Latina Sovereignty

To Whom Ever It May Concern:

            Often times I find myself assuming that people are coming from the same heart and experience that I am. That is my tragic flaw. So before you indulge in my philosophical rant, you’ll have to indulge on the substance of my anger. Anger? More often than not you’ll think it sounds violent. What about being mad and annoyed at the same time makes society think that an angry woman like me is violent? Nothing more than societies consistent defiance to acknowledge the ceaseless violence I am exposed to. They tell me my anger is reckless, only because they do not want to lose the gains they make off of being violent towards me.

            Violence against women is institutional, and so is racism. This much you should know. There is one thing that no one talks about. No feminist panel. No politician. No law. Nobody talks about what affect it has on a woman to be a woman, of color, and be poor, and how to combat it. Nobody intertwines gender, race, and economic status, and its adverse reaction to that person’s existence, though some may genuinely try to. I will; as I am Latina stuck in the American profit of keeping the greater chunk of the American population poor. Everyone thinks that being a woman and being Latina is my biggest problem. It isn’t, my biggest problem is not having enough money to protect myself from the backlash I get from being Latina.

            Knowing that there is backlash for being born a certain gender, a certain race, and with a certain tax bracket above your head depreciates your value before you’ve even opened your eyes. I can only be so much now. Now that society has viewed my complexion, heard the accent of my native tongue bruising their English, and judged my clothing not knowing how hard my mother, then later in life myself, worked for that outfit: now I can only be so much. How do I refute judgment when my cognitive development is still trying to grasp the fundamentals of 1+1?

            I wouldn’t be who I am today if I wasn’t a poor Latina. You could change one concept and my whole entire letter to you would change. It would change because someone like me hasn’t been acknowledged, not even by the feminist panels I adore. No one talks about women like me. No one talks about what type of love I need to heal from everything society has deprived me of. I get to take bits and pieces from my favorite works and glue them together like Pangaea and theorize on how those pieces become a piece of work addressing me. That is exactly what this philosophical piece is. It is my attempt of explaining the Pangaea I’ve created in my mind, by other women who have addressed only certain parts of me. This Pangaea of Ana Rivera, Bell Hooks, Angela Davis, Rose Kennedy, George Yancy, and more, is my souls daily prayer. This Pangaea has helped me make sense of, and has built resilience towards my oppression. I hope my work becomes a solid piece, a real piece of theory and philosophy for women like me. I hope that when a little girl like me is making father’s day cards for her mother who won’t get back from her second job until her young daughter has been long asleep, I hope pieces like mine, give her elasticity in her heart to bare more instead of self loathing for things she can’t control. I hope that those women who are both a man and a woman, the breadwinner and the caretaker, begin to acknowledge just how powerful they really are. I hope that these women become as boisterous in feminist panels as the women who only acknowledge being a woman and being of color.

            My anger is beyond my economic status, it is far more than just the IRS and it’s grouping of my annual income and the government’s inability to pay me as they do my brothers, or America’s lack of investment or acknowledgement in people like me. My own sisters have betrayed me, as I am overlooked. The loudest voices representing women of color are black women. Yet black women only speak of themselves, not acknowledging how closely related the Latino and Black struggles really are. Women of color fight for matters that relate and diminish when the issues get personal. We will all fight together for equal pay, but the white woman falls off the struggle when she gets as close as she can get to a man’s pay. Then there is just us: the Blacks, Asians, and Latinas. The black woman will continually fight for her, not acknowledging all of the Afro-Latina’s who are exposed to the same black hatred. The Latina will fall off too ignoring the Asian fight for immigration after they’ve been destroyed by American funded wars just like us. We ignore each other, not realizing how much we are alike, how much we need each other. This separation between us is not our fault, but it is our next accomplishment. To acknowledge each other, and fight together while the rest of our white comrades are progressing ahead of us.

            Men have hurt me as much as they have, and I won’t ponder on it. I won’t ponder on how my Spanish, my curves, my assets, are upheld as a distraction and a temptation to a man. I won’t ponder on how the way I dress will be the defense attorney’s rebuttal if I were to ever get raped. I won’t ponder on how I will never be given a rape kit to prove that I was raped, but instead served a rape kit to prove that I wasn’t raped. I won’t ponder on the violence my own men have allowed. I won’t acknowledge my objectification, not because it doesn’t matter, not because I don’t suffer from it. I won’t acknowledge what men do to me because to acknowledge is to verbally recognize a man’s complete authority of me. What I will do is contest man’s constant invasion of my right’s; I won’t let this violence end in a man’s authority of me.

            These issues of violence, economy, gender, race, immigration, rape culture, and all the other things we face everyday only exist because our government doesn’t include us. It shouldn’t, because it will never know how to represent us. I could never be a representative of the American government. Not because I don’t believe in the bill of rights, but because I do not have the six figures it cost, nor would I lose my accent, nor would I drop the sway in my hips, or my anger. I couldn’t sit in Congress and fight over whether or not we should continue to fund wars, because my outburst on how the frontline of soldiers are primarily Black and Latinos from poverty who were sold the American dream would get me removed from Congress. I could not sit in a government who choosily so does not represent me, or the millions of Latino tax payers who fund and pay the very bills that objectify me.

            I do believe in sovereignty. I do believe in self-governing states. I do believe in feminism. I do believe in fighting for an opportunity to make something of myself. I cannot be all that I can be if women do not begin investing in female sovereignty. Self-governing states of power run by women wouldn’t be enough, I need self-governing states run by Latina’s for Latina’s. We need to be our own answer to all of our woes. We need to fund in our own educations, or own protection, our own laws, our own political representatives. Because Sonia Sotomayor’s beloved world has been colonized by America and has left the occupied territory of Puerto Rico to fend for itself. Because President Obama hasn’t addressed the clear segregation between those who live in the housing authority projects and those who live in the rest of the city, because everyone we voted in to power has forgotten where they came from. We need to make our own power to have our own power.

            Shouldn’t the American government be enough? Shouldn’t the government who upholds such a virtuous Bill of Rights be enough for us? No it is not enough for us. The American government since 1776 has only ever held a male president. The American government completely disregards the notion that a woman can run a country. Furthermore, it wasn’t until 2008 that we finally got our first Black president into power. Have we forgotten that it was colored people who were here first? Obama becoming president was a gain for Black men that Black women rejoice in solely on the basis of their skin color, because Obama has done nothing for his women. Women are a small active and rather new portion of the American government, all that I only rejoice in because of gender and some because of my race, none because they represent me, or my people. The first woman in Congress was of course white, in 1916 Jeannette Rankin. As Bell Hooks argues, “…indeed one could easily argue that white women’s allegiance to white supremacy trumps feminist sisterhood…”, so of course there is a wide gap of years for when women of color enter Congress. It wasn’t until 1968 that the first Black woman entered Congress, Shirley Chisholm, and finally in 1989 Illeana Ros-Lehtinen, the first Latina enters Congress. It has only been 25 years since the fist Latina entered the American congress.

            It has only been 25 years since any hope of a Latina’s issues being heard in Congress was instilled. Really it’s just a dream that was sold; it was America trying to diversify their Congress and to quiet the Latina’s. The last census reports 14.4 million documented Latina’s, so our recently immigrated sisters aren’t included in the number. Those 14.4 million Latina’s are represented by 9 Latina congresswomen, meaning that only 3% of congress is supposed to represent 14.4 million people. Is that realistic? How are those 9 women supposed to fight with or against the other 426 representatives? How are those 9 women supposed to fight for a whole nation of Latina’s when they also have to represent the state that put them into Congress?

            It isn’t enough. The American congress could never put enough people in its power that would address the issues we need addressed. We are not in power because the American government doesn’t address our sexuality, or constant colonization, nor our economic restrictions. Only we can do that, and only we can change these matters. Those women in Congress had to fill the seat before them. They had to be as good as the white man before them. Those women have sacrificed the matters of sexuality, they have become colonized, and just to be what they think is freed of economic restriction. Unfortunately, I’m almost positive congresswoman Ros-Lehntinen even after 25 years of service still gets paid much less than her male counterparts. She failed to fix or address any of our real issues. This is why the American government isn’t enough. This is why we need female sovereignty for and by Latina’s where we can face and own our sexuality, begin to decolonize our minds, and invest in ourselves to work towards the freedom of economic restrictions.

Sexuality

            Female sexuality is criminalized. Your ethnicity is a heavy influence of your sexuality. When I tell people I am Latina I’m expected to have the curviest of hips with the smallest of waists. I am supposed to be the perfect mix of colonization: lightly bronzed skin, long hair, big butt, big boobs, and nice eyes, all the light features from the conquistadors and all the voluptuous features from my Indigenous and African ancestors. I’m supposed to have the most seductive accent. I am supposed to be provocative, raw, and sexy. So sexy, provocative, and untamed that I’d have to look more like Hilary Clinton and less like myself to be taken seriously in Congress. Dare I try to leave my curly untamed hair in Congress, dare I wear something that fits and shows off whatever curves I may have, if any, I’d be the greatest distraction. Why do I have to look more like the white woman who served ahead of me to qualify to be a congresswoman? I don’t. I can just establish my own representative body that lets me be as sexy, or not sexy as I want.

            Our sexuality, emotions, appeals, whatever it maybe has nothing to do with the government. I can be as sexy as I want, and if a grown man cannot do his job because of how sexy I am, then it is he who is not qualified to do his job, not me. If I cry while reporting on the attacks in Benghazi, Libya, my emotions shouldn’t be scrutinized because of my sexuality as Clinton was. It was a terrorist attack, innocent people died, why scrutinize Clinton for being an “emotional” woman? Why not ask yourself why your representatives aren’t in Congress crying over the people we lose everyday? Human emotions are the same regardless of your race, class, or gender. We all cry. We all get angry. It is women who are heavily scrutinized when in power; it is us who are bitter for being angry. It is us who are weak, or misleading for crying. We can never just be.

            There is no hope in sexual justice from the American government. The sexuality of a woman is not worshipped; instead it is pornified, and used against her as a bad trait. If we are sexy we are sluts. It is the perspective of a woman’s sexuality that needs to be change, for a woman can work and be what she wants. It is our insidious capitalist government that profits off of the sexuality of a woman as Ana-Maurine Lara explained “The management of relationships… The violent management of the most intimate levels of sexuality not just in terms of actual bodies… but rather on the level of the spiritual connection of human beings reducing its scope to who is sexually involved with whom, who is and is not reproducing, what kind of families are built, and what kind of souls are forming. This forming a kind of sexual terror”. More money comes from the women who are pornified; the Kim Kardashian’s, than those women who are proactive. Neither woman is wrong. Both women are being who they want to be, it has nothing to do with the fact that they are women, and it has everything to do with them being who they want to be. When it comes to the sexuality of a woman what is acceptable and what isn’t has nothing to do with herself or her motives; the sexuality of a woman has been used as a repressive force in colonization and the economy. Sexuality is something to own instead of covering up because it is in fact who we are. It is a part of our personal traits and personality. We can be as sexy as we want to be. We can be as plain as we want to be. Neither of the two have any influence on how well I accomplish my job.

Colonization

            America is not post-colonialism. It’s not just my home countries; it’s not just Latin America being colonialized for American corporations profits, it is our minds. Our ideas of sexuality aren’t the only strains of colonialism either, as Latinas it is everything about us. U.S. involvement came in to Latin America as late as 1846, as the Spanish conquistadors had taken all that they could, opening the doors for capitalist colonialization. To believe that America is post-colonialist is to still be colonized, because the goal has always been to be “more American” ever since American involment surfaced. You have to sound like them when you speak English, you have act more American, you grew up watching American movies, you learned more of America and less of your indigenous ancestors. No matter what part of Latin America you are from, somehow American customs invaded your home. Somehow you celebrated Christmas and Los Reyes Magos, yet you never knew how. That’s the point of colonialism. Someone else’s culture replaces your own. You learn the history of the oppressor and never of your own history. We always know about the conquistadors and we never learned of the Taino’s, Arawak’s, Aztec’s, Mayan’s, Inka’s, etc. You are working day in and day out to rid yourself of your Spanish accent; because that is the only way you will fit in.

            We never will fit in. We try to come to America chasing this dream of the end of our suffering, leaving the past as “Estefani” and becoming “Stephanie”. We hide ourselves, abandoning who we really are, hoping that Americanizing ourselves will add prosperity to our lives. That all of our hard work will be paid off by the promise of opportunity America sells globally. That needs to be abandoned, and we need to address the buried mirror we hide from. You are not Stephanie, you are “Estefani” and yes, your mom spelled a name not native to your land, with the accent of her conquistadors tongue, trying to accentuate the language of the next conquistador. Yes, when your mother named you she had an accent, and yes so do you.

            Allow yourself to realize just how diverse you really are. Don’t whiten yourself and try to act like you are not a product of rape and slavery. Don’t ignore your cultural past, on the contrary use your history as a lesson, for the same thing has been occurring for centuries and we have not yet decolonized. Ana Irma Rivera Lassen acknowledges our cultural diversity in Latin America as an America does telling us:

“la diversidad geopolítica nos coloca en ópticas distinctas y distantes este Carribe nuestro tiene países independientes y no independents… así como las posiciones diferente frente de las sistemas politicos de mercados de economias entre otros elementos ase neccesário  reconocer las diferencias entre países para entonces ver y acer propuestas de accioónes que nos una”

“The geopolitical diversity places us in viewpoints that are distinct and distant, our Caribbean has independent and dependent countries… just like the different positions in front of the political systems of the market and economies between other necessary elements, it is necessary to recognize the differences between countries to visualize and make proposals and actions that will unify us.”

We cannot be white American’s. We can only acknowledge our differences and find a way to be unified, but we cannot keep settling for colonialism. We cannot keep trying to be white American’s in a country that has already acknowledged that we are different, and that our differences make us less than.

            Don’t aspire to be a congresswoman in the American government, because you will have to give yourself up. Aspire to represent your people in front of the American government. Aspire to keep your culture and traditions alive, versus hiding under the skirts of assimilation and allowing mockery. You have to require to eat at the table with the American government as a Latina, as Ana Irma Rivera Lassen said: you have to notice the differences between our countries and find ways to unify, not become.

Economic Restrictions

            As I said, my biggest problem isn’t being Latina, my biggest problem is not having enough money to deal with the backlash. Being Latina isn’t a problem for me at all, but white society has a problem with it. The problems I am forced to deal with all have to do with my sexuality and colonialism but they are all enforced by my economic restrictions. These economic restrictions directly reflect how the U.S. does business with Latinos. The U.S. has a long history of Fair Trade Acts that give corporations billions of dollars in profit for natural resources and Latin American countries the right to trade. Essentially there is no business between Latin America and the U.S.

            America’s international affairs provide insight to domestic affairs. Just like America doesn’t do business with our parent countries America doesn’t do business with us. We have no economic foot hold in the American economy therefor we have no foothold in any part of the internal relations of this country, as Bell Hooks states:

“Politicians, need I say who, who evoke so called feminist concerns while continuing their overt support of dominator culture of imperial white supremacist… let us remember, patriarchy has no gender… they can work to challenge and change all the bad things that are happening to those poor women of color globally while reinforcing imperialist white supremacist capitalist patriarchy.”

 We must avoid our desperation that falls into dependent business relations on the coat tails of American corporations hoping to develop an independent entity. The business aspect is necessary however. Latina’s need to begin investing in themselves, and less in the American economy. Build your own businesses so that you can build the businesses of your own community. Acknowledge yourself in the community. Acknowledge just how much of America you really do make up, and just how much of the American economy you actually fuel. Instead, fuel your own economy. Fuel your women.

Telos

            An agency that is run by Latina’s and is funded by Latina’s is the only way to create an able body that will address these issues. We cannot wait on the feminist movement, because it is a movement, although now much more inclusive, that doesn’t face all of our issues. The feminist movement isn’t battling the intersationality of sexuality, economy, colonial affects of Latina’s today. Although many nationalities can relate on American involvement, there are not many that are being colonized today. We need to fund ourselves, the very same way the black community has funded itself throughout its continuos battle of civil rights. We need to rely soley on our own substinance, we need to move and grow solely from our own gains.

            Sexuality, and what it should be like, has been transformed to be a social matter. In reality it isn’t, your sexuality is decided upon individually. Who you are, what you dress like, how you act, it’s all personal and needs to be decriminalized. We can’t continue to mold who we are to fill the social persepctives set by our white leaders. We wouldn’t have to do that if we had our own leaders, our own women in power. We wouldn’t look to fill roles and perspective if we provided another perspective on ourselves, if we showed a little more pride and resistance against these socially restrictive sexual concepts.

            In order to create a more respectable and prideful representation of ourselves we have to decolonize our minds. We have to stop believing that the white American life trumps the life of a Latina. We have to stop fueling and believing in the American insitutions, we have to stop believing and waiting for white people to come save us from our struggle. This doesn’t mean don’t believe in the laws, or the Bill of Rights, because it is not the text that is repressive it is the people we have elected into power who have interpreted the text to their benefit. Often times we will hear, “if you don’t like it then go to school and become (fill in the blank) and change it”. Becoming a politician will not change colonialism in Latin America, because if you are a politician you are profiting off of colonialism. That is when you’ve become a representative who Bell Hooks describes as “a more insidious threat to all the progress of the feminist revolution, the appropriation and cooptation of the redirect of feminism by the dominant culture that the feminist movement is just another liberal elite lifestyle choice”. This isn’t a choice, it is the card you have been dealt with. One you can alter.

            You don’t have to believe in the colonial thoughts you have been instilled with since birth. You would have to completely abandon the upbringing you’ve had, the education you’ve had, the job you’ve had, and you’d have to educate yourself. You’d have to teach yourself the real history of your people and restore pride in your people. You would have to look at your scars, although not visible on your flesh, those that seep through in the vault of your ancestors history and realize that you have not forgotten everything that you have lost. As Rose Kennedy puts it “in time, the mind, protecting its sanity covers them with scar tissue and the pains lessens. But it’s never gone” who you are, and what you gave up to whiten yourself is never gone.

            Owning your sexuality, and decolonizing your mind are the fundamental values to freeing yourself from political grasp and belief in your politicians, in American politicians. You still need to sit at the table, because there is no place on this planet America is not involved in. There is no way female sovereignty can matter if it won’t face American politicians. We can only sit at the same table as the oil lords, gold mine owners, bank owners etc. who hold grasp on the American government, if we don’t have the same financial merit for our own public figures. Latina’s need to begin funding themselves. We cannot hope for a white woman or man to fund our political struggles, because they will never stop being in favor of white supremacy. Only we can fund our struggle so that it can achieve all that it can achieve.

            We need to provide our own safe heavens from violence and repression, because we are still waiting for someone else to come save us. The Latin American culture has had waves of invasions that we continually neglect, allowing the next invasion to enter. First it was Spain, then it was the United States. Both countries used women as objects to repress men in combat. Both times we were the casualties. Both times we were the bodies raped as a mark to the men in our countries that they were now in control. We have never been viewed as objects of power, instead we are viewed as objects to show power with. We are never the leaders, but instead we are dominated. We can’t hope to be the leaders of our objectifiers because they’ve built billion dollar industries objectifying us.

            There’s a real lesson off of the repression of women. We continually work and live according to our oppressors, when we could just work for ourselves. We could just build our own establishments, our or businesses, our own economy. There is nothing about Latina’s that says that we have to continue following the lead of a white man. There is nothing about a Latina that says we have to keep watching the very white women we helped progress, progress without us. The only thing that says all of this is believing in the criminalization of our sexuality, holding on to the colonialist ideologies that have been instilled in us, and by continuing to fund the white economy.

“When intersectionality is a given one could not assume that when simply addressing the issue of patriarchy will lead to liberation by naming the system we live in as imperialist white supremacist capitalist patriarchy there can no longer be any resistance that gender exploitation is simply about men against women. Indeed one could easily make the case that white women’s allegiance to white supremacy is the face of the foe of feminism” –Bell hooks