Heritage: A Reflection on Latinx Heritage Month
By: Valeria Orozoco ( she/hers), we are Intern
One of my friends came up to me today after our Rural Latin America class. We had a hard discussion today—talking about Indigenous peoples protesting against government sanctioned injustices in Ecuador and their connection to colonialism and neoliberalism trends in the global south (a mouthful of things that are really easy to talk about abstractly, but hit home whenever they affect you directly). She told me that she had just gotten her citizenship to the United States, and before I could be overjoyed for her she interrupted me.
“Do not congratulate me.”
Such a cold statement, confusing. Why?
“Why did I sign an oath to bear arms for a country that bears injustice against people like me?”
Oftentimes, after assimilating into everyday life, it is easy to forget how odd it is to devote your loyalty to a flag every morning before your first period class. But that repetition matters; over and over you dictate the pledge of allegiance, but for whom? For approval by your peers? From your teachers? From American society?
I was reminding her that she should be proud. Proud of how much work she put in, how long this process took; and how it is over now. Telling her to take her time to breathe a sigh of relief made me think about my loyalty to a flag. Being Colombian and having a Colombian flag hung in my room would suggest that I have loyalty to Colombia more than anything—but that is not my home anymore. Immigration took that away from me.
Picture of Colombian Flag. Image courtesy of iStock photos.
There are a lot of feelings that arise with Hispanic Heritage Month. Questions that go unanswered, or that cannot be solved. Who does it include? What are we celebrating? How do we identify? How do we unite? There are hundreds of questions that lead to difficult conversations about identity and how being Hispanic or Latino is defined so differently depending on your physical location. It can be so overwhelming to think about the relationship your heritage has with who you are today, and how you are planning to keep that heritage alive for generations to come.
Ever since I moved to the United States, I knew to thank the land that gave me life. The US is the place that gives me life now, and I am making my land Hispanic and Latina land. My identity is not defined by national borders, it goes beyond boundaries that can be determined by government treaties and boundaries. Being Latina and also an American Citizen doesn’t make me any less of either.
Hispanic Heritage Month means being proud of who I am with and within my Latina identity. It is a time to share those things about myself that I love to others, and learn from them as well. It is a time to honor the culture that was passed to me, and helping me cement it into my soul so generations to come will know that if there was one thing I always carried, it was my Latina pride.