Jean Guerrero: For years, I anglicized my Mexican last name. Hate mail from MAGA trolls inspired me to reclaim it

As a child, I learned to mangle my last name: Guerrero. Spanish for warrior. A mouthquake of a name, it mobilizes the tongue's full range — from its genesis near the gullet to the rolled "rr," a windstorm by the teeth. My teachers compressed its three syllables to two, without vibration: "greh-roh."

Groan instead of battle cry.

I didn't mind. Like most girls in the 1990s, I was cultured to self-constrict. The early Disney Princesses, my introduction to American feminine ideals, were dainty and demure. My gale-force name and nature, I understood, needed taming. And like many children whose parents came from places denigrated as "Third World," I studied U.S. films for cues on fitting in. I identified with the mermaid Ariel, willing to surrender her voice to be "part of that world."

My father, from Mexico, and my mother, from Puerto Rico, spoke to me in Spanish, my first language. We lived in San Diego during a decade of in California, stoked by right-wing radio hosts and politicians like then-Gov. Pete Wilson. We often crossed the border to Tijuana for leisure. But