This is the story of how in the course of 2 months, my life completely changed. I am Estefany and I am queen of a tribe in Baja California Sur. In two months time, my parents died, I became queen and I had to fight an enemy I did not expect. My story is short but you must understand the message. Sometimes your worst enemy can come from the most unlikely of places.

“Today is the day!” I could hear everyone around screaming this. I wake up and look around my room.  My brother Basilio is sitting at the foot of my bed. “What is I can not do it Estefany? What if I can not be a King like our father?” I sit up and go to my brother. “You may be the oldest Basi but you are also the one father choose to take over the tribe. He could have had any of the men take over when he died but he choose you. I just hope you can find someone to rule with you that will do mother justice.”

To give you a little backstory, my mother and father were king and queen of our tribe. I am Estefany and I am the middle child of the 3 of us. You have met Basilio, he is the oldest. We also have a younger sister, Abelinda. We call her Linda for short. She is third in line to be the queen of the tribe and I think that she wants it more than Bas and I do. My parents ruled this part of Baja California Sur for 25 years. My brother is 25 and must now take the leadership over.

We did not plan for this to happen so soon. My mother and father we young, only 50 years old. Both of my parents went into a fight with a neighboring tribe. My mother always taught my sister and I that we must fight for what we want and to never back down. She always went with my father and uncles on these campaigns. They never lost. Well, until three weeks ago. A tribe in Baja California decided that they wanted to rule the whole peninsula. Our tribe sent people to fight, my brother is the only one to come back.

He must now take the role as ruler. Everyone is waiting to see what he will say. It is a custom for the new ruler to give a speech, to name a successor and someone with whom they would like to rule. My brother has had a lot to think about in the past three weeks. I think about what he must of had to go through. He has never told me the story about how our parents died, but I know he watched them die. I think all of these things as I walk to the center of our community. I see my brother on the stage waiting to become the king.

“Brothers and sisters, please listen to me. I am Basilio! I am the son of Alejandro and Altagracia. They were both great rulers and found a death that should not have happened.” I see the hurt my brother has in his eyes as he tries to get through the speech. I move to the front so he can see me and know I support him. “I feel honored that my father chose me to rule after him and I hope I can do his memory justice. I must now decide who will rule with me. I have chosen someone who will do my mother justice. My sister Estefany!” I look up at him in amazement. Everyone starts to applaud and I am pushed onto the stage with my brother. “Basi why me?” “Este you are smarter than everyone else here and know what our parents wanted for this tribe. Please rule with me.”

Needless to say I agreed with my brother. “Linda will be our successor.” We smiled at her and asked her to come join us onstage. She stormed off in anger. “She did get mother’s anger didn’t she?” I smile as my brother says this. When we leave to go home we find the house torn apart. “Linda?” I yell and go looking for her. I hear her in her room: “Mother promised me that I would be queen someday. I must be queen.” I look at her and by this time Basi had joined me and he knew why she was angry. “Linda, I promise you. You will be queen, just not here. We are looking for a nice husband for you. You will rule someday but not today. I chose Este to help me rule because she is older and knows more about our tribe than you do.” She still looked angry and walked out. Basi looks worried at me. “Basi. She is 17, she will get over it.” Basi and I are both in our mid 20s and understand that not everything comes to us the way we expect it to.

With that being said we did not discuss the issue any further and went to bed. The next day, I wake to the sound of people screaming and I look out the window to see fire. I run downstairs and Basi is already there. “Linda joined the rebels. She wants to be queen and will kill us if she has to.” I look at Basi and began to cry. “We never asked for this. She expected to be queen when she is the youngest? She is too immature to be queen and this display shows it.” I look around at our people.

“We need people to go fight. We will be fighting the rebels as well as a rebel within our family. Who will come with us? I cannot promise you we will win but I promise you I will not give up without a fight!” All the people looked at me after I spoke and looked surprised. They did not expect this to come out of me. All the men came up with horses and were ready to go. One of them, Onofre, brought me a horse to ride along with my bow. We started to chase the rebels into the woods.

We rode for hours until we finally found a campsite. I recognized Linda’s horse. I could hear the leader talking to her. “Where are they? You said they would come.” I recognized the voice, it was Vincente. Basi looked at me and shook his head as if he knew what I was thinking. Before we could get off our horses we heard the men get angry and start yelling from inside Vincente's camp. We hid until we could see how many men he had. Linda walked out and said to one of the other men “They will be here soon! They do not like when intruders come in and burn down their homes.” I could see the thirst for power in her eyes.

I drew my bow and sent an arrow toward the other side of the camp. The men all ran to get on their horses and headed toward the direction they thought the arrow came from. After they left Basi and the men went into the camp and I stayed behind. I was the best with a bow and arrow so it made sense for me to stay and watch. All the men returned and Linda was behind them looking for someone to fight.

Fighting ensued and I helped where I could. Sending arrows every which way. Linda did not even look for me, she went straight for Basi and started fighting him. I could not believe my eyes. Basi did not want to fight her and tried to push her away. I rode into the camp and as I got closer I could hear he scream: “I WILL BE QUEEN AND YOU WILL BE DEAD!” I did not have time to think. I drew my bow and sent on straight at her. “Basi move!” I screamed it as loud as I could and as I did Linda turned and the arrow found its mark. She fell to the ground.

I looked around at the men who stopped fighting. “Who would like the next one? Which of you men would like to die for the cause of a power hungry woman? She was my sister and now she lies on the ground dead because she could not see past her own ambition. I am the queen and you must listen to me. Who would like to fight because I am the queen?” All the men put their weapons down. Vincente walked over and looked at me. “I am sorry my queen. She did not say you were are brilliant as you are beautiful.” “I am not going to be sucked up to. You all will stay here and never return to the village until we are able to undo the damage you have done!” The men agreed and Basi scooped up our sister.

As we rode back to the village Basi rode beside me. “You had to do it. You had no choice.” I just rode in silence. Thinking about what I had done. When we got back, we buried my sister with my parents. The men explained why I had to kill her and the people all agreed. It took me months to understand myself. I still do not understand completely but I must now try to rule and not think about it. I do try to remember that power is not everything and the thirst for power corrupts always.