ME LLAMO MARCELA

The unexpected effects of language on cultural identity come into focus in this beguiling graphic memoir.

It began in Spanish class, where 13-year-old Marcela learned she possessed an advantage over her classmates due to language exposure at home with her Colombian father and Spanish-speaking American mother. Grammatical rules threw the teen for a loop, however. Under the tutelage of her kind maestra, Doña Maribel, Marcela picked up the intricacies of sentence formations and conjugations in Spanish. Connecting the initiation of her formal education in Spanish with the informal lessons gleaned at home in Michigan and during rare family trips to Colombia, the author connects various eye-opening threads exploring the ways that language can shape—and even inhibit—one’s identity development, from examples set forth by “unofficial teachers”—street vendors and a foul-mouthed soccer-watching uncle—to experiences in which others questioned her identity. Amid these shared encounters, the author circles back to familia, which formed the roots of her eventual desire to connect with her Colombian relatives and embrace Spanish in the classroom and abroad in Spain. Selfhood remains ever changing throughout her reflections: “What is identity, anyways? It’s constantly changing, and being a heritage speaker means I inhabit different cultural spaces and am always negotiating in-betweenness.” Meanwhile, the provocative black-and-white artwork—contributed by the author’s brother—blends kaleidoscopic visuals with an impish sense of humor.

A candid rumination on cultural heritage, connection, and determined individuality.