My parents spelled my name as phonetically as possible, but people still get it wrong. They named me after a character in a Brazilian movie. I traveled to my namesake's home and there I met a Brazilian named John Lennon. My parents spelled my first name as phonetically as possible, but pronouncing it still seems to cause most people trouble.
The most common mispronunciations are when people add extra syllables and letters to my name, so Sheeka becomes Sheneka, Shereka, or Shakeeya. I do my best to let it roll off my back, repeatedly correcting it to the way it's intended to sound: SHEE-kuh.
I love my name, even if it's always mispronounced. That's because I know the origin of my name and that it would take me on an adventure to another part of the world. When my mom was pregnant with me, my parents watched a foreign film in their small indie movie theater in Tucson, Arizona. The movie, originally from Brazil, was a historical comedic drama called Xica da Silva. My parents Americanized the spelling to help people pronounce it correctly — if only they had known back then that it would be futile!
As an adult, I grew more curious about the origin of my name. As I researched the film, I learned that a popular telenovela by the same name had been made in the s and syndicated across Latin America. Then, I learned that Xica da Silva's filmography was inspired by a real woman named Chica same pronunciation who lived in 18th-century Brazil. That sent me deeper down the rabbit hole. According to her biography, the original Chica da Silva was born enslaved in the early 18th century in Milho Verde, Brazil.
As a young adult, a Portuguese diamond contractor bought her, then manumitted her within a matter of weeks or months, which was highly unusual for Brazilian colonial times. Chica da Silva went on to have several children with the diamond contractor. Chica accessed power, wealth, and high society for the rest of her life through her connection to her manumitter.
