Recognize Me - Melissa Campos, MEChA de Yale

Recognize Me
By: Melissa Campos


I want to write my own narrative.

I've always wanted to write it. Now, I am fully aware that I can.

But, first, I have to ask myself: If I’m writing my own story, who am I?

I am Chicana.

I am proud of my ancestors, I am proud of my peers, and I am proud of who will carry on my legacy. I care a little more about things that many don’t even consider to change. I recognize the power of people and of organization.

I recognize myself.

Just three years ago, I didn't imagine myself doing what I'm doing now, much less calling myself Chicana.

What changed me? Nothing. I discovered what has always been present.

Being Chicana is not a change--it is recognition. It is the recognition that society has failed to give those who have come before us; it is the recognition of injustices of our society; it is the recognition of needing change; and it is the recognition we demand for ourselves and our issues.

In high school, I thought community service simply meant helping out in hospitals and giving food to the homeless. Now, I realize that community service also means empowering others and improving conditions for everyone. It means that you make an impact on single individual not only by providing for their physical well-being, but also improving, directly or indirectly, their social and political situation.

In essence, community service is social justice. You help bring others the resources, whether it is education, food, shelter, or healthcare, that they have been denied. And, through these measures, you empower them and aid them in rising out of the poverty, out of the lack of education, and out of the obstacles that propagate subjugation.

Can you see? I have always been Chicana, in action and in name.

This acknowledgment and recognition is crucial to gaining agency. There is no future for me without a sense of awareness of the person I am, of the people that surround me, and of the situation I live in.

There is no future without my own narrative.

Now, I am making my own future.

*Photograph Angelina Calderon, MEChA de Yale