Learning Latine is not a race
Sabrina F.
San Jose, CA
Growing up I racially Identified myself as Latine, but then I learned that it isn’t a race. This made me confused as to what I should identify as since I never considered myself white and neither did others. That is what lead me to learn that race is a social construct, but it shouldn’t be ignored since racist structures exist. Now I just identify by my ethnicity and nationality.
Latine is Geography, Hispanic is Language
Itzel Moncayo,
CA
I am Mexican-American which means my ethnic identity lies in being both Latine and Hispanic. My physical appearance resembles the stereotypical appearance of someone of this nationality, regardless, I often get asked where I am from. Where I’m ~really~ from. This question does get frustrating but so do the misconceptions within my own community that being Latine and/or Hispanic is the same or that we are a monolithic group. Being Latine refers to a person who is from Latin America while being Hispanic refers to someone from a country where the language spoken is predominantly Spanish. The perpetuation of this misconception that these identities are ethnicities and not racial contributes to the erasure of Afro-Latinos and Indigenous people. It’s frustrating that so many people within my community dismiss the fact that Latine and Hispanic is not a race which then leads to a lot of comparisons and hurt on our part towards other racial groups that are fighting for social justice.
-Itzel Moncayo, Chapman University
Too ambiguous to fit in anywhere.
Tasha L.,
Largo, MD.
I am adopted, raised by a half French/half Black mother and full-blooded Sicilian father. I am half Black, quarter Indian (India) and quarter white in my biological heritage. I am told I look Latina or white, “definitely not Black,” and have always noticed I seem to confuse people when they try to categorize me ethnically.
-Them: Where are your parents from?
-Me: California.
-Them: No, where did they COME from?
-Me: Italy and Kansas….
Can’t label me when you look at me, guess it makes some folk uncomfortable. All I ever felt from those questions is: “You don’t look like us.”…”what ARE you?”…”You don’t act like….”
Tiring, but stealthily, sneakily, my secret weapon. Can turn on the whiteness when surrounded by people uncomfortable with people who are clearly people of color, but can turn on my biracial identity when I want to connect with cultures and other persons of color. A racial chameleon. What am I when the labels disappear?
