Introducing Mijente
(I’m writing something everyday for #100days. This is 8/100.)
You might be wondering, what’s up with the J?
Coming up with a name, in the grand scheme of things, its just the beginning and not the most important hurdle to clear, right? Yes, and wrong. There is so much in a name.
Days before our launch event during the Netroots Nation conference in Arizona, and it was an epic battle. The G versus the J. People were organizing the stand-asides, whipping votes, feverishly contemplating the benefits and downsides from all angles.
Everyone agreed that we wanted a name that conveyed a combination of movement building with cultural cues, that we didn’t want to use the typical boiler plate words we use in our activism. We all liked the idea of playing with language, using or creating new word that was spanglish (big shout out to Remezcla, what a great name!) But up against the clock, we had to work with all the options that had been generated.
Deliberations unearthed our various experiences with language. Whether it was recalling being punished for writing or speaking incorrectly, the alienation of not being taught one’s mother language, frustration with general disregard to writing in Spanish correctly or a rejection of correct Spanish from an de-colonial perspective. It got real thick, real quick.
The decision was Mijente, making Mi Gente one word and spelling it with a j instead of a g. The J is for justice, its for joteria, it is for [you can fill in the blank]. Although we don’t necesarily think a misspelling alone makes something creative, we thought simply going with Mi Gente was almost too familiar. We want to take what is familiar and sharpen it, we want to look beyond the familiar to what’s complicated. Although we are talking about justice for all our people, we understand and are not trying to be everything to everyone. Language and words, like culture, are living, breathing and imperfect. The J is not meant as disrespect to language, and in making the decision we also made a commitment to prioritize Spanish content on the site and materials.
We fought about it, we had to talk it out and come up with an answer we all felt good enough to move forward with. And, even still, we give ourselves time to get used to it. We poke fun at it. Its a myth when we all act like we’re 100% sure about things at the decision point. Hindsight is 20/20.
The thing about a name is that, it is a big deal. Its the first thing people hear. We’ll take those questions as a good opportunity to start a conversation. In our process, we debated hard about it and ultimately had to talk it out until we had an answer and a reason that we could all live with. Even still, we have to give ourselves time to get used to it. We poke fun at each other about it, play around with pronunciation to each other. A new name is not like your well worn favorite pair of jeans. Its a myth that we all act like we’re 100% sure about things at the decision point. Hindsight is 20/2o. What’s left for us is the real task, the making meaning of it.
In earlier posts, I shared a few of the sparks of inspiration that led to the formation of Mijente. Another one, a significant one, is mentioned throughout this piece, the we. In the next post, I’ll go into another source of inspiration and purpose: crew.
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