Say my name. Say my full name. Let my name weigh heavily in your mouth and let it tangle your tongue. Say it: PRISCA DORCAS MOJICA RODRIGUEZ.
No, you cannot call me P, or anything other than PRISCA DORCAS MOJICA RODRIGUEZ.
My born name is PRISCILA DORCAS MOJICA RODRIGUEZ. Priscila with one "L" because in Spanish -- my native-tongue, my first language, the tongue of my mother and her mother (but recognizably so, not of my great grandmother) -- two "L's" are pronounced like an English "Y."
In the USA, it is like people think that because you are on THEIR conquered land, they can take your name and make it fit into their language. THIS is covert colonization -- to take my Spanish-spelled name and claim it without any regard by turning it into Pur-si-lah INSTEAD of Piri-Sí-Lá. There is a difference. My mother says my name how it is meant to be said; my father says my name how it was always intended. I DO NOT KNOW WHO THE FUCK PUR-SI-LAH, with two "L's," is.
So back in 2013, I changed it to a name that you could not colonize as quickly, a name you had ask me twice to hear it fully: PRISCA. And I also started to add my middle name and my mother's maiden name into the mix, because Latinxs shed those long names in the USA, but not this Latina. I want you to struggle with my entire name. This is political and strategic, and filled with resistance because you have butchered my name long enough, and you accepted me as a nice Latina for too long. No. You will say my name. My full name. And I will watch you struggle and not let you call me anything else, because it is the least I can do when colonizers attempt to recolonize my body and my name on a daily basis.
My name is PRISCA DORCAS MOJICA RODRIGUEZ.
I would rather hear you struggle through pronouncing that name than hear you butchering the name my madre gave me.
So when I introduce myself as Prisca and you struggle, I laugh because you can butcher Prisca all you want but you will never have the privilege of saying my beautiful Spanish-spelled name in your tongue. I do not know you; you do not get to know me that way. I am PRISCA DORCAS MOJICA RODRIGUEZ.