Dear World, We Exist

I've never felt like I'm enough to make a change. I've always been far removed from my immediate community, although perhaps that is my fault for not reaching out. The few attempts at volunteer work or social help I've done, make me feel like the help isn't getting to where it's truly necessary. It was until 2021 that realizing something about myself, made me want to spark a change.

In 2021, I realized I was asexual. I had been around the term for a while, even identified as demisexual for a few years, but never truly felt part of the community until then. I was also completing a Master's in Screenwriting in which I was often required to watch series and films. Suddenly, those two worlds converged. I started noticing phrases, words, and characters that were extremely off-putting for me. Things that had bothered me before but I could never pinpoint why, I began associating with the fact that I am asexual. Oftentimes, entire plots and scenes completely alienated me and I could see how asexual erasure on media is not just a lack of characters. Rather, sexual normativity is so deeply embedded in media, there isn't even a place for asexuality in these fictional worlds.

I began reaching out to other members of the asexual community. I was trying to get feedback on what they thought, what they would like to see, and what asexuality meant to them. But it was extremely difficult. Many where quite open within community groups but did not want to appear in interviews. I have never had a decent enough platform to advocate for any of this either.

At the cusp of my involvement in asexual representation in media, I pitched a project in my screenwriting class in which the lead character in a sci-fi was asexual. It was not essential to the plot. It did not affect the development of the story. I just wanted to explore it. However, several classmates became so fixated on it, it became the central topic of discussion. In order to expand on our characters, we had interviews pretending to be them. I was berated on multiple occasions over

That is why this year, 2022, I decided to speak out through vocal, drawing attention to the permeating sexual normativity in media, even within lgbtqi+ spaces. To discuss the impact that assigning sexualities outside the works can have or the existing asexual characters and what they mean within the community.

As a Costa Rican, a latine creator, I also wish to speak about sexual and gender diversity within latinx media and communities, because they are not mutually exclusive. Unlike a recent discourse surrounding Encanto, you can have lgbtqia+ representation within works also meant as latinx representation without driving impact away from it. More than that, it is necessary, since as predominantly Catholic communities, it has been difficult to make progress on the matter.

I'm not all-knowing about ace or latine struggles. But I have my own and I know about film. So I will spend 2022 speaking out about those two subjects in relation to film in the hopes that someone out here will listen.

I don't expect to start a massive wave of change in the industry. Even so, if I can convince at least one filmmaker to re-check their work for allonormativity (allosexual is the spectrum opposite of asexual, aka those who regularly experience sexual attraction) or if I can let someone on the ace spectrum they are not alone, I will consider it a success. If I can convince someone that Latine productions are worth everybody's time, I will consider I've managed to add my little grain of sand towards a more inclusive and diverse media. I may never hear the feedback saying this has happened, that I have actually touched someone with my words, but as I pour my heart out about the things the I love and the things that I am, I really hope someone somewhere is reading it, and that reading it stirs something within themselves.