{"id":8669,"date":"2023-03-25T16:31:37","date_gmt":"2023-03-25T16:31:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/?p=8669"},"modified":"2023-03-24T16:34:54","modified_gmt":"2023-03-24T16:34:54","slug":"why-would-i-mispronounce-my-own-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/25\/why-would-i-mispronounce-my-own-name\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Why would I mispronounce my own name?\u2019<\/em><\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Herrera shares story of reclaiming her name<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Irma Herrera, the once quiet and shy kid and proud Alice, Texas native, performs in her self-written play sharing the story of reclaiming her name as a Mexican American, touring the country bringing awareness to civil rights and social justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhy would I mispronounce my own name?\u201d is a one-woman show written by Herrera. She brought the show to Texas A&M University-Kingsville Tuesday, March 7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was only the second time Herrera performed in Texas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been inspired by many, many things. Mostly, I am concerned about people treating others fairly and when we don\u2019t bother to learn the pronunciation of someone\u2019s name, we\u2019re disrespectful and it is often the case that for people of color we have to make adjustments so that white Anglo-Saxon European Americans don\u2019t have to struggle with our names and to me that\u2019s just not fair. I\u2019ve spent my career working for civil rights for social justice,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The play is a creative nonfiction story made up of events from her life and the historical events of Mexican Americans throughout history, from Felix Longoria and Jose Torres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Herrera attended then Texas A&I University before transferring to St. Mary\u2019s in San Antonio when she was 18, fulfilling her dreams to live in a big city. She eventually moved to South Bend, Ind., where she attended law school at the University of Notre Dame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWomen\u2019s History Month is so important because we are 50 percent of the population, and we have so much talent and we have made so many contributions to the world wide and we were kept from having a vote, kept from getting an education for thousands of years and as of the last two or three generations, women have had much greater opportunities. I think it\u2019s important to recognize women who are on the move making change today,\u201d she said<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Herrera moved to eastern Washington early in her career where she worked representing farm workers before moving to San Francisco working with the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI found that the stories that I kept writing about, were about some form of injustice, and that often it involved the mispronunciation of someone\u2019s name, or wanting to give someone a different name or being asked the question constantly \u2018where are you really from?\u2019 As if we are outsiders; many of us have had family here for generations, and yet many, many Latinos\/Chicanos are considered not real Americans and so all of those things inspired my play,\u201d Herrera said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Herrera also worked as a journalist writing on issues of race, class gender and social justice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perla Wheeler, neighbor to Herrera growing up, helped arrange for longtime friend to perform at TAMUK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI had seen her show in San Antonio when she brought it and I just thought it was just so inspirational and I thought this was the best time. Women\u2019s History Month would be the best time to get her to come,\u201d she said. \u201cOne thing about Irma is she\u2019s always remained very humble. She traveled the world. She\u2019s done so much, she\u2019s so successful, and it\u2019s great to see her relate to other people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the last 15 years of her career, Herrera headed a women\u2019s rights organization, Equal Rights Advocates, that represented women when it came to discrimination in education and in the workplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI celebrate all women who are working to do, to bring out the best of their talents and to pay it forward for other women and for people of color,\u201d Herrera said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Herrera now resides in San Francisco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information on where the play will be performed next or to view a teaser of her play visit https:\/\/www.irmaherrera.com\/<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Herrera shares story of reclaiming her name Irma Herrera, the once quiet and shy kid and proud Alice, Texas native, performs in her self-written play… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":8667,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[125,131],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[195],"class_list":["post-8669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-features","category-newsletter"],"aioseo_notices":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"authors":[{"term_id":195,"user_id":48,"is_guest":0,"slug":"ronni-reyna","display_name":"Ronni Reyna","avatar_url":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/wp-content\/litespeed\/avatar\/16b00811e260d2068b61907787d9e60e.jpg?ver=1778633080","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8669"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8669\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8670,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8669\/revisions\/8670"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8669"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=8669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}