La cinta que nos envuelve…la rompemos

I use my lengua

I use it para hablar

Para contar mi historia

I use my words as my arma

My espada

Mis palabras son sanas

Mis palabras son mias

Mis palabras are loud

Yo puedo contar mi propia historia…thank you very much

Pero también hablo en nombre de mi madre y mis hermanas

Our stories are about to get heard

Our struggles are about to get heard

Struggles of not having a voice in ones own home

Stories of getting slapped for speaking up

La cinta que nos envuelve…la rompemos

Porque mi madre tienen que luchar para entender te?

Escuchala!!

Sus palabras son hermosas

Sus palabras dan sabiduría

Sus palabras han sido silenciadas y están listas para luchar

Come at us

We ani’t scared

We speak and what?!

Hablamos y que?!

Nothing or no one could shut us up now!

Somos mujeres luchadoras

Our espadas are up!

Ready for battle

I know what i’m saying

Me puedes entender?

To bad if you cant

because I speak my idioma

I embrace I hug both my languages

Both my idiomas

I’m a Mestiza

It’s your time to struggle to understand what we say.

And trust me we’re saying something muy poderoso

La cinta que nos envuelve…la rompemos.

My whole life I saw my mother struggle with English. With trying to read it. Speak it. And understand it. She felt embarrassed to speak up in restaurants, retail stores, and around anyone who only spoke English. She would have me or my sisters speak for her. My mother came from Mexico at age twenty with my dad and my two older sisters. Spanish was all she knew. Spanish was also my first language even though I was born here. I was always very confused about my ethnicity. Was I Mexican because my parents were Mexican? Was I American because I was born in The United States of America? It took me a long time to embrace my Mexican culture. I would hate to be called Mexican. I would correct people who would identify me as Mexican and say “No! I’m American! My parents are Mexican!” I don’t know what I was thinking. When I arrived to college, is when I really started to understand that there was nothing wrong with embracing my Mexican heritage. It’s part of who I am. It’s in my blood. In fact I started to notice that it was sort of cool. Cool to be mixed. Cool to know two languages. I learned to embrace both my cultures. Both my languages. I’m not one or another I’m both.

Language has always been a battle in my home. The school system manipulated my Spanish by forcing me to learn in English and respond in English. So this meant that I was now speaking broken Spanish and it was becoming more difficult to communicate with my parents. I hated having this language barrier with my parents. I know it wasn’t their fault. I knew it wasn’t my mothers fault that she spoke Spanish. It wasn’t her fault that people couldn’t understand her. Other languages have been oppressed by the English language here in America. English is the primary language. Why? Why can English speakers struggle to understand us? I could no longer deal with my mother‘s voice being silenced. She has words of wisdom. Words of meaning. Words that need to be heard. I told her it didn’t matter if she protested in Spanish as long as she spoke up for herself. No matter where you came from and no matter what language you speak you should embrace it and speak it. Talk in your language. Write in your language. Sing in your language. Have others struggle to understand you. Because your words are powerful too. La cinta que nos envuelve…la rompemos with our languages.