Aira Gonzales moved to the UK when she was 7 and since starting school, her name has always been something she's been hyper aware of. Whether it’s a teacher assuming she was Spanish because of her last name and greeting her in Spanish, her name warranting a pause during the register because the teacher was unsure of how to pronounce it, and the name being mispronounced or spelled wrong despite it being in her email signature.

The most striking thing for Aira is the fact that she's had to explain why as a visibly non-white, South East Asian woman, has a Spanish last name. A lot of people mean well when they ask out of curiosity but sometimes Aira notices people getting uncomfortable when she tells them that her last name is down to colonialism. The Philippines, where Aira was born and raised until moving to the UK, was claimed by explorer Francis Magellan in 1521 as part of the Spanish Empire. It wasn’t until 1898 that the Philippines became independent, but at that point, a lot of the culture of the Philippines became heavily mixed with Spanish influences. For example, last names. It was made strictly mandatory for Filipinos to take on a last name from a catalogue of names, many of which, were Spanish. On paper, this was because traditionally surnames in the Philippines weren’t governed but of course, taking on a Spanish last name meant stronger colonial rule. To this day, it remains ingrained in Filipino identity. Even though to some, it’s just a name, to Aira, it’s also a reminder of the colonisation of our country by the Spanish and the effects colonisation had on our culture and society.