Why I Waited to Discuss a Part of My Identity Online
Reading Time: 8 minutes An exploration of race, nationality, labels and identity. If I write my captions in Spanish or mention that I’m Latina, will non-Latinos think I’m no longer relatable? Will they think I’m un-American? Two years later and …SURPRISE… Yo hablo español. Was I holding back on revealing my Latina identity on purpose? Did I not notice that I wasn’t discussing my race? Why discuss my identity now? Recently, I started to write my Instagram and Facebook captions in Spanish (in addition to writing them in English). Why? Quite frankly, I have family and friends that don’t speak English fluently, and I just wanted them to know what was going on with my life. I wanted to include them. But it wasn’t like I hadn’t thought about this before. Originally, I had hesitated to sharing my work in Spanish. I think about everything I do, especially when it’s going to to be all over the Internet, “influence...