The Heritage We Build
For Hispanic Heritage Month, I’ve been reflecting on what we inherit, what we reclaim, and what we choose to carry forward.
This reflection originally appeared as “La herencia que construimos” in the September–October 2026 Hispanic Heritage Month edition of Mundo Hispánico. I’m grateful to Ivan Shammas for inviting me to share it.
What We Inherit
Hispanic Heritage Month invites us to think about inheritance, not just what we receive from generations before us, but what we choose to make of it.
I was born in Puerto Rico, the daughter of an Army Ranger, and grew up an Army brat before my family made Georgia home. My Puerto Rican heritage traveled with us, although not always in ways I recognized at the time.
Spanish was my first language, but after my family moved to the mainland, my parents no longer allowed us to speak it at home. Over time, I lost my fluency and eventually found myself learning Spanish again in school. For years, I felt self-conscious about that loss, especially because my abuela didn’t speak English. But during the summers I spent with her as a child, I never needed a translation for my grandmother’s love.
What We Carry Forward
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve stopped measuring heritage by what I might be missing. I’ve come to understand it as something more dynamic: an inheritance we receive, transform, and carry forward.
I see that now with my own children. My twins, Charlie and Oxford, can speak Spanish. We’ve taken them to Puerto Rico to visit my family. I tell them stories about their bisabuela (great grandmother), Celia, whose name my daughter carries as her middle name. These things remind me that culture lives not only in our history, but in what we intentionally create for the next generation.
What We Build
This year, that reflection feels especially meaningful as I run for the Georgia House of Representatives. I think about the little girl born in Puerto Rico and the life she could not possibly have imagined then. Public service has become another way to carry my inheritance forward by contributing to the community I now call home and helping others know they belong.
Heritage is an inheritance, but also an act of creation. We honor those who came before us not simply by remembering where we came from, but by deciding what we will build with what they gave us and what we will leave for those who come next.
Join the Conversation
What we inherit helps shape us. What we choose to carry forward helps shape what comes next. I’d love to hear what you hope we can build together.
