October 25, 2005
Thank you Rosa Parks, gracias.
by Liza Sabater
What is there for me to say but thank you and gracias. Thank you Ms. Parks. Thank you for weeding the path inequality so that I, a Puerto Rican negra could have the opportunity to be somebody.
My father had a story of coming here to the US from Puerto Rico. He remembered the signs on the doors that said, "No dogs or negroes allowed". It was one of those experiences that seared his soul and left him with the brandings of hate that only black people of a certain age or era lived and remember very well.
I grew up looking at you not just as an icon but as an elder of my tribe. As a black girl in Puerto Rico, I had almost no women role models to claim as my own. You looked like me and that was more reason to rejoice in saying your name. You were my symbol of the civil rights movement and especially the face of my feminism. You were the example of what social justice and compassion looked like to this black puertorriqueña. Your face said to me, you too can grow up to be somebody.
So thank you Rosa Parks, gracias.
Posted by Liza Sabater in Civil Rights, Feminism, Obituary, Puerto Rico, Racism
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