11/17/2025
I got interviewed at the No Kings Protest in Charlotte this past October by , but it didn’t air. I guess it wasn’t that relevant back then since Border Patrol had not yet invaded the city. So I’m going to say the same thing I said to them, so that it doesn’t stay in the shadows. They asked me, “Why are you here protesting, and why did you bring your son?” My answer, from what I remember, was something like this:
“Because I am Mexican - born and raised, and became a US citizen last year. However, people who look like me and speak my language and share my culture are being taken away, without any due process, for that reason. I came here legally, followed the process, paid the fees, but I did so because I was privileged enough to do it. Some of these people don’t have the same privilege as me, for many different reasons. Most of them are just here looking for a better life.
So I am here with my son because he is half-Mexican, and I have done everything I can to show him to be proud of his heritage, of his language, and I am not going to let anyone try to take that away.”
I’ve had to deal with a lot of bu****it since I came here. I’ve had my country called the “third world” by people who supposedly welcomed me. I heard worries over me only speaking Spanish to my son. Weird looks, disguised xenophobia. And I have always been very aware that these micro aggressions were just that, micro, small, stupid. But I never really felt afraid to address my son in public with my native language. There was still freedom in America.
Fast forward to today, and now we might actually have to be careful. Stay out of the city, carry around a passport. And I just want to know how many trespasses to our freedoms have to happen before people do anything? I read happy comments all over social media: “Get them boys!” Get who? Your hardworking landscaper? The people who make that tasty guac and margaritas you love? That mother and her children at church, praying to the SAME God you revere? WHO?
I continue to be unafraid to speak my language and be my brown-ass Mexican self. If anything, now I’m going to be LOUDER.