The Pronoun “e”

A narrow alley between an old, white, weathered building and a pink house with a red-tiled roof, leading to a view of the sea in the distance.

About the pronoun “e”
I use “e” as a gender-neutral pronoun. It comes from Papiamentu, the Creole language of Curaçao—a Caribbean island shaped by Taíno, Spanish, Portuguese, and Dutch influences.

In Papiamentu, e can mean “he,” “she,” or “they,” depending on context. While I also use they/them, these carry a Euro-American panache and remain bound to the gender binaries embedded in English, Spanish, and Dutch. Using e is therefore both linguistic and political: it grounds my language in the Caribbean and resists colonial gender frameworks.