BRae

I am a writer, a teacher, a prophet, a healer, a mother, a wife, and a lover. I am red, brown, and proud. I belong to the land of my people, el yaquis, aztecas, y apaches. Soy una mestiza. I am the new "cosmic race." I belong nowhere and everwhere. Like Malintzin, I move between the spaces of my American, Indian, and Mexican culture through the art of language. And as Gloria Anzaldua writes, I am, "Indigenous like corn, like corn, the mestiza is a product of crossbreeding, designed for preservation under a variety of conditions. Like an ear of corn-a female seed-bearing organ-the mestiza is tenacious, tightly wrapped in the husks of her culture. Like kernels she clings to the cob; with the thick stalks and strong brace roots, she holds tight to the earth-she will survive the crossroads."