VALÉRIA MOTTA SAID: "I’m tired of being a warrior".

We are warriors. I grew up hearing my mother, grandmother, and aunts, motivating to fight all the time, without respite, to achieve a good education, job, spouse, and a better life. I have to be strong, to fight against prejudice, to withstand the innumerable assaults and the lack of love. I don’t have, in my memory, those moments of deep love for women in my family with their partners, my memories always come back to the fights that they still fight in bringing up their kids, grandkids, and the daily struggle, without pity and without end. The daughters continue the legacy of the warrior, as the black woman is strong enough to deal with the housework, a good childbearer that withstands the pain, she always puts one more pail on her head than she can stand. With the effects of this damned heritage of slavery, they want that we overcome all situations with a smile fixed on our face, dry our tears because in the end you’re powerful, but, who takes care of us? Yes, I’m tried of being a warrior! We have to know how to say no to the relationships that hurt us, to raise our middle finger to those who try to silence us and no, we are not obliged to take care of everything that is asked of us, alone. I want to permit myself to take care of my own body, of my pain, to drink a glass of cold beer without guilt, to have pleasure and the right to live.  Yes I can feel weak, tired, because I refuse to fight by myself.