Having the blessing – or curse – of lighter skin is a double edged sword. I never gave much thought to the idea that society needs positive cultural images of minorities until I came to embrace my Hispanic heritage and come out of the closet.

“I paid a dude to knock me unconscious, peel back my face, and cut out chunks of my skull and jaw.”

As with the meaning of written text, our bodies float somewhere between the author (ourselves) and the reader (those we encounter).