Maria Isabel Domenech '98

"Y tu gata, c6mo esta?" "Se ve linda. Su patita ya se esta sanando... y te cuento que he conseguido un perro, y los dos se llevan bien..." "Que milagro." "Ay si," she signed, "Es grave..." "Take care of your cat could be translated" as "take care of yourself" and "send me a picture of your dog" as "keep in touch." When Maribel left that day, Aida thought of the old days in the basement. She wondered how they had grown apart. "Maribel can't read your thoughts. You need to speak to her," her mother had said to her that night, and then she had added, "las dos estan locas." She was harsh, but she had the right idea. Aida took out a piece of paper, and began writing. "Querida, Maribel, no te olvides de tu prima loca..." 'Now we can dream about the past' she thought.

Somos-28

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I admit it. I'm a total nerd. I mean. I can party with the best of them—and when I start dancing, you better duck for cover or risk losing a body part—but I'd much rather spend time with my close friends in a more intimate setting, laughing and talking and sharing our thoughts over coffee. Besides my penchant for good food, lively conversation, and lifting weights (which I just recently started, so I still retain some measure of enthusiasm), the one thing that makes me happiest is listening to good music—hip hop. funk, folk, and acoustic, you name it and I'm into it. Very into it; I must say, I'm no stranger to dancing around my room, singing at the top of my lungs and checkin' myself out in the mirror (please. I know you do it too). I'm a loud and proud feminist whose deep, dark, hidden secret is adoring testosterone-laden action movies starring Sylvester or Ah-nold. I'm a Chicana/Tejana born and raised in the Lone Star State of Texas, I'm a junior, a dual concentrator in English and Women's Studies, fiercely bisexual, and the next thing you know....

here I am, a queer Colombian Filipino woman, an androgynous spirit. 19 years old. a head that often varies in length and in color, raised in Miami, but I wonder about where I'm from forcefully entrenched in an oh-so religious atmosphere: Carrollton School of the Sacred Heart—private Catholic all-girls school for 14 years...mass every Sunday of my childhood life at St. Augustine's Parish, very restricting at so many times....but now I continue to get further and further away from it. instead, I see more clearly the never ending frustrations that face me because of this confused society, in my own world, this doesn't have to exist, but everyday my mind falls further and further into the abyss. I want to dance freely. I want to dance with women, too. No type in particular, just the right mix of energy. Djimbe drumming, dancing to tribal house, and high energy performance are some of my greatest passions. I am a queer Colombian Filipino woman and the next thing you know....

- Gigi Otalvaro '98

Born in Havana, Cuba, I grew up in Miami, Florida and was raised on the white rice and black beans that my archetypal grandmother can make oh so well even in her sleep, insomniac that she is. I'm a second year student at Brown. I spend too much time whining about my lack of direction and unease about being pre-medish (but then again, who doesn't?) I believe in living and dancing and napping and wandering aimlessly and laughing. Indeed! I don't believe in wasted time. I am a Latino man. I am a gay man. And, the next thing you know...

-29-

.../VWcA Uxbtl VoiHtAtcW

Nuestras Voces

Mi yo. nosotras. nosotros.

Dos idiomas, two languages. Spanish, ingles. El idioma y nuestra identidad. El tan escuchado y dicho, "You don't have to speak Spanish to be Puerto Rican!" With my Spanish accent I try to say that it is trrue, while I'm translating from, "eso es cierto." I'm not telling you that you are not Puerto Rican!

Don't exclude me because I'm from la Isla. Don't perpetuate the fragmentation and divisiveness that the Yankis have imposed with colonialism and the borders that they have created.

Recognize

The different experiences of our "Puerto Ricaness" Puerto Ricans from the Island and the mainland los Estados Unidos. Las dos. tierras de los Yankis. The land of the immigrants, to where our people were displaced. The land of the "natives" where the United States presence and americanismo are evident.

Opresion en diferentes dimensiones. Different realities and perceptions of national identity. El esfuerzo de ser "ethnic' in a land where we are classified as the "other."

La lucha. the struggle, la causa.

La Isla de y para los puertorriquenos. "Que viva Puerto Rico libre" Un grito de independencia. Different luchas for la patria. the Island. Puerto Rico "P R " The re-imagined Island that we have lived through the memories wh °U'" Par^"ls and grandparents, que no pudieron volver al San Juan amado. "freedom " V migraron detras de un mejor with their blue ticket

Somos-30

Identificate

Puertorriqueno, puertorriquena, Boricua, AmeRican NuyoRican. Home, Puerto Rico, a memory. Home within us. "Mama Boriquen me llama, este pais no es el mio. Aqui los ojos no alumbran y aqui me muero de frio."

El Presente

Let us live our present reality. Let us come together. El frio y el calor nos une. Nuetro deseo de un futuro libre, our rhyrhm, our culture...

This

This is not a call to further fragment the community, or our identities. But a call for solidarity. Let us not see ourselves as the "others" within our own community. Only by recognizing and sharing our different experiences can we ever strengthen la comunidad, la causa, nuestra representacion, la hermandad.

Reaffirm

I am Puerto Rican, a latina and I represent. I have a place and purpose in this institution, in this community, in these communities. Con mis palabras, con mis voz trato de expresar mi causa y unirme a la de ustedes. I try to express my stength as I attempt to transcend the language barriers. Only to be interpreted as weak, too passionate, too simple. Another weak Puerto Rican who doesn't even have a clue of what it means to grow up Latino/Latina in the United States, Mi expereriencia no es simplista.

Let us hear our voices, let them hear our voices, escuchame, escuchate, escuchanos. Dominican, Ecuadorian, Peruvian, Mexican, Puerto Rican. Latino, Latina. Y cuando te identifiques no olvides that this is the thime and place to come together.

Mi voz, nuestras voces.