Honoring Wisdom Across Generations and Place

Thank you for reading my blog, in which I share writing that honors key teachings from my book, The Auntie Way. While topics vary, what remains consistent is a commitment to bring kindness, fierceness, and creativity into our lives.

One of the greatest joys as an author is to share one’s voice and vision with the world, with the hopes that doing so will help someone who engages with our work. I’m so delighted that Dr. Tracey T. Flores, from the University of Texas at Austin and founder of Somos Escritoras/We Are Writers, shared my story, “I Auntie’d Myself Today,” with Escritoras–they read the story together and then responded to a discussion question after the story. As a result of this sharing, one 10th grade writer, Allegria, (who recently celebrated her 16th birthday!) wrote her own poem. Tracey shared Allegria’s poem with me and I asked Allegria if she would consider having it posted on my blog–as I know readers will enjoy Allegria’s beautiful writing. Allegria agreed! What a gift to us all. Below is her bio, poem, and photo. Thank you for sharing your wisdom, Allegria. We are grateful for the reminder that we need to allow ourselves love and joy!

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Bio- My name is Allegria monet De Leon, born and raised in Austin, Texas, I am 16 and I am a Mexican American. I am currently enrolled at Sci-Tech Prep Wayside high school as a sophomore. My current goals include pursuing and furthering my education, especially in engineering, the arts, architecture and literature. I want to be remembered as someone who not only inspired many but as someone who took risks and helped improve the world’s social and educational systems.

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Allegria’s poem-

I auntied myself today

I left my body in her hands 

I let myself hold her

I let myself auntie her

I let myself feel love, not only for her, but for me for every part of myself

I let myself be auntied today

yes today I allowed myself to hold her hand

today I fiddled and played with the boundaries of our friendship

today I let my happiness consume every part of me

today I let my excitement thrive my nerves to let go

I auntied myself today

I finally let go and let myself feel the love and joy I always kept down

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Reading and sharing books is a wonderful way to bring kindness, fierceness, and creativity into our lives! You can order and ship any Anahuy Mentoring books here (free shipping to U.S. addresses!) and author royalties are donated to the Sapsik’ʷałá Program to support the next generation of Indigenous teachers.