People are patchworks. No person is ever made up of one single thing. It’s the several parts that make a whole and all of them are important.
One patch might be race, the other, religion; a patch here, your gender; a patch there, your sexuality; health; body type; financial stability....
“I’m sorry, can you please say your name again?” “Do you have any nicknames, something easier to pronounce?” “Is that even a name?” The majority of my life has consisted of these questions regarding my first name alone, but that’s only the beginning.
After tearing apart...
I grew up in Mira Mesa, a town with a huge community of AsianPacific Islanders. Being Latino, I was always surrounded by the influence of Asian and Pacific Islander cultures. I absorbed the culture because my closest friends invited me into their homes and lives.
One thing I have...
Pierson Cepeda, Assistant Web & Social Media Manager
• April 13, 2016
My name is Pierson Cepeda. I am originally from the island of Saipan, which is a part of the Northern Mariana Islands, a commonwealth of the United States, and that makes me Chamorro.
When my family made the move to California, I was still very much a young kid (nine years old) and...
Lexy Perez, Arts & Entertainment Editor
• April 13, 2016
In today’s world, people are encouraged to love the skin they’re in. My skin color is brown, and I am proud of it. But it can be hard to for one to love his/her skin when society as a whole has such a narrow-minded concept of ethnicity.
This is a perspective which does not recognize...
I fight with the expectation of being tied to my Filipino culture, but I am a proud Filipino. It’s difficult telling people, I’m 1⁄2 Filipino, a 1⁄4 Mexican, and a 1⁄4 Welsh/Swedish, when I just look Filipino.
I’ve visited the Philippines once in my life, as a baby, which...
Where are all the badass women? In the world of comics, they are just too few and far between. For the sake of our culture, girls and boys need to look up to more than just male superheroes.
I am an avid collector of comic books and an aspiring comic artist. I won’t lie; my favorite superhero is not...
On International Women’s Day, which occurred March 8 this year, men and women came together to participate in a Feminists Unite march to advocate for immigrant working women saying, “Ya basta” (“Enough is enough”), to the sexual harassment they face.
I accompanied Feminists...
When I logged onto “Star Wars: The Old Republic” for the first time, I felt a sense of excitement at creating my first character—a sense of excitement that quickly faded away.
I’d seen a sample male character with a body that didn’t fit into the usual category of chiseled,...
For the past few weeks, demonstrators at CSUSM, protesting on behalf of diversity and in response to the sudden departure of former Diversity Chair, Arturo Ocampo, have been chanting:
“Ain’t no power like the power of the people because the power of the people don’t stop,” and “Say...
Herstory Month is one of my favorite months because it gives us a moment to stop and celebrate women of all races, ethnicities, religions, shapes, ages and backgrounds.
Herstory often focuses on famous women in history who have achieved success and fought against societal oppression....
Gender equality is arguably the most important issue that we are facing in today’s society. We no longer live in a time when we can say men are from Mars, women are from Venus, and expect that to be some type of justification for treating each other differently.
We have to start treating...
