"Boxes" by Lauryn D

            Standardized tests: the ultimate pseudo-test for knowledge. They have plagued our lives since elementary school and continue to as we go onward toward college and careers. We always came out of them still not knowing how to file for taxes and knowing that our perceived value would be reduced to a number. Among, the things that run through our minds while taking them some are occasional answers, eenie-meenie-miney-moe’s, and I-haven’t-picked-C-in-a-while‘s. But what always occupied my mind was a never-failing precedent to these tests that stated, “Check one box that best describes you”. But those boxes never failed to leave as empty as they came.

            Afro-Latina. That is what I am. If that is not an option when you tell me to “check one box that best describes you”, all of those boxes will leave as empty as they came.

            An Afro is not your straight reacting to humidity, nor is it your straight hair with 3 curls in it from the braid you slept with. An Afro is Black hair whose beauty defies the laws of gravity. That is not what Afro means in the phrase “Afro-Latina”, but it’s important to realize. Afro is not African-American, it means of or relating to Africa. To identify as “African American” is to claim America, which my personal experiences have made me unable to do. If African-American an option when you tell me to “check one box that best describes you”, all of those boxes will leave as empty as they came.

            Latina is not just Mexicana. Latina is also Nicaragüense, Guatemalteca, Peruano, Uruguayo. It is any country in Latin America, which encompasses Central and South America. Hispanic, more broadly meaning a country that speaks Spanish, categorizes me as one with the colonizers, the Spanish, that destroyed everything my ancestors had built. Our native language, traditions, and values became obsolete with the unforgiving impetus of gold and material wealth. Although this was some time ago, the culture of Latin America has yet to recover from its stolen identity. Therefore, if Latino is not an option when you tell me to “check one box that best describes you”, all of those boxes will leave as empty as they came.

            Being Afro-Latina means that I sing just as passionately with Pepe Aguilar as I do with Erykah Badu and that I use Avon’s Skin So Soft just as often as I use Vicks Vapo Rub. I do not know which country in Africa I was stolen from and I can count the amount of people that know where Guatemala is on a map on one hand, but that does not change how proud I am of where I come from. Call me picky, call me uptight, or accuse me of self-proclaimed importance, but I refuse to neglect half of the blood that runs through my veins to appease anyone. So until my little box comes, the Afro-Indonesian box comes, the Taiwanese-Latino box comes, and the Native-American-Pakistani box comes, all of those boxes will leave as empty as they came.