Student Spotlight: Katarina Santiago, '26
Little brown girl.
She came from a family
Built up
Generation by generation
By the hands
And on the backs
Of her ancestors.
Mom came from a family with
Too many mouths to feed
Too little space for children
And Dad came from a family
That made money just to get by.
They scraped together funds,
Studied,
Worked and worked and worked and finally
Were the first
In her family of little brown boys and girls
To go to college.
So now it’s her turn.
Little brown girl is almost grown up and she has stuck to
Day and night
The principles of her predecessors.
Work harder
Study harder
Be smarter
Become stronger
Because at the end of the day,
You’re still just a little brown girl
Who must work twice as hard
To be on a “fair” level with her peers.
But now, she’s tired.
She’s a perfectionist
She’s stressed
She thinks that it’d all be easier if she were just born perfect
She wonders, “if grades are so important, then why don’t I feel better why don’t I feel fulfilled why can’t I just do well and rest”
She’s done with having to outperform just to perform equally,
Done with the people pushing her down and casting her aside
Done with the stress of having to be the perfect child and yet,
She keeps going.
Because what she fears most is being the angry little brown girl
Who was oh so great
And yet never quite good enough.
Now, her time at school is almost up, but she hopes and dreams
That other little brown girls and boys
Can strive to succeed
Working just as hard as their peers
And surpassing even where
This little brown girl stands.
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