I want to make my Mami proud.
I want my mother to be able to say that her daughter graduated with not one, but two Bachelors and that her Certificate in Latin American Studies shows that she has not forgotten her roots. I imagine my Mami and Abuelita in the stadium, screaming my name when my face appears on the screen. I imagine my Papi crying, because he cried at my high school graduation and I know he’ll cry when I walk across a stage again.
However, academia has decided that Latinxs are not meant to be there.
Academia is an ivory tower controlled by a powerful few (namely rich, white, old, conservative men.) Your academia was built on the blood of oppressed communities. Your academia was built on my back, on the back of my people, on the back of the people that you refuse to let enter.
Tenacity is appreciated. It’s needed in our communities.
But, we also need to heal. So academia, you may have wounded me. But I will go, heal with my ancestors, and then come back and destroy your white ivory tower.
Plus, we got out own pedagogues.
BY LDAPFAMILIA