I am Pocahontas, I am La Malinche and I am beautiful (Historical Story)
By Ligia Barahona.
I am today’s Pocahontas, I am today’s Malinche and I am beautiful, powerful, strong and pure as the wind in the land of my ancestors. A philosopher who has lived in harmony with all that exists in nature they call me noble innocent child; La Buena.
I am a Tenakomakah Indian, daughter of great chief Powhatan. We speak the native languages of Algonquian a 3,000 years old tongue that means “They are our relatives, our allies”, Nahua and Mayan, all languages of love.
The most beautiful morena, Mestiza. My name is Matoaka Pocahontas, “little plaything” of extraordinary qualities, spirited and of engaging personality. A trustworthy heroine, my ancestors say. They tell me so in my dreams, they whisper…you are beautiful, you are our daughter, and you carry Indian history in your bones and our spirit in your soul.
I embody all Mestizas. My Mexican-Aztec heritage became an anglicized version of my history; hermosa like the mystical princess of the Iztaccihuatl Mountain who lived life as if it was heaven on earth, the way my ancestors did.
I am responsible for the creation of olive tan skin, beautiful long wavy black hair and delicate small features. I am a precious and gorgeous jewel in a land of treasures.
I am of indigenous origin, and of a mix that makes me beautiful and of various shifting ethnic multiplicities, with the virtue of the Third Eye.
I come from a long line of warriors of peace and love. I know because my guardian spirits have told me in my dreams; they always whisper into my dreams at night.
My heart, body and soul are made of endless amounts of purity; of singing colorful rainbows. This are the most powerful weapons used in ancient times by my people long before the first church; and the only weapons with which I heal today’s wars.
I have inherited my foremother’s multilingual abilities to communicate with the past, the present and the future, with sisters of many colors and from far away lands whose native tongues are as complex as dreams.
My multilingual skills allow me to deliver clear and pure messages of peace and sisterhood everywhere my ancestors lead me. My hybridity is of ethnic components and shaping elements of rich cultural indigenous identity. This is a phenomenon of multiple registers of identity and I have always been Hermosa.
I carry the wisdom of my ancestors, the magic of their spirits and the essence of their soil—Mother Earth.
I cherish my ancestor’s history and carry it in the core of my bones, in bundles of love and healing which protect me and guide me every day.
My people’s rituals are our offerings of gratefulness and respect to our Gods.
My integrity and my dignity have been imbedded in my soul and in my spirit by all that came before me; the sun “Ah Kinchil,” the wind “Kukulcan,” the rain “Chac,” the spirit “Torngasak” and the heaven and earth “Tirawa-Atius.”
I am a vibrant flower of historical bones and precious stones that has traced my past, my present and my future. My history is in the sound of the airstream, the pure smell of the sacred soil—our heaven on earth.
Yo soy de la tierra de Montezuma and Cacique where gold, silver and pearls are the everyday décors in Chalchihulles, Alta Vista. My people lived in a land of astonishing beauty and wore Cotaras with soles made of gold and ornamented with multicolored precious stones.
I know my native lands as well as I know the palm of my own hand, they are as old as the spirits in ancient times, centuries older than Christopher Columbus and John Smith.
This is my story and the story of my people. I speak in my indigenous language, a sound made for our eyes and our ears to reclaim and embrace the true accounts of my past, my present and my future as a way of giving voice to what has not been told before or has been forgotten—my way of reclaiming my space, my location and my time in history.
My name is Pocahontas, La Malinche and I am beautiful.