My first name, Alessandra, was handed down to me by my great-great grandmother. The name is Italian in origin and it means “the defender of man,” which I interpret as a kind of protector of mankind. My last name Aguirre is most commonly found in Mexico, Spain, and Argentina. My father is from Mexico and my mother’s family is from Italy but migrated to Argentina before my mother was born so it seems that my name fits me very well in a cultural sense.Aguirre comes from the original term, Basque ager is a topographic term which means “open space.” Any new interpretation such as my last name is an interpretation of that phrase.

I was never embarrassed by my name, if anything I actually loved that no one I knew had my name. For most of my life people have called me Ale, and pronounced it (ah-leh) not (ail-ah). But eventually I began encountering people who felt uncomfortable with using either and adopted Allie because it was easier for them. This embarrassed me more than my original name and never felt right but I didn’t care enough to correct them. Spanish was my siblings’ and my first language but as we became more immersed in American culture we all lost out on practice and have become fairly rusty since then. In my case I have not been mocked or ridiculed by European culture for speaking Spanish I’ve actually been judged by many Latin Americans for no longer speaking Spanish fluidly and well. It is my goal this year to try and get my Spanish back so that I can share more in my cultural communities and with family members.