Not Mexican enough, Not white enough
Tricia Redlands, CA I am a Mexican American that grew up in a home that did not speak Spanish. Both my mother and father were...
Mexican With White Skin No Spanish
JS CA Brought up to believe my Mexican heritage was secondary to my white heritage. Didn’t learn Spanish, didn’t learn culture. As a young woman...
No, I do not speak Spanish.
Delia Moreno Valley, CA I am so tired of others expecting me to know every bit of Spanish, simply because I am Mexican. It is...
Hispanic name in a rural town
Elena Rodrigues Houghton, MA Living in a small town in the UP of Michigan and having a fairly Hispanic name can sometimes bring out the...
You speak spanish? You are Mexican.
Juan De Rada Los Angeles, CA There are 20 other countries that speak Spanish, just saying.
American girls do not speak Spanish.
Ana Seattle, WA We lived in a very small homogeneous town, and my parents had just gotten divorced. My father was the Spanish speaker and...
Black Latina not AfricanAmerican, neither Latina
Diama Gabriel Miami, FL I’m in between waters. I’m not African American for the black Americans, and I’m not a Latina for the Latino community....
I’m not Hispanic, thanks for asking.
Elizabeth Norris Taylor Fernandina Beach, FL I have lived my entire life with people coming up to me and asking, “what are you?” For a...
I am more than a word.
Krislyn Real Beaverton, OR When I was younger race was something to be proud of. I grew up in central California where the Latin-American population...
No, I don’t understand your English.
Nidia Rivera, Hyattsville, MD. “NO I don’t understand English”, is a common phrase that I am used to hear almost everyday when I moved to...
Not Everyone Whose Hispanic Speaks Spanish
Isaiah Santiago Philadelphia, PA My names Isaiah Santiago and I am Puerto Rican. Being Puerto Rican and being different is always something that I’ve dealt...
I speak Spanish because I am white
Justine Knudson Boise, ID I don’t come from a family of great social status, but as a white, native English speaker in the United States,...
Really? Because you don’t look Cuban.
Carina Tillan Hallandale, FL My rebuttal to that is usually “Then what am I supposed to look like?” You’d be surprised how often people realize...
