The Decolonization Period, and Being a Revolutionary
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| Photo from @westcoastanghttps://www.instagram.com/westcoastang/ |
Cruz flicked the lights on and the apartment was brought to life when the 23 year old walked in. It’s 9:30 PM, it had been a long day, she explained. She turned the heat on, and settled in, nestling into the couch…we began our conversation.
The Georgetown University School of Continuing Studies Master’s student has a refreshing perspective on life, mainly centered on remaining true to oneself. “If it looks good, and feels comfortable and makes me feel like that bitch, then I’m going to do it, I’m going to wear it and do what makes me feel happy, “says Cruz.
She reminisced about growing up in San Francisco, California and the different atmosphere that was created. The ideas of equality existed for her in the Bay area. California’s close proximity to the coast and Hawaii, impacted the neighborhoods extreme diversity. Where Cruz grew up there was no predominant race.
The ideal scenery came to an abrupt end when her father found out his company was closing and Cruz and her family would be moving to Texas. She hated it.
“Growing up in California then moving to Texas was a reality check, and that’s what made me get into politics because I realized that I lived in such a diverse area previously, so I didn’t initially understand anything outside of that. I grew up with the understanding that people are different and that’s okay it’s not really an issue and then I moved and I found out that the rest of the country does not reflect how I grew up,” says Cruz.
Each phrase did not lack emphasis or passion. Her words enveloped memory of a world she was unaccustomed to however placed in the middle of. A world of de facto segregation. “I did not think about racism or politics until, I moved down south and I realized that in Texas everything is still very segregated and I saw it face to face. There was a lot of micro aggression, simultaneously there was a lot of in your face shit. I realized I care about race, I care about culture, I care about my identity and that drove me to pursue politics,” says Cruz.
“My entire time in Texas I experienced racism, you don’t realize it until you are older, I realized that I was the only Latina doing extracurricular activities. I was the other. People from my school would say Mexicans or Latinas do certain things but not you, you’re not one of them,” says Cruz.
“In Texas there is only indoor recess, and all the kids were lined up against the wall. I remember looking up and all the Black kids, were sitting together, all the White kids were together, and Hispanic kids were together. I remember thinking to myself do I have to sit here and why is it this way?” says Cruz.
As people we are forced to create our own opinions. Our conclusions are based off of our experiences. Cruz’s experiences in Texas allowed her to understand that she had to speak up and wanted to be a part of the political conversation. She had to decolonize herself from the beliefs that surrounded her. At Northern Illinois University she majored in political science but realized her dreams were much bigger than Chicago.
“I was a person who has always been talking about the problems of micro aggression and complacency and a lot of people shunned me out after high school, when I became more vocal about race and The Black Lives Matter movement,” says Cruz.
Life in DC, Understanding the Fragments
“I have three solid best friends that I graduated with, they’re into race politics and social justice just as much as I am. One of them is another Latina, the other one is a Black woman, and the other one is a Black gay male; so how we navigate through life has been our way of survival. It is not that we’re trying to update with times or keep up with the news, this is our livelihood and this is how we protect ourselves,” says Cruz
“In order to protect ourselves we have to know what is going on how people are being treated and at the same time how to fight back,” says Cruz.
Cruz only applied to two graduate schools, George Washington University and Georgetown, because she absolutely had to be in DC., she suggested coming up with a new policy that would provide funding for students who are more than capable academically of attending a prestigious university but are not given the chance because of economic circumstances.
As a student at two institutions of higher learning, Cruz wants to change the struggle that minority students living in poverty have in obtaining and receiving a higher education.
“There are people who work in all these fancy offices that make so much money and then there is homelessness around every corner. People from DC are being pushed out, but the difference between this city and other cities is the wealth in DC is going to the wrong places,” says Cruz.
Self-Truths and Self-Care
Cruz now has her own blog called West CoastAng, she speaks about tactics for self-care including meditation. She also has a section “La Revolución de Mi Vida,” in which she attempts to differentiate traditional Mexican culture from that of the indigenous people and “decolonize herself.”
Graduate student, political activist, blogger, Cruz has a lot on her plate; she says, “If I can wash my hair once a week, I feel accomplished. Her unapologetic spirit for living out her truth and creating change is exactly why her list of accomplishments will not only continue to grow, it will impact others.
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