The other day I heard someone say "europeans use the language of colonization as an excuse to insert themselves into indigenous and african traditions" and it's so true. The Colonizer continues to feel entitled to our work, our bodies, our ways, just because we may share a language (french, spanish, portuguese or other) when the only reason we share that language in the first place is the enslavement and genocides they inflicted on us.
Besides, we still have our own languages (indigenous languages, african languages, creole languages, AAVE and so on and so forth) and the "shared language" is only a partial and superficial resemblance. We use those spanish words because it's a way to share with other hispanic-colonized indigenous and black relatives. We use it because the language of colonization is a shared experience in the americas, as natives and as diaspora. As a way of making communication amongst ourselves easier. There is no deeper connection to Europe, no other tie, except the fact we had to use their language to speak because we were forced.
My Elders raised me on our oral history, on stories of spaniards cutting the tongue of anyone who spoke our language or self-identified as negro or indio, and then they would cut the ears of anyone who had heard them do so. So we stopped calling our things by our names, in public, and started using their words when we're in front of outsiders.
And that is not even the worst they've done, that is just one of the memories of violence we have, of them forcing their language on us. This is why you can't now turn around and say "but they're speaking spanish! I'm a bruja too!" as an excuse to force your way into religions and traditions that don't belong to you. Doing so is, once again, inflicting colonial violence.
And it's also why it's so important that you learn your ways directly from your people and in privacy, not from the internet. There's so much terminology and other things that we cannot say in public spaces like this. Talk to your Elders.
yousharknotpass
gracieabrams
turnnoffyourmind
gummygunk
2087
