First time opinionator — from a Puerto Rican Lesbiana
Hello All,
First time blogger, not first time opinionator (made up word?… maybe). I’m Lorraine Torres Colon, a 25 year old Lesbian Latina born in Mayaguez, grown in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, who has called the mainland US my permanent residence since my late teens in 2008. When I first arrived to the US, I called North Carolina my new home, and it would be that for me, a home if an unwelcoming one, for the next 7 years. Since 2015, San Francisco, California has been my home.
Figuring out my identity as a Puertorriqueña who left Puerto Rico in what is now being deemed the third diaspora from my island, as a Latina and PoC in the southern (even if they claim the most northern of the southern states) North Carolina, and as a Femme Lesbian in my adulthood has been challenging. It has been especially challenging given the US’s insistence on maintaining a colonial mindset even in the mainland… in educated spaces…. in urban cities… in universities… in the media… in doctors offices… in tattoo shops… in bars… in libraries… you name it, I’ve probably faced a micro-aggression in it.
The recent devastation to hit our island and force the most recent wave of the diaspora to crash into the mainland, has triggered a lot of survivor’s guilt in myself and many of us who had already been forced to leave our home in search of financial security in the mainland. This blogpost and Haute Colonial will be my small way of both coping with this guilt, continuing my growth, and sharing some lessons I’ve learned in making sure I take up space and navigate the different communities I have found myself a part of along the way.
