Topic on Talk:Ortiz Lopez

i have to agree with Emst and Snerkus. it's one thing to be a non-native person or group of people simply writing a native character. but if you're writing a character with intent to portray a post-colonial narrative or include elements of the complex ways native people *can and do* relate to their culture in post-colonial frameworks (as they do *outside* of fiction) then you absolutely need native input, and almost always specifically that of the culture in question or a related culture. you mention that "the original idea" was pitched to you by a latinx member of this culture, which is good. you *also* mention the decolonizing narrative was devised by your "lead researcher" who i assume is a different, non-native person. that's the component that needs native input the absolute most. it is very important that nahua input be given on this narrative or else you are telling a story that isn't yours from an outsider perspective, which is at best shallow insight, and at worst performative and misleading. it's not clear who this narrative is even written for, if this character was and continues to be written without *present* nahua input; it either is written for nahua people as a sort of patronizing "gift," an exercise in trying to understand a culture through research as opposed to dialogue; or it is written for non-nahua people, which instead reads like exoticism wrapped up in perfomative wokeness.