Why Indigenous People Want You to Stop Labeling Them as Latino | Odilia Romero | TEDxDelthorneWomen

foreigner hey, you understood well what I said, I said it slowly now I would like you to repeat after me ga ba Chito hey, there is no need to interpret that for you either, you said it quite slowly and you are repeating after me, you know? I, as I was sitting there, was wondering what they were thinking I was. Do I look Latin to you? Yes, maybe true, maybe Mexican. I don't know what a Mexican is like, but hey, they say dark

people

look like Mexicans, maybe I look like Hispanic. Maybe it's true but I'm not going to tell you a story.

I come from my hometown, it's in the highlands of Oaxaca. It's full of vegetation, clouds, rivers, mountains. Until I was 10 years old, my universal language was Sapotec and that's what you just heard right now. a variant of more than 60 variants of sapotic that's all I knew I didn't know anything other than my community San Bartolo mesogocho I thought it was the best place on earth and that was it that was the world for me I still think about it Although that's not has changed, I grew up in this community where we grew our food where you could drink water straight from the mountain, you can do that today, and our traditional clothing was communally owned, all the women could wear it all the time. the woman could embroider are traditional garments.

I was raised by my two grandmothers in Sogocho, they were taking care of me after my parents left for Los Angeles, one day they told me: "You are going to meet your parents in Los Angeles, at the white man's house." a land that is so deep in colonization because those two grandmothers never learned Spanish much less English, however they call this land of

indigenous

relatives that land of the white men that's how deep it is and I said where is the white man's land where is the benegasus land They said behind the mountains my first the city that I found behind those mountains was the city of Oaxaca I didn't know the name of Oaxaca we all love Oaxaca right we all love mezcalis I'm sure um but I didn't know it was Oaxaca I knew it as La in my language but I had never seen it.

The next

stop

was Mexico City, which of course I didn't know was called Mexico City. It was called Sita in my language and my final destination was Los Angeles, the land of white men. What these three cities had in common guess what it was there were no trees or rivers or birds I didn't know anyone and no one spoke my language and in these three spaces the food was terrible my first American food was those sugary cornflakes it was the The worst experience comes from a community where Every morning I ate a tortilla made by my grandmothers while they drank coffee.

Yes, kids drink coffee in the highlands, but it's not like Starbucks coffee, it's very watered down and sugary and it's delicious, you know, so that was my first experience but it's also the first time I've come across it. racism when I came to the United States the moment I left my community there were hundreds of labels waiting for me to fit into

them

first I was Oaxacan because all I know is I'm better social a solo woman then I was Mexican I guess I was Mexican I mean , I was born in the Mexican Republic and then I became once I crossed the border the border of impulse I became Latina I became Hispanic I became everything all these labels were there for me to fit into

them

but guess what I refuse because there were a message that my grandmothers gave me when I left and I left because they discovered that I had been sexually abused in the community and they sent me here to reunite with my parents, so I go through two family separations, the first with my parents, the second with my grandmothers, but also with my community, which is a community accessory.

I was kicked out of a community space once I got here, you know, things changed. no one knew that I spoke Zapotec and

people

still don't know that I speak Sapotec people still don't know that I am not Latina that I am not Hispanic that I am not Mexican but I am Sapotec beneficial so I would prefer that they call me upstairs but that doesn't happen because you know that the labels They are still there but I still refuse to fit into them and this is what I say Latinidad is very dangerous

labeling

ourselves is dangerous because you cannot fit our 500 years of resistance as

indigenous

peoples into In the block of Guam you cannot put hundreds of indigenous languages ​​in a single box, the hundreds of indigenous world visions in a single box in a single umbrella, in our case, in the Mexican Republic there are 68 indigenous nations, did everyone know that?, and in Mexico 364 languages ​​are spoken, in addition to indigenous languages.

Spanish that's 364 different worldviews 364 ways to resist 364 ways to say I love you right why do we

want

to put that in a single box? There is an assumption here and even in Mexico there is an assumption that everyone speaks Spanish and that is deadly in our lives as indigenous people. Sometimes I am an interpreter, but I was a child interpreter and have seen firsthand the impacts of Latinidad as a child. They harassed me because I didn't speak the language when I got here. He was monolingual. I will never forget that woman with that red jacket, curly hair and light skin who called me an uneducated Indian because I was speaking to her in incorrect Spanish which was 41 years ago, about two months ago, those comments were made by officials of our city, so it hasn't changed in 41 years, right?

They made the exact comment about the indigenous peoples, about the blacks, there was a and not only that these people were Latino but they represent the largest population of indigenous people in Los Angeles County MacArthur Park Boyle Heights the valley where the indigenous Chinantecs are who the Mayans are there you know the Mayans are still here I know we heard all these things that they were gone but now they are here they represent they represent our communities so imagine if this is the way they think about us in a room closed. I'm so glad it leaked because that way it gives us the opportunity to have this conversation today. uncomfortable but it is vital, it is vital for the liberation of indigenous peoples and it is vital that we have this conversation because each of you will meet an indigenous person, whether you are a lawyer, whether you are a doctor, whether you are a receptionist, no matter what. . field in which you are you will find us if you have tacos on the corner or if you go to a luxury restaurant you will find us there and next time pay attention we are not speaking Spanish we are speaking Sapotec we are speaking we are speaking mom we are speaking no It is Spanish and the indigenous language has no religions to Spanish but I have seen firsthand when a child has been separated from their parents and the Department of Social Services has taken them away because the parent I did not administer a certain amount of medication because there was no way to communicate because the parents were supposed to speak Spanish and I did not follow the instructions, therefore, I endangered the safety of the child.

Yes, this is true. I have seen this. seen where the judge reads the charges to the parents where the parents are about to be medicated because people assume that they spoke Spanish and that they were Latino and that is the danger because our freedom is withheld, everything is at stake and we can no longer think In people from south of the border of the impulse that we all speak Spanish because it is very dangerous it is dangerous for each of us we would lose our children I know that the Detention Center was big news a few years ago a few months ago the majority have not been detained of the detained children are indigenous people whose human rights are currently being violated because they are supposed to come from Mexico, they come from Guatemala and now they come from Nicaragua, they are Latinos, no, we are not Latinos, did everyone know that?

Indigenous people make up 10% of the world's population, but we have 80 percent of the world's natural resources. Do you know what that means to us? Displacement, your liberation is linked to ours because if we lose all those natural resources there will be no air to breathe in my country. state of origin the state of Oaxaca 427 the mining concession had been given to transnational companies surely it is in Oaxaca it is very far from here it is more than 2,000 miles from here but we all create the same air so we are all going to be impacted like this we need to join forces because our Liberation is united we can no longer talk about Oaxaca it is down there and we are up here it does not affect us it does not affect us it is very dangerous for everyone and this is what to say like we need to make a clear statement and I am here at the age of 51 saying no, don't call me Latina, don't call me Mexican, I am an indigenous woman from Sogocho because this makes a difference to create awareness of our existence as indigenous People, the Nations have created a history to label us from Latin to Mexican, to whatever they

want

to do to erase our existence, the fact that we don't exist is a great thing for this nation-state, but we are going to continue with the resistance and that's why. we need your support we need your support each of you in this room there is silence we have your support because you are going to make a difference wherever you go the next time you find a person who looks like me and who is probably dressed like me and in no way am I Frida Kahlo ask if you need an interpreter do you speak another language do not assume that we are all Latinos because once again we contribute to the violation of the human rights of indigenous peoples so today I ask all of you that when you return to your usual places be that uncomfortable person when someone makes a comment that city officials made at your Christmas dinner table be that uncomfortable guest who tells you no, you can't make those comments because that's where solidarity from your home begins.

When we migrate we migrate with everything I migrate with my language but like that the other Mexicans like the other Latinos with their prejudices and racism towards the indigenous people and we have to be that uncomfortable guest at that table we have their solidarity because again it doesn't matter how far we are going to breathe the same air and that water will return to our oceans thanks