I’m a rising senior in high school, but earlier this year, in my second semester as a junior, all that we did was go to university and college orientations. Naturally, at the end of each presentation, they hand you a card to write your information if you want that university or that college to send you multiple emails a day. I remember the first time I had to fill one, I was so excited. For the first time, I started to feel like one of the big girls. I was so happy. I grabbed my pen and… what a surprise, there was so little space to write your name in it was absurd.

Let me explain; I am a Latina so naturally my full name includes: my first name, middle name, my dad’s last name, and my mother’s last name. So when you give me fifteen spaces to write my name, I find it insulting because I know I will have to sacrifice something. The first thing I think about is my middle name, so now I am left with Ailesha Ortiz Meléndez. But then I count and I don’t have enough space for that either. I am being forced to sacrifice my mother’s last name. And that’s how I end up writing it because the bell just rang and I need to get to class. But, I was not happy and in fact, I was not even sad — I was angry and not about the fact that I just let a university fill my inbox with emails I’m not even interested in reading, but because I was forced to give information that is not real. I am not Ailesha Ortiz, I am Ailesha Leylani Ortiz Meléndez.

Some people told me how crazy and stupid I sounded and how it was “the same thing” but I don’t believe it is the same thing. I want you to write Mami’s last name because I am proud that she is my mother. Because she’s the one who carried me inside of her for forty weeks and gave birth to me. Because she is the one who worked almost ten hours a day for years to provide food for me. Because she is the one who raised me. Because she was brave and had my sister at sixteen, had me at nineteen, my younger sister at twenty-five and my brother at thirty-two. Because even though she had her hemoglobin level at 2 and she was literally bleeding to death, she still woke up every morning and took us to school. Because she sacrificed her life when she was pregnant while having a fibroma the size of a basketball. Because she sacrificed her life even more when she lived with it six more months just because she wanted to breastfeed her baby. Because even though after a long and risky operation that she almost did not came out of alive, she came back home and the first thing she did was make us food. Because she stopped working so she could be with us all the time. Because she makes sure we get the best education. Because by ignoring her last name, you’re ignoring my Abuelo and my Abuela. Because I was not born from a “mata de plátano”.

I don’t want you to ignore Mami’s last name because by doing it you’re ignoring a part of who I am. A part I take a lot of pride in. And no, we are not familia Delgado (my stepdad’s last name), we are familia Delgado Meléndez. And no, it is not the same thing. And no, I will let anyone call me Ms. Ortiz. No, I will not let anyone ignore my Mami.