Adriana Pedroza
Both of my parents were born and raised in Mexico. Looking at my family pictures, I’m the odd one out. As a child, I was blonde, and my eyes have always been on the lighter side. My skin is not dark. I don’t have my mom’s dark hair or my dad’s dark eyes or my sisters dark skin. I look, like many people have told me in the past, white. When anyone hears me speak Spanish, they do a double take. They don’t consider the possibility that I was raised by my Mexican parents and grandparents to speak Spanish before I spoke English. They don’t think I visited Mexico every year as a child. But I’m not ashamed of where I come from or who I am. I am proud to correct people and tell them that I’m not, in fact, just white. I am Mexican and American, but that doesn’t make me white.
