You are what you pass for.
Amber, New York, NY. I had an interesting experience at a Family Health Center today. I was experiencing trouble at home with applying for health...
Never Enough Of A Particular Race
Yema Pizzuto, MD. Have you ever been told, “Really? But you don’t look…” Or “Oh yeah, I see how you’re…because you look…” Or the ‘Ol...
“Garcia”? Are you Mexican or Colombian?
Alexandra Garcia, Long Island, NY. My father emigrated from Spain in 1974, and we have been raised to be proud of our Spanish heritage and...
White males are people too
John Chaney, Silver Spring, MD. Being a white male growing up in predominantly black and spanish schools and neighborhoods all you ever hear is hate...
Don’t speak Spanish, I’m still Hispanic
Victor Santana-Melgoza, El Paso, TX. For most of my life I have been rejected by many people in the Hispanic/Chican@/Latin@ community for not learning and...
Brown skin, speaks spanish, ethnically white
Marie Recine, Mountain View, CA. When I’m with Latinos, people think I’m Mexican. When I’m with whites, people think I’m white or mixed. When I’m...
No, sorry I don’t speak Spanish
Maria (Victoria) Lopez, Moreno Valley, CA. I am a student at Cal Baptist University and am in the class History of Minorities. My professor had...
No, I dont need a translator.
Kristy, San Luis, AZ. The older I get the less fun it is for me to go places. Constantly getting judged for being Hispanic and...
You must be Cuban or something.
Jesse Hernandez-Oliver, Modesto, CA. I’m Mexican, African and Native American (Apache and Cherokee soecifically) with ringlet curled hair that resembles finger waves of the 1920s...
Always desired culture. I’m just white.
Cassandra Coats, El Cajon, CA. I grew up in a very multi-cultural school where being white was the minority. I was never teased for it,...
Spanish is punished, kids assumed bullies.
Sydney Arenas, Denver, CO. When I was growing up, the kids around me were punished for speaking Spanish in the classroom because the teachers assumed...
Mexican white girl, doesn’t speak Spanish.
Elysha O’Brien, Las Vegas, NV. Whites see me as Mexican, Mexicans view me as White because I don’t speak Spanish. I find it interesting that...
My daughter is not like me.
Bea Melnarowicz, Chicago, IL My daughter is bi-racial: her father is Spanish-French-Mexican, and I am Eastern European Caucasian. I am often told she looks ‘nothing’...
“White” papers over background identity.
Catherine Kehl, Cleveland Heights. OH. When we divide ourselves into “us” and “other” we don’t only lose the other, we lose ourselves. I was twenty-seven...
Hope my children will speak Spanish
Sandra Aguilar-Rodríguez, Bethlehem, PA. I am Mexican, I speak English, French and Spanish. I have a PhD in History, but still I find it difficult...
I am Mexican, I am American
Ricky Quezada, Sanger, CA. I don’t really embrace beng Mexican. I don’t speak Spanish. English is my only Language, but my father was born in...
Wait, But You Don’t Look Mexican
Chloe Servin, Miami, FL. I’ve gotten that phrase countless times. Pupils, teachers, when I meet new people. I currently am pale with slight color, but...
