When Sirle Tatis Arsusa was a little girl in Cartagena, Colombia, her schoolmates used to bully her,

particularly because of her curly hair or

Pelo risado.

Yo era la niña más negra de mi clase.

Los chicos se reían de mi piel y mi pelo risado.

Aunque Cartagena es una ciudad muy afrocaribeña.

Regardless, the kids and the adults in Sirle's life thought having natural black hair was a bad thing.

When Sirle was 10 years old, her mom relaxed or Aliso, Sirle's hair for the first time.

Entonces todo cambió en la escuela.

Mis risos que llegaban solamente hasta mis orejas se alizaron y bajaban hasta la mitad de mi espalda.

Todos los niños me llamaban pocajontas.

Yo pasé de ser una niña vítima de bullying, asentirme como una princesa de Disney.

Estaba feliz.

For the next 16 years, Sirle continued to relax her natural hair until it started to fall out.

So much so that she started to question how much she was willing to endure for a discriminating standard of beauty.

Bienvenidos y welcome to the Duolingo Spanish podcast.

I'm Martina Castro.

Every episode we bring you fascinating, true stories to help you improve your Spanish listening and gain new perspectives on the world.

The storyteller will be using intermediate Spanish and I'll be chiming in for context in English.

If you miss something, you can always skip back and listen again.

And we also offer full transcripts at podcast dot duolingo dot com.

This is true in many Caribbean countries where natural black hair is associated with poverty, lack of education and other racist beliefs dating back to colonial times.

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