I recently had the history making opportunity to be a part of the HBO’s letter book inspired by Isabel Allende Dear Future Latina Trailblazer where I was able to contribute via a letter,  my humble advice, and share a bit of my story to help harness Latinas’ stories and create change.

My hope is to a share a piece of me with you, and that if you take anything away it is that you are a master piece, a work of art worthy of our reverence and admiration. 

To you, whom I adore:

It is 6:37 AM on a Tuesday, as I sit in my candle lit living room, just having watched the sunrise. My mug is filled with unceremonious decaf,  but I am immediately grateful, because I am creating a life. I can feel my little girl in my belly, full of activity and promise, and I am reminded of her innocence, and yours, and the importance of our legacy.  And I think  “How lovely would it be to have all the answers for you!”   Life would be so easy if the answers were written nice and tidy, in a specific blueprint for us to follow straight to our wildest dreams.  And then, I smile, but mostly I cringe, at the absurdity. You see, a blueprint exists, and it is unique and yours, mysterious and innate. The blueprint lives deep in the recess of your soul.  It is wise, strong and perfect. It is coiled up, and entangled beautifully with all of our wild, our mistakes, our shame, our beauty, our bravery, our misery, our boredom, our experiences, our birth place, our soul, our anger, our joy and our innocence. It is never outside of us, the fabric of our  wildest dreams is made up of the totality of our human existence, what we do with the inevitable bitter and sweet tastes’ of life. You see too many times, I have stayed down too long, and wanted to spit out the bitter, run from it, hide from it and let it silently destroy me. Too many times I have allowed others to define me, stifle my vision of me, and belittle the vastness of me. No, no no, no, GRACIAS con EXCUSE ME! 

Today, I use my wild, my voice, my sensibilities, my culture, my curves, my creativity and my humanity to guide me. I use my superpower, OUR superpower, our vulnerability, to transform the seemingly ugly into the sweetness of life unfolding before me.  I would love to impart to you my sweet friend  a snapshot of my blueprint: I never give up on me, and I never will. Through all of the shame, fear, ups & downs, know that those very things are meant to empower us,  to evolve us and ultimately guide us to the next sturdy rock on the sometimes ravenous river of life. There on that rock, we reassess, we forgive, we plant seeds, we learn, we unlearn, we ugly cry, we laugh, we find our true selves, we find our strengths, our weaknesses and we shine a little, die a little, and then we emerge, battle tested but never defeated, whole and ready. Why, because that is what we do! We are women, Latina Women, wild, free, and ravenous in our pursuit of our dreams and desires. But do not be afraid to lay down on that very rock, and listen, listen to the calm of the stream and indulge all of your senses in the elegance, mastery and fullness of life and the natural world. As it is wise, wiser than you and I and if we listen really listen there too our blueprint lives and thrives.

I pray our journeys meet and that we recognize in each other the beauty of our uniqueness with the utmost reverence, respect and admiration.

Con todo el amor del mundo, tu hermana, Zulay