Latine Heritage Month - By Daicia and Julissa

In honor of Latine Heritage Month, we invite you to read this blog written by members of our team outlining their experiences as members of the Latine community.

We began to celebrate Latine Heritage month with the independence day of Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua on September 15th. 

Latin America is the land with many portals to the Universe, from its majestic temples from Mexico to Peru, its Amazon, and magical deserts. 

The conquest that arrived on our shores in 1492, brought with it a genocide meant to destroy the indigenous people of the land. Burying them, believing they had killed them, not knowing that they were seeds. Seeds that blossomed into resilient people, and nourished the lands where Black liberation first manifested in Haiti, the first country to win against U.S. imperialism with the Cuban revolution and the countless revolutions and liberation stories from Mexico to Chile, indeed a people of resistance.  

A fusion of the cultures of the world created some of the most vibrant foods, music, textiles and languages. Every region of Latin America, speaks a different dialect of Spanish, very much  influenced by the indigenous language of the land. There are over 560 indigenous languages spoken in Latin America. Afro Latine brilliance has been fundamental throughout every aspect of Latin American heritage. 

This month we honor the millions of Latin Americans who with their bravery migrated to the states. The first generations who navigate through two cultures. 

As it is important to acknowledge the history of the countries where our Latine roots are from, it is also important to highlight the history of Mexicans in the United States. Mexican history is not taught in schools, even though Mexico has a shared history with the U.S., more than just land, it has a history of a people, who created a new culture when the border was moved. 

Black liberation began in Mexico with the abolishment of slavery, in 1829. With the exception of Texas, due to tension with Anglo slavers. Leading to the U.S. Mexican war. Many Black people, instead of running to the U.S. north, ran to Mexico seeking liberation from slavery.  

In 1848 the U.S./ Mexican war ended with the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, moving the border to what we know it as today. We didn't cross the border, the border crossed us. We would like to highlight Chicane history. Chicane and Black liberation have always gone hand in hand, since before the solidarity of the Brown Berets and the Black Panthers. 

No one is free, until all of us are free, through collective liberation. 

La cultura cura. 

Peace. 

What it means to us to be Chicana

Daicia: 

I am a latina that doesn't speak Spanish because my maternal grandmother was harassed as a youth for her spanish accent, and she did not teach her daughters in fear that they would be teased as well. Being latina and not speaking Spanish mentally is frustrating, and historically typical during the era and area in which my mother was raised.

“Let me be clear. Spanish was given to my people 

at the end of a sword, forced in our throats gory, 

sharpened under the colonizer’s constant eye.  

Each rolled r is a red wet fingerprint pointing me back 

to this. Spanish is not my native tongue. English isn’t either. 

The languages I speak are bursting with blood, 

but they are all I have. I own only my hot mouth, speeding 

against assimilation’s clock & a colonial legacy 

you won’t even try to pronounce. 

So I’ll ask again—why are you here? 

Do you think my grandmother’s accent a sickness—

one so volatile you call yourself ‘gringa’ at every chance, 

so I won’t make fun of you, when you make fun 

of the way my language sounds to you? 

Don’t you know I had to fight for this? 

For every scrap of culture I could get my hands on, 

even if its lineage is as European as yours?” 

- Poem by Ariana Brown

My father speaks Spanish but taught my brother and me broken Spanish, or spanglish. I can cuss, get food, and find my way around Mexico… but I am missing so much connection to my culture not being able to speak fully. I found connections in other ways, such as our food, our celebrations, my family and learning about my ancestors. I am planning on living in Mexico for a month next year to relearn and practice my language.

Being raised in New Mexico shaped a lot of my ideas around my identity and pride for who I am. In New Mexico 49% of the population identifies themselves as hispanic, here in Washington that number is only 13%. I didn't realize how brown I was until I moved here where my people weren't the majority. Being in this space has caused me to self reflect and rediscover my identity in a way because I was so used to being around others that looked and lived like me.

As of today I have learned that we as individuals define what culture, identity and heritage means to us. My beautiful grandmothers, my hatch green chili, my raza, my brown skin in the sun are all examples of what I celebrate not just this month but always. 

Julissa: 
My mother crossed colonial borders on indigenous lands, migrating to the States when she was pregnant with me, birthing me in Compton, Los Angeles. Even though I lived in the U.S., my life was in Spanish, and very Mexican. Spanish is the language of my home and the culture I was born into. 

I was raised more Mexican than I was “American” or United Stadian as I like to say, while living in the States. I grew up going to Sinaloa during my summers to visit my abuela, listening to Chalino Sanchez, Los Tigres del Norte, Ramon Ayala, and other norteño/ banda groups, and watching telenovelas. Destiny’s Child and Aaliyah were some of the first music I listened to in English. 

Until I came to Seattle, I was exposed to English, and being othered. I was often asked, “What are you” and “why are you in E.S.L. and can’t speak English well if you were really born in the U.S.?” Definitely making me feel like I was not “American enough”. Soon after, I learned that American means all of the people who come from the Americas, and not just the United States. 

When I learned about the Chicano Civil Rights Movement, I fell in love with the resistance of my people. I showed up to the University of Washington with my huaraches, rebozos and taking up space in places that were never meant for my people. 

Being Chicana to me, means to be of a resilient people, who creatively turned their pain and resistance into art, music, culture. I am proud to be a xicana sinaloense.