J.P,
Tampa, FL
Growing up in a largely latin community of Florida, I’ve always struggled to fit in. My mother is of Spanish heritage with family coming from Spain as well as Cuba, however, my father is from eastern Europe, thus I have a non-spanish last name. This has troubled me forever because everyone looks at your last name to try to determine what you are. Someone could have a father who’s 1/2 hispanic, and a mother who’s 0% hispanic but just because they inherit their dad’s last name, they are more accepted into the “community” than someone like me even though they are less hispanic by blood. It’s gotten to the point where I don’t feel like explaining my identity to others, so I just tell people that I’m completely of my dads culture, sweeping my mothers under the rug because people are likely to laugh considering someone with my last name would be hispanic at all.
