My culture isn’t defined by what you can and cannot find on
a google search.
I stand in front of you, indigenous blood coursing through
my veins,
Yet somehow I’m not enough?
I don’t fit your stereotypes imposed by colonizer
inaccuracies.
The lack of knowledge you
have of my people aren’t validated
By your sociology books and
anthropology magazines.
Literary garbage that speak
of savage lands, worlds away,
Ignoring the native peoples here
within these bordered lands.
Lands we shared and migrated
to and fro centuries ago.
Before a time conquistadores
pillaged our people.
Stole our spiritually. Raped
our ideologies.
Robbed our homes. Stripped our
languages.
Plagued our humanity. Trying
to breaking us down,
Erasing us like a bad idea
from a first draft.
My culture isn’t defined by what you can and cannot find on
a google search.
The words vibrating from my
soul, rolling off my tongue
More active than your past
tense references.
History books with white
washed recollections and savaged retellings,
Reducing centuries of trauma
to one paragraph in a thousand page text.
New generations assume that
we’re people of the past.
Obliterated from the present
with non-existent futures.
These are not our truths
keeping the dreams of our ancestors alive.
Indigenous practices free from your misunderstandings of how
our communities
Flow with uniqueness and overlapping commonality
In love and tranquility. Life through self and family.
My culture isn’t defined by what you can and cannot find on
a google search.
A living breathing Indigenous person, standing right in
front of you.
Any time they hear a concept they don’t recognize,
They ask “HoW Do YoU SpeLL ThAt?!”
My knowledge through personal experiences and cultural
upbringing invalid?
Typing into search boxes, my existence reduced to a botched
summary in a
One page wiki-doc redacted by the very people who defied our
ways of life.
Mere savages and animalistic practices?
My culture isn’t defined by what you can and cannot find on
a google search,
But by our terms. Our standards. Our stories. Here. Surviving.
Thriving for generations to come.
✊🏽Sueitko Zamorano-Chavez
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