Bullies told me to go back to my country. At first it silenced me, now it spurs me on.

I was a young teenager when it first happened.

My little brother and I were outside the bus stop on the way to school. We were laughing and talking about kid stuff. All of a sudden, a group of older teen boys rolled up on their bikes. They circled us, made fun of how we looked and our accents, then they yelled at us to go back to a country they assumed we were from. My little brother was paralyzed with fear and he started crying. All I knew to do as an older sister was to put my arms around him and get us out of there.

Their words have always haunted me, and after reading President Donald Trump’s tweets about Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, I was taken back to that day.

I remember making the decision to start waking up an hour early to walk the long way around that bus stop out of fear of running into the bullies. I slowly watched myself become more and more ashamed of my family’s food, my heritage. Even the sound of my own voice brought me deep shame.

I'm originally from Mexico. My accent felt like a threat to me and my family. For years, I chose to not speak unless I absolutely had to. I had convinced myself that by making myself silent and smaller, that no one would notice me and my family.

Being told you don't belong

Those boys and their racist “go back where you came from" chants stole my voice.

And what Trump is doing is trying to silence women of color who are now members of Congress and the millions of people who look up to them and feel seen by them.

Last year, I was knocking on doors, encouraging people to go out and vote to make their voices heard. I did it because I have a deep belief in our democracy and the power of people when we come together and vote.

One woman opened the door and when she heard my accent she immediately shook her head. She leaned in got in my face and said I needed to learn English and speak without an accent. She said that she was for making America great again and that I needed to get out before I was kicked out.

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Another man threw a water bottle at me and yelled the same thing; another said I needed to go back to my country and called his dog to chase us away.

When bullies and bigots like Trump say people should go back to their own country, they know what they are trying to do. With one charge, they try to erase our right to exist.

Americans side with immigrants

Most Americans support creating a pathway to citizenship for undocumented people and oppose mass deportation — Trump knows that. Most Americans are horrified by the thought of children being ripped away from their parents by armed guards, and Trump knows that, too.

So he attacks the messengers.

He goes after them with the same schoolyard taunts that took my voice away years ago.

But what the bullies don’t get is that those words — for people who have found their voice — now have a different effect.

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Queer people, immigrants, people of color, women, have always been told to get out, sit down or shut up. But now we hear words like Trump’s and see them for what they are.

Trump’s words are a reminder that we have heard and survived such taunts before, and we are surviving them now.

I know that those four female members of Congress have survived the taunts of bullies when they were girls just like me. And I know that their survival and resilience is exactly what is so threatening to both Trump and the Democratic leaders who were trying to silence them just before Trump’s tweets.

But we're survivors. We have found our voice, and we are here to stay.

Elizabeth Cuna lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She grew up undocumented and now is a U.S. citizen. She serves as the national field director of United We Dream, an immigrant rights organization.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump racist tweets: Immigrants told to 'go back' from childhood