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-nahua 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.
i don't begrudge your research abilities. i have to note that cursory research is not enough especially when it's people from entirely different cultures trying to create a narrative for a wholly different people. whatever information you may have gathered is being filtered through a non-nahua lens—both that of your own and, very likely, that of where you are receiving your information.
it is also frankly even more strange to me that nahua religion is involved in this work without consultation of anyone familiar with such a belief system. implying she has a deep connection with this god is akin to (forgive my christian analogy here) calling her Jesus? isn't that a little weird? perhaps some consultation is in order?
furthermore, greek mythology (as filtered through a modern western pop cultural lens) being adopted for a supposedly post-colonial nahua character is an unfortunately ironic example of how, as well-intentioned as this piece may be, it remains short-sighted as an attempt at post-colonial writing. i do not mean to say this contradiction is fatal to this page, but that it is illustrative of how the supposed post-colonialism of this revision feels somewhat at odds with itself. it's clear this is because a hispanic name was given a character whose design is largely based off of greek pop mythology. if this text is to be post-colonial it would ideally be able to confront the issue of how and why a clearly hispanic name was given such a design.
please do not think of me as rude as i provide this input. i'm not trying to shut this character down or the narrative trying to be constructed here—i'm only trying to underscore exactly how important it is that a character being purposefully written with post-colonial nahua narrative elements be either guided by a nahua voice, or that the story be left to nahua people to tell themselves, and that your energy be redirected towards elevating nahua stories in their own voices.
(regarding sexualization, the language in this revision certainly does feel a *massive* amount more respectful. the previous version is absurd and so hypersexualized it feels farcical. the one criticism i have in this new revision is that "Lopez's good looks can be a hindrance, though, as she occasionally distracts herself by taking selfies or finding the perfect pose to pick a ball up off from the ground that she forgets that the game is time-sensitive, and fails to perform" is still too parodical for my taste, given how much more seriously this revision would like Lopez to be taken.)
