First and foremost, “Black Lives Matter“ and it always mattered. As a person who identifies as a Black Mexican-American with Native American and Mexican roots, I want to state that I have personally experienced outright and secret racism in different places in the world, but mainly, I had exchanges most of my life in America where the majority of the pains of growing up and being Black and Latino occurred.

Team X’el is a multicultural collaboration and the mission of producing Yscariot, my own story, was to push a Black boy like myself into the spotlight as a Heroic character. For too long, it was difficult to identify with a person like myself in the world of superheroes in manga and comic books, animation in America and Japan, and in video games. I started this story in 1998 and experienced something great on my first trip to Japan in 2011. People were accepting of me and didn’t point me out by my color but how well I connected to them through both Japanese and English. I was helped and accompanied by many locals and foreigners from all over the world without a second thought. I knew that my future would be in Asia. It’s not a perfect world on this continent, but I had many experiences of understanding through the exchange of cultures.

Team X’el’s current team and all collaborators has always and will always condemn racism, both systematic and in ignorance. We understand that people can change and do not ever judge people for their past if they have shown and expressed efforts in their hearts to do so.

My works highlight racism for the purpose of expressing things that I and others friends went through in creative ways that may not be understood at first glance. We were ALWAYS at the forefront of battling racism, and we will continue to be a home for all. For those who believe that “All Lives Matter”, we are with you, but please understand the priority of issues being addressed and do your best to stand with us. In the meantime, I will do my best to simultaneously stand with All Lives in the name of World Peace through individual goodness and contributions.

Our art will continue to be without influence by current events since the stories were already planned between the years of 1998-2001 for the Gospel and 2002-2015 for Chronicles, however, we are ready and willing to collaborate with others to provide a voice with our own.

Thank you

~M~