IDENTITY AND POSITIONALITY STATEMENT
Mi nombre es (my name is) Silvana Salcido Esparza (she/her/ella). I am a product of colonization and genocide that is grounded in my heritage as the granddaughter of an Indigenous Rarámuri (Tarahumara) woman and a descendant of the O’dam Tepéhuanes from the Durango and Chihuahua regions of Mexico’s Sierra Madre Occidental and Tewa from New Mexico. My ancestry also carries European blood stemming from colonization. I currently live on the ancestral lands of the Kumeyaay Peoples and acknowledge the genocide, land theft, and continued injustices of the Indigenous Peoples in the so-called Americas, as well as the forced labor and severe abuse of enslaved Africans and immigrants.
I identify as an Indigenous, queer, Mexicana, CIS-gender woman of color living with dyslexia and the incurable disease sarcoidosis, which I face with resilience. I am a first-generation United States citizen with dual Mexican citizenship and Spanish is my first language. I hold an Associate of Culinary Arts and Sciences degree and have dedicated my life to the study and preservation of Mexican cuisine, particularly maize-based dishes, which stems from a connection ingrained in me since childhood.
