Sorry

I come from a fine line of hard working people.

I’m Mexican American and a Seminole Native American.

My mother was born and raised in florida my father was born and raised in the swamplands of the everglades. Ever since I could remember my world was divided between two figuring out who I was as a person. 

I,Shyla Herrera didn’t know who I was. Was I a Mexican American who ate Mexican food and listened to Spanish songs with my mother or was I a Seminole Native American who cooked over the fire and danced all night. 

This is all I ever thought I had or I needed to pick one, one way to follow, one way to live

“the correct way.” I’ve never had anyone tell me I was enough. It’s always been one or the other. I’m more than the other.I’m not enough for this side. I’m doing too much. I’m acting like I know when I’m just mexican. I wasnt enough for who I was born to be.

I was not Mexican enough for my Mexican family.

I was not Seminole enough for my Seminole family. 

So who was I? 

I Shyla Herrera was a Mexican American and a Seminole Native American born and raised this is literally who I was born to be. 

Not until years later, now in 2025 I can accept who I am and believe this is what was intended. 

I’m not ashamed anymore to be Mexican or to embrace my native ways out publicly. 

Yes I’m from The Seminole Tribe Of Florida and I am the panther clan passed down from my paternal grandmother Callie Osceola, my fathers mother. 

Yes I’m Mexican American, my grandmother being from Matamoros Mexico and my mom being born and raised in the U.S. 

For so long I needed to belong. 

Belong for others, like my family and my elders.

What I really needed was to belong for myself. 

I officially found the true version of myself. 

Who I was born to be.