Intersectionality: A Guide Through Identities

My name is Aneiry Resendiz. I’m nineteen years old and am a second-year undergraduate student at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. I am a Marketing major, and a Peer Counselor for the Rotunda Scholars program at SMU (where I mentor freshman undergraduate students), and I am also an insane true crime enthusiast—all are important aspects of my identity. 

I don’t know about any of y’all that are in college or high school, but midterms are challenging at this stage in the academic year, and I regrettably cope with a bag of Hot Cheetos and a cherry Icee. Although I haven't mastered the testing season, this semester has taught me truths about myself that have only made me more grateful for every aspect of who I am.  

For some context, this semester I wanted to challenge ideas of myself and my relationship to the world around me. Growing up, I knew that my experiences were generally different from some of the people around me, and for a long time, I figured it was just because I might have been a weird kid. However, looking back, my questions of what was weird about a little girl who liked to shop, sing, dance, and play soccer, were invalid; none of it is inherently weird. Instead, a better question to ask was: 

What was it about my life that allowed my perspectives to deviate from those of other kids? 

 Well, I'll go ahead and spoil things for you now, I'm a first generation, Chicana. Chicano/a is a term used to describe Americans in the U.S. who are born of Mexican descent.

But also, I’m not just that. It took lots of learning and self-reflection in order for me to acknowledge that being multidimensional is a great thing. See, oftentimes we become so obsessed with this image we’d like to curate for ourselves that we forget that there are multiple components that make up our identity. Because of this, let’s discuss the wonderful concept of intersectionality.

Intersectionality: A term coined by Kimberle Crenshaw in 1989; the term analyzes the interplay of race, class, and gender. I learned about the term in one of my classes this semester: Gender Images and Perspectives to be specific. Though the term is based on feminist theory, its purpose is to acknowledge and contemplate different avenues of identity. Due to this, I decided to contemplate how this system of intersectionality could be applied to different facets of my personal makeup, and the ways it could possibly be applied to yours as well.

Crossroads: The Make-Up Intersectionalities

The first step is to dissect our person, looking deeply into the individual parts that make up a greater sum. What makes this difficult is identities tend to shift. As you've grown older and wiser, haven’t you felt your identity change? 

For example, I'm not who I was two years ago, and you probably won't be who you are next year. However, we don't need to predict who we’ll be in the future to learn who we are now. I can tell you that I’m a young woman. I’m a college student. I'm a person of color. I’m a first-generation Chicana. But even in our diction we can begin to harmonize these identities because we don't adopt them as individuals, but as part of our larger whole. I am a young woman of color; and I am a first-generation, chicana college student. 

Immersing and Leaning: Understandings Beyond Our Own

Finding your identity avenues can be interesting and even vulnerable at times, but it's often in your immersion into these identities that you begin to learn how they change perspectives. For me, immersion came in the form of learning about my different identities and hearing from others about theirs. 

For reference, this semester, my Chicano Literature class has allowed me the opportunity to absorb myself in the creations of other Chicano writers: authors like Erika L. Sanches, Gloria Anzaldua, and Alfredo Vea. The goal of immersing yourself in your different intersections is to broaden your awareness of experiences and perspectives beyond your own. To understand your identity is to understand the experiences of others with the same one. 

Embracement: Pride and Gratitude for Ourselves

Coming to well well-rounded understanding of who we are helps clarify what we want to be. In my own journey, I decided I wanted to be proud. I have not just accepted but embraced my intersectionalities. When I’m one of a few young women of color or first-generation college students in the room, I'm no longer nervous. On the contrary, I'm happy to contribute to the representation of people like me in new and important spaces. 

Part of intersectionality is also being able to acknowledge the difficulties that accompany your identities. My awareness of the potential adversities only makes me more grateful for all of the history and courage of others who make it possible for me to continue this greater venture.

 Embracement can look different for everyone. The matter is that one should begin to realize that the individual components of our identities are nothing without each other. The codependency between identities creates beautiful intersectionalities that form our personalities and unique comprehension of the world around us. 

As we come to a close, I wanted to share with you guys a little bit about my own journey, why I started, and how it's going. I didn't particularly plan on having a semester of self-discovery this year, but I quickly realized that I found myself insecure in my identity, and the great change of environment wasn't exactly helpful to the situation. Imposter syndrome was a year-long battle, and the tough transition to college didn't help the situation. Today I’m happy to say that through intersectionality I've become more comfortable and confident in my identity now than I have ever been before. I know my identity, and I'm proud of it too. 

I’m grateful for the individual parts that make up my whole, and I encourage you all to embark on your own journey through Intersectionality. Take the time to explore the crossroads of your identity, immerse yourself in diverse perspectives, and, most importantly, embrace the unique intersectionalities that shape who you are.

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Hey everyone, I want to thank you all for taking the time to read what I’ve composed for you guys. Writing this has truly been a pleasure, and if anyone would like to learn more about intersectionality, or would like any Chicano Literature recommendations, I’d be more than happy to hear from you.

Email: aneiryresendiz@gmail.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aneiryresendiz/ 

Link to podcast:  "The Aneiry Show"