My identity has been questioned since forever. I grew up constantly being asked, “What are you?” and I used to call myself “Mexican,” because that is what my dad was taught to call himself. But we didn’t really speak Spanish at home and none of us were born south of where the border is now. Our ancestors were around before these borders existed. And before Spanish, there was/is Nahuatl and Otomí and Maya and many other languages and identities. To be honest, I didn’t even know to think of my dad, his parents, or my maternal grandfather as “people of color” until I moved to Colorado. As ridiculous as that sounds, it’s actually quite interesting to me. I didn’t have such language to separate them from others growing up. Now that identity politics are everything, I’ve learned a lot. But whether or not I “look the part” is not my problem, and it isn’t anyone’s place to decide. This is my family. This is me. I am a descendent of both Indigenous ancestors and Spanish ones. Plus, my mom’s mom is 100% Irish. I can’t change history or who my grandparents and parents chose to love. I am light skinned because of all of this. Does that suddenly mean I don’t belong to them and their stories? Their languages? I belong to all of it. The colonized and the colonizer. Sure, debate who I am and where I belong, because that is the epitome of my existence and it is exactly what colonization wants. But my dad? His mom? My maternal grandfather? Nope. You cannot deny they’re brown, and I will not let anyone deny their belonging to Turtle Island. Bad Bunny performing yesterday stirred up a lot of emotions in me. I think about my family’s assimilations and removal from culture and language. And yet here we are, celebrating cultures that were supposed to be eliminated and forgotten. I love my roots. I love that my ancestry came from both the southwest and farther south. I love that I continue to wander down the path of reconnection. Thank you,
@badbunnypr for lifting us all up, all “Americans,” from the north to the far far south, we are still here. F&ck 🧊 and f
@ck the haters of complex identities and history.
#soyquesoy #delatierra #badbunny #mixedrace #identitypolitics
