A Woman Talks About Being A Bilingual Latinx

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

This article was originally published on HelloGiggles.com

In a world that feels like it's getting closer and closer to Orwell's 1984 everyday, coping and creating are not only cathartic, but necessary. For Latinx women and women of color, finding a voice and expressing yourself becomes even more vital; it's a method of survival. Being imaginative and laughing through dark times are tools for us, and the perfect example of this is: "On Being Bilingual," a spoken word poem performed by Anacristina, who explains what it's like living as a Spanish-speaking Latinx.

Anacristina starts the poem with, "For the sensitive ears that can't stomach the spicy sounds of the Spanish language or for the sour mouths that spit stupidity into existence by saying things like, 'This is America, we speak American in America.'"

She then proceeds to break it down and explain how even her 87-year-old granny, who doesn't speak English, knows that we don't speak "American" in America.

Anacristina explains the dualities that Spanish-speaking Latinx people face; how there will always be ignorant comments and people who are threatened by that which they do not know or care to learn about. She goes on to say how there are words that don't mean the same thing in English, so ad-libbing in Spanish is easier. And it's living in this in-between that makes life more beautiful, colorful, and rich.

In what could have been the most epic mic drop ever, Anacristina says, "My tongue doesn't believe in boundaries or borders. Colors outside the box. Sprinkles a bit of English into my Spanish sometimes. Occasionally, accentuates my English with a splash of Spanish. Sometimes can say supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and parangutirimicuaro back-to-back without flinching."

via GIPHY

A beautiful poem that shuts down the ignorance that's so prevalent today? Yes please.