By Emily Hashimoto — 2020
A queer author of color on the limits of language and the maximums of love.
Read on www.out.com
CLEAR ALL
“In Latin America, there’s been a great deal of progress around gay and lesbian identities,” Ortiz says. “But with being transgender and non-binary, a lot of people are still unsure what it all means and I believe it’s connected to the words we use.”
So many of the little rituals I have each day—like my makeup or skincare routine—do help soothe and/or rejuvenate me. For me, any type of solo practiced routine is good. But I’ve learned that self-care does not, and cannot, sustain me. And I believe that this may be the case for many of you.
Ideas of visibility and the closet have largely been shaped by white America and the gay liberation movement of the 1970s. Refusing to subscribe to this narrative gives us space to connect with our gender, our culture and our sexuality on our own terms.
In the late ’90s, television was my greatest source of comfort—the place were I went to to find versions of myself reflected back at me. The only queer woman I ever saw on screen, however, was Ellen Degeneres.
Irina Gonzalez is teaching her son to embrace the beauty and diversity that exists within the Latinx community, not the stereotypes she was exposed to in her own childhood.
“I still eat rice and beans. I just use brown rice now,” said Annya Santana of Menos Mas, a wellness company that speaks to African-American and Latinx communities.
The Latinx community is just as vulnerable to mental illness as the general population, but faces disparities in treatment.
Eso es para locos. Esta generación... siempre inventando. These are the words I’d hear anytime I mentioned therapy or mental health growing up.
The pandemic was rough for Black and Latina families, but many women in these communities met the challenges head on.
I’m learning that my challenge isn’t just to unlearn what my family has taught me, but to put myself in situations that would reaffirm the new lessons I was trying to replace the old ones with.
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