Anjanette Delgado (Santurce, 1967) writes about sexilio, rootlessness and social justice. Winner of an Emmy Award for her human interest journalism, she is the author of the novels: La píldora del mal amor (Atria, 2008) and La clarividente de la Calle Ocho (Penguin Random House, 2014). She has written poetry, fiction and essays for the New York Times (Modern Love; Opinion), NPR, Kenyon Review, Prairie Schooner, Hostos Review (CUNY) and Tupelo Quarterly, Women's Review of Books, Distrópika, among many others. She edited the anthology Home in Florida: Latinx Writers and the Literature of Uprootedness (University of Florida Press, 2021), a gold medalist for collective fiction in the Latino International Book Awards 2022.

I love insults. The protagonists of my novels use insults so frequently and creatively that I have to admit to my enjoyment of research into the usage and context of everything I perceive as an act of general resistance to life. It's not so much the etymology (the origin or history of those words), but the pragmatics (how, when and why they are said, and how they are received) that I'm passionate about. In other words, I want the story. The novel. The gossip.

For example, in my first novel, La píldora del mal amor,, the protagonist, Erika Luna, calls her husband's lawyer "gnomo lilliputiense", and the husband himself "pigmeo", "desgraciado", "vómito de cucaracha vieja" and "plasta de mierda fermentada" (at the time, my research into insults as a device was in its scatalogical phase) - and all this just in the first chapter. In other words, Erika, and her pain, was just warming up.

But what about those insults that only become so in context? In the days of emancipation, for example, white people did not consider calling a black man "boy" to be insulting, and it was only their opinions which were documented and distributed. Nowadays, we understand that it was and still is an insult. When I was a child, my great aunt would smile as she daydreamed of becoming "an excellent secretary." These days, I am wary of using the word. It is an insult, at least in the United States, the country of my coloniser. Instead, they would say "administrative assistant" or "executive assistant". The way men treated their secretaries meant that the term became an insult, something my great-aunt could never have envisaged. And there are insults that are a crime in themselves. Let's take as an example a communication I received a few months ago.

But first, the context. My context. It had already been a sad day. Our little dog Annie was on the verge of death (she did survive). My husband and I had argued. A professional sacrifice I'd made on behalf of two younger women just starting their careers, had been neither appreciated nor even understood. That was the day the following email detonated in my inbox. ( printed as received )

Greetings!
I have to share bad news with you. Approximately a few months ago, I gained access to your devices, which you use for internet browsing. After that, I have started tracking your internet activities.
Here is the sequence of events:
Some time ago, I purchased access to email accounts from hackers (nowadays, it is quite simple to buy it online). I have easily managed to log in to your email account anjayanja@gmail.com.
One week later, I have already installed the Cobalt Strike "Beacon" on the Operating Systems of all the devices you use to access your email. It was not hard at all (since you were following the links from your inbox emails). All ingenious is simple.
This software provides me with access to all yourdevices controllers (e.g., your microphone, video camera, and keyboard).
I have downloaded all your information, data, photos, videos, documents, files, web browsing history to my servers. I have access to all yourmessengers, social networks, emails, chat history, and contacts list.
My virus continuously refreshes the signatures (it is driver-based) and hence remains invisible for antivirus software. Likewise, I guess by now you understand why I have stayed undetected until this letter.
While gathering information about you, I have discovered that you are a big fan of adult websites. You love visiting porn websites and watching exciting videos while enduring an enormous amount of pleasure. Well, i have managed to record a number of your dirty scenes and montaged a few videos, which show how you masturbate and reach orgasms.
If you have doubts, I can make a few clicks of mymouse, and all your videos will be shared with yourfriends, colleagues, and relatives. Considering thespecificity of the videos you like to watch (you perfectly know what I mean), it will cause a real catastrophe for you.
I also have no issue at all with making them available for public access (leaked and exposed all data).
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): Under the rules of the law, you face a heavy fine or arrest.
I guess you don't want that to happen.
Let's settle it this way:
You transfer 6.1 Bitcoin to me and once thetransfer is received, I will delete all this dirty stuff right away. After that, we will forget about each other. I also promise to deactivate and delete all the harmful software from your devices. Trust me. I keep my word.
That is a fair deal, and the price is relatively low, considering that I have been checking out yourprofile and traffic for some time by now. If you don't know how to purchase and transfer Bitcoin - you can use any modern search engine.
You need to send that amount here Bitcoin wallet:
bc1qpmryrz9cpqkp79jp4wr4ggqwmy5t3agfwjp290
(The price is not negotiable).
You have 5 days in order to make the payment from the moment you opened this email.
Do not try to find and destroy my virus! (All yourdata is already uploaded to a remote server).
Do not try to contact me. Various security services will not help you; formatting a disk or destroying a device will not help either, since your data is already on a remote server.
This is an APT Hacking Group. Don't be mad at me, everyone has their own work.
I will monitor your every move until I get paid.
If you keep your end of the agreement, you won't hear from me ever again.
Everything will be done fairly!
One more thing. Don't get caught in similar kinds of situations anymore in the future!
My advice: keep changing all your passwords frequently.

I have never received anything like this before. The insult, the insults, are in the context. The misogyny. The condescension. The threat. The author's insistence on playing the dignified and ethical, while in fact using extortion and what today would be called "gaslighting," another insidious category of insult.

Impressed by the figurative size of this criminal's testicles (for if he is indeed human, I have no doubt that he is male, or someone who identifies with toxic masculinity), and perhaps because I've had a life and am no longer twenty years old (although I pray every night, not just for my daughters but young women everywhere), I wasted no time in posting both the original email and my response on Facebook:

Friends, every few months, I get an email like the one below, no doubt sent by one of the many arseholes out there. But, listen, I'm a feminist and I think sex is a good thing, as long as it's between consenting adults and no coercion is involved. I don't visit adult websites - I don't find them interesting enough. But, who knows? If a new one crosses my path, I might change my mind.
Because if I could get complete strangers interested in seeing my fifty-something body, I'd have a YouTube channel and be a millionaire. And if anyone does have an intimate video of me, I hope they post it, or at least show it to me. I'd love to be able to remember what I looked like before everything started to sag and wrinkle.
(Clearly, whoever is threatening me is lying or is intending to fake some pictures, because if they really knew anything about me, they'd know I have feminist art about masturbation hanging proudly in my living room.) 
So what else do I hate about the email? The threats. The insults to my intelligence. The patriarchal, patronising language. The idea that this person feels completely entitled to threaten me, and what's more, joke about it. That they have the huge, flabby balls to offer me advice. 
My message to you is: don't give them a second of your peace. Instead, if you can share this, please do. Help me expose them so we can all learn to recognise contextualised, hate-based insult. 
And yes, I have reported all of this to the FBI. They're doing nothing, of course. So why should anyone else do anything other than posting it for all to see -let no one lose sleep over this pathetic last millilitre of old worm mash. Read it, have fun, keep your money safe, end of. No one cares about the rest. 
Anja