My final project titled “I am first Aztec, then Mexican and then Latina, but at the end I am all three” reflects the intersectionality of my three identities. During this class, I reinforced my identities and embraced the sentiment of having multiple identities. My final project portrays how each identity intersects with one another and cannot be pulled apart because they are what shape me. Throughout the semester, we discussed the abstract concept of being Latinx and who is defined as one. Thus, it was not an easy conversation as we did not reach any definition because it is an extremely subjective label that was imposed on us during colonization.
For me the term Latinx cannot be defined as an objective definition as it has very personal meanings that are shaped by my own life. Being Latinx for me would not be possible without my other two identities. But above anything and everything I could never even begin to define what it means to be Latinx without being Aztec first. I am Latinx because I am Aztec. I am Latinx because white people colonized my land and killed my ancestors. I am Latinx because I cry the erasure of my culture, because I mourn the loss of my native tongue and the disappearance of my people. I am Latinx because that was the term white colonizers imposed to all the oppressed people they once hurt. And finally, I am Latinx for circumstance and not for conviction.
The understanding of my identity as a Latinx woman comes from embracing what colonization did to my people and how the term was left as a band-aid to “unite” the damaged people. While I do not think Latinx people are a monolith or share many commonalities, I strongly believe that the thing that unites us is the impact of colonization. For some, it was the erasure of their ancestors, for others was the birth of the now multiple nationalities in Latin America, and for others, it was the damage of slavery, and many other impacts. As Latinx people, we are not the same, but our tears look the same, and we all know how oppression feels to some degree. As Latinx people, we are not the same, but our joy and achievements are celebrated by all. And as Latinx people, we are not the same but if someone else undermines one of us then all of us fight back.
The whole semester I kept wondering what a Latinx person is and who acquires that label. I still do not have an answer and probably I never will. But today I can finally say that I have fully embraced all my three of my identities as if it was one. Today I can say that my identities cannot be separated. Today I have embraced that there is not absolute definition for the term Latinx, and it is completely okay because we make what we want from it, and we do not owe any definition to anyone but ourselves and our community.
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