honour the model and celebrate her first appearance at the New York Fashion Week in 2019. The artwork was by the artist Lyne Lucien.

The google doodle description reads: “Celebrating Mama CaxIn celebration of Black History Month, today’s doodle honours Haitian American model and advocate for people with disabilities, Mama Cax who challenged the fashion industry’s standard of beauty by wearing her prosthetic leg on the runway.”

Cacsmy Brutus was born in Brooklyn, New York City, on November 20, 1989. Throughout her career, Mama Cax was seen dominating the fashion’s most prestigious runways with her prosthetic leg.

Brutus grew up in Haiti and was diagnosed with osteosarcoma and lung cancer at the age of 14. Doctors at the time gave her three weeks to live, however, she defied this diagnosis. Two years after her diagnosis she received a hip replacement which failed, leading to the amputation of her right leg. She spoke about the amputation and later said it took several years to regain her confidence and that she hid her prosthetic leg for several years.

She went on to play Wheelchair basketball after learning at the age of 18. Before her career in modelling, Brutus gained both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in International Relations.

On September 15, 2016, Cax was invited to the White House to participate in a fashion show put on by Barack and Michelle Obama while she was finishing her studies and working for the Mayor of New York City. From there her career went from strength to strength.

In 2017, Mama Cax appeared in her first commercial and was quickly signed by JAG Models in New York. She went on to appear on runways for some of the biggest names in fashion including shows for Chromat and Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty. Her later commercial work included ad campaigns for Tommy Hilfiger and Sephora.

One of her biggest appearances came in 2018 when she walked at New York Fashion Week, wearing a swimsuit designed by Becca McCharen, who seeks to change the "standards of beauty". In 2019, Mama Cax was announced as the face of Olay for their sunscreen marketing campaign, and later that year it was announced that she would be participating in the New York Marathon in a wheelchair.

Mama Cax sadly died on December 16, 2019 while in England. She was admitted to the Royal London Hospital with severe abdominal pains and blood clots in the lung and died in hospital.