Who Are You?

Soy una bella Afro-Mexicana.

You ask yourself what is that?

Es una mezcla de la cultura Africana y Mexicana.

I come from a linage of former African slaves that arrived on the shores

of Veracruz along with Cortez para la conquista.

I come from the womb of a beautiful brown mestiza woman,

de las montanas de Guerrero.

I am a product of my community que lucha para una vida mejor:

Undocumented people fearing deportation o peor,

day laborers trying to feed their families,

Single mothers tratando de sacar a sus hijos adelante,

People of color harassed and brutalized by the pol-ICE,

Beautiful brown and black youth feeling helpless.

I am a product of a hard working single mother who immigrated

into this country to give her children a better life.

I am a woman who will not tolerate anyone who refers to my mother as a

wetback, illegal, or illegal alien.

I am a woman who is easily motivated when I stare at my mother’s 

fatigued body from working two jobs.

I am a woman who is in the struggle to attain a higher education

in order to make my mother’s life a bit easier.

I am a woman who fights against her own dehumanization

and still has the strength to fight the dehumanization

of her people and community.

I aspire to inspire powerful and beautiful young women and men of color

that feel invisible.

I aspire to someday give back to those who helped me get to where

I am and where I will be.

The fears I hold are not only mine.

The fears I hold are the same as my mother’s, my brothers’, and my sisters’.

My fears are reflected in a community that is constantly preyed upon by

the police, ICE, and greedy businessmen displacing my people.

You asked me who I am,

I am all of this combined into

one powerful and beautiful Afro-Mexicana!

AikoCeleste is an AfroMexicana from Guerrero, MX who migrated with her family to the U.S. Upon arriving to the U.S., she was raised by her single mother in Santa Ana, CA where she experienced the realities of being an Afro-Mexican undocumented youth. Grappling with the question of what it means to be a Black-Brown womyn in the yolk of the Empire, while also trying to understand the forces that drove her and her family to the empire, Aiko was inclined to join the undocumented movement. Aiko’s identity as an undocumented Afro-Mexican has played a pivotal role in her perspective and critiques of the undocumented movement as well as understanding the forces of migration.