Los Angeles Born, Salvatrucha Raised. My Mother has been a domestic worker for the past thirty years. Since I was five years old, we've lived in the San Fernando Valley, yes, the Porn Capital of the U.S. And since I was five, we commuted fifty-minutes from the little pocket of barrio in Van Nuys/Panorama City/North Hills, to Pacific Palisades. Where my Mother has busted her lower-back, left hand, and both feet cleaning and raising other people's homes. The Palisades is also where I received some of the finest public education L.A.U.S.D. had to offer, education, compliance... whatever.

My Father is a Unionized Truck Driver, I don't know if he grasps the importance of that, but I still like to show it off. For a good chunk of my childhood he was unemployed, under the George H.W. Bush administration. So I have distinct memories of hanging out with my dad while he did odd-jobs around L.A. and also looking for work at the Unemployment Office in Pacoima, we'd often end up at an AM PM and buy hot dogs and Icees.

Currently, I'm located in the Bay Area. I am attending San Francisco State University where I'm working towards a BA in Raza Studies and Design and Industry, hopefully. I've visited different parts of the country before, but I have never lived outside of the San Fer Valley, until now.

Back home, in L.A., I have a community friends who keep me grounded, humble, laughing, and loving, these are my people who I cannot thank enough for their companionship. I'm no longer just an Anchor Baby searching for meaning. We're here to Reclaim and Decolonize, dancing and kissing the whole way there.

I come from a mold made by my Familia and my History. Not just with the things taught to me, but also with things I was never supposed to know. Nicked and dented not only by actions, but also experiences, for better, and most definitely for worst. I carry a part of the Collective Memory of La Familia Martinez, Chavez y un poco de Zelaya. All of the Love & Abuse and all of the Compromise & Achievements, all used to survive.

I'm taking everything I know; all of the things imposed onto me, taught to me, and given to me, and I'm going to rock your fucking foundations built on our backs.

• • • •

someone, kindly, told me that you'd wasted... eight of your nine lives.