“Me Gritaron Negra”

“Tenía siete años apenas,⠀ ¡Qué siete años!⠀ ¡No llegaba a cinco siquiera!⠀ De pronto unas voces en la calle⠀ Me gritaron ¡Negra!⠀ ¡Negra! ¡Negra! ¡Negra! ¡Negra! ¡Negra! ¡Negra! ¡Negra!”⠀ ⠀ – 𝐌𝐞 𝐆𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐨𝐧 𝐍𝐞𝐠𝐫𝐚 by 𝐕𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐚 𝐒𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐚 𝐂𝐫𝐮𝐳⠀ ⠀ Choreographer, Composer, Professor and Activist, Victoria Santa Cruz was about 7 years old when she encountered her first taste of racism as an 🇵🇪 Afro-Peruana.⠀ ⠀ In her poem, Santa Cruz rejects Eurocentric standards of beauty and instead embraces her Black features fully.⠀ ⠀ 𝐈𝐧 𝐇𝐞𝐫 𝐏𝐚𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐬:⠀ ⠀ “I had a little group of friends, and I was the only Black one. One day there was a little girl among them with blond hair. And she immediately said, “If the little black girl wants to play with us, I’ll leave.” And I thought, “Who is she?” She had just arrived and was already dictating the law. What a surprise it was when my friends told me, “You can leave, Victoria.” I said, “What?”⠀ ⠀ The secret is not to leave, but to go through it. I was little, and when I saw that my friends rejected me, I left. But I never forgot. I never forgot the importance of suffering. The point is not to be a victim. I asked myself, “Who suffers? And why?” And other feelings began to emerge.⠀ ⠀ That girl stimulated something in me without knowing so. And I came to discover what it means to stand on your feet.⠀ ⠀ “It’s terribly important to know that there is no revolution without evolution.”⠀ ⠀ Swipe 👈🏽 to find ways to 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐮𝐩 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐁𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐯𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬 in and outside of our community.