Mack the Navaja / Beginning of a Journey
Panamanian-American writer and historian, imagining a future where the diversity of Central American voices and stories are being platformed, empowered and included.
I believe there to be a great discrepancy between the historical narratives and perspectives spread by everyday Central Americans, and what the US mainstream media constantly represents us to be. My goal in starting this newsletter was to not only offer my perspective as a historian and social theorist amongst the existing body of Central American writers and historians, but to also share perspectives and movements that I believe to be overlooked even within in our region. As a queer person of trigueña Panamanian-American descent, who also grew up with the privilege of being able to extensively travel and receive a university degree, I view it as my duty to advocate for Central American power and voices in the media. With my perspective, I only hope that I am able to add to the reader’s imaginary on what it means to exist on the periphery of empire. This is what drives me to keep on going in the work that I do.
While my subjects will range in topic and seriousness, I wish for my point of view and purpose in writing to be made very clear. I wish to see the media become a space for diversified and varied Central American perspectives, and want my voice to be added to this body of work. Working as a bookseller for the better part of a year, and learning and growing alongside my mentors, I have become all too aware of how the media and publishing world systematically excludes Central American and global-majority voices at the behest of capital. I may not be writing specifically on Central America in my posts at times, but I wish for people’s views on what type of perspectives and people comprise this region to shift as a result of my ramblings— as I believe them to be of the utmost importance and beauty.
You can not have a conversation on United States politics or history without speaking of its ‘backyard’— although we are so. much. more. than. that.
I hope to open up the conversation surrounding issues that pertain to our existences and varied realities. I also hope to make you laugh and cry as much as I can. So we’ll see what the future holds, and thank you so much for the time taken out of your day to read my words.
with love and light, A~