I’m Not Average. I Tend To Stand Out. 100% Latina, That’s Me.
(Editors note: While it’s not our practice to include language that some readers might find offensive, in this case we find that editing or changing the language would detract from the honesty and raw quality of this essay. We’ve left it as it was originally written.)
By Riquelmy Sosa, Mi Soul Latino
I like to tell them outright – be up front and honest. See, I’m quite over the bullshit. Have no time for muelas – you know the ones – the ones that have all this bulto. Always en el medio but full of flaky balls. People tell me I’m rough, a little bit too pointed, so I tried telling them politely, nicely, even in a soft little voice – I am Latina. 100%. That’s me.
No, I don’t have a big ass. No, not an apple-sized one, a fatty, a cake. No entiendes, I barely have curvas to fill my five-foot frame. I don’t dance salsa. No, ni un chin. I can barely do that 1,2,3 step thing. But I can dance the shit out of a perico ripiao. Pon me ahí el Farolito….man. I’m dark-skinned too. No, not butter pecan. Not mocha chocolate. Not trigueñita. I’m black. No need to romanticize it. And I’ll be damned if anyone tells me otherwise – I am Latina. 100%. That’s me.
My eyes are brown, my hair is too. Sometimes, I have nappy roots. This whole White thing in me makes me tame them, mira, at least once a week. I cook, I clean, I tend to my husband’s needs – no mi’ hija, I’m not a pendeja. I’m just playing on a team. I breastfeed too but I once heard that’s a White woman’s thing. I’m a geek, a nerd, yeah, I read a ton of books. Sometimes I pass on the presidentes, the rum and cokes, and you’ll see me sipping a mimosa laid out in my back porch. I’m made of many things, some big, some small – I am Latina. 100%. That’s me.
It’s in the beat of my heart. The blue liquid in my veins. The depths of my soul. The movement in my feet. The bends in my speech. The abyss of my dreams. Oye cabron, I don’t fit in your square, I can’t be boxed in. Now, I shout it from the rooftops – I am Latina. 100%. That’s me.
This article was first published in Mi Soul Latino.
Riquelmy Sosa is the Co-Founder and CEO of Mi Soul Latino as well as Development and Communications Manager at Exodus Transitional Community, Inc., a non-profit organization that helps formerly incarcerated men and women successfully reintegrate into mainstream society. She will be graduating from New York University in 2013. The proud mother of 2 girls, Riquelmy believes that motherhood is the most rewarding and toughest job in the world.
[Photo by pixelperu]
