Joshua Ruiz,
DENVER, CO.
No, I am not a gangster or some stereotypical Chicano, Mexican, or any Hispanic. I was born in New York City in a Jewish hospital to Nicaraguan parents who lived on 120th and Lexington in some studio room or something like that. Until 2 months later we moved to an open spaced undeveloped city in the mountains named :Denver in 1996. In a way I’ve lived 96% of my life in Colorado, so I’m a Coloradoan than a New Yorker!
My entire life I have never struggled with poverty, racism, or food. I was an average kid raised by middle class parents in a Denver suburbia. I did youth sports and my dad was a huge part of my life. I was never expected to succeed in school because my family already knew I was going to succeed. I lived in Montbello and later Green valley. They weren’t bad neighborhoods at all. I partied and did sports in good schools and eventually my parents gave me a car. My life from birth to today hasn’t had any struggle or any major problems such as death of parents or if i have to worry if i eat today. I am grateful that my life is the way it is because I was sheltered and at the same time my mom taught me kindness and generosity while my dad taught me hard work and authority. Confrontations with cops have not been bad since they are usually traffic or once when I was caught for curfew and twice questioned because of events happening around the environment. My family has been the same since my birth with new additions of course. A family of immigrants and alcoholics somehow got it together and became a well knitted family. I have traveled and experienced an amazing childhood and amazing friends.
Being Hispanic people picture us as a Spanish speaking gangsters or immigrants who don’t care or were just simply primitive Indians. The majority of Hispanics are hard working individuals who work for the future more than the present, to make life for their kids better than theirs. It’s incredible to see how minorities own a nice home in a nice neighborhood and give their kids an amazing life.
In my life, like I said I didn’t have a struggle but I did have a struggle. Not everyone struggle has to be so extreme. Mines was simply the pressure to become something meaningful in the world and not fail. That motto still lives with me and is my motivation but at the same time makes me jealous of other people’s life. I understand that because of my life, I can’t related with people who had hardship in their life and I often sorta become an outlier or in other word an outcast because I’m not white but I try to act white.. This has turned me into a person who overthinks, overreacts, and exaggerates situations because I want everyone to be happy even if its impossible. In my experience, being Hispanic has been a rather a confusing adventure but nonetheless really good experience. 🙂
