Personal essays and community stories from BoldLatina readers sharing their lived experiences, cultural identities, perspectives, and voices on the issues that matter.
12 posts
In BoldLatina Community Essay series - Guatemalan adoptee Melissa Ramos reflects on navigating her Guatemalan-Norwegian identity, reclaiming her birth culture, and finding belonging between two worlds.
Pride can be so intimidating, loud, and appear to be something so fearless, yet some of us are not there yet, are not in a safe space to “come out”, or did not always feel this way. When we think about pride, it has lost its meaning from what it
It’s hard loving yourself when everyone is telling you otherwise. Here’s to a collective effort of trying to love your lonjitas, tú piel morena—just like I’m trying to love mine. I remember flaring up my nose in front of my mom, hoping she would flare her
Mamá, I know that I put my life in constant danger when I go out to raise my voice. I want you to understand why I consider myself an activist, why we as a generation, are part of the fight and why I must continue fighting para nuestra gente. Mami,
My grandmother tells me that when I was young, I used to deny being Peruvian and claim to be only American. The family used to consider my claims a cute joke, which I probably misinterpreted as reinforcement. As I got older, however, I severely struggled with identifying my culture- where
They teach us to be scared of those that can invade our bodies, but fail to teach us about our bodies they are trying to invade. I was nine-years-old, walking around Jackson Heights with my mother doing her regular schmegular compras. I remember telling my mom I wanted
Dear Abby, About a year ago from today I remember reading articles and watching news discussions about you. As a brown girl, I remember thinking, “Who is this white girl complaining about not getting into college?” …So what, one thing doesn’t go the way she wants it to once
Before you think I am offending you by stating, “men are trash”, let me explain why that is an issue. In the United States, we are brought into a patriarchal society, meaning a society that is “dominated, identified and centered by men” which involves oppressing women and folks that do
Brown girls tend to not notice themselves and what they are capable of. We become almost invisible because of the lack of representation. Sometimes, we need to remind ourselves of our ancestors’ power of resilience, become storytellers, and recreate history. When I was younger, I thought I couldn’t be
For some, this is just a piece of paper. For us, this is more than that and we are all so proud of you. This is a dedication to my hard-core Latina kicking ass women. Dear Fuerte First-Generation Brown Mujer, Throughout these college years, you became stronger, your
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