My mom and dad both had kids before they met each other. They got married a few years later and they knew that they wanted kids. My mom’s friend had recently adopted a girl from Guatemala. She loved her baby and was so happy she had a child. She told my mom all about this beautiful place and convinced her to adopt from Guatemala. My mom always wanted to adopt a child. She had many exchanged students growing up and she loved to learn about their cultures. One day my parents decided they wanted to adopt a child. My oldest brother and sister wanted both a brother and a sister. So, my parents made the big decision of getting both a boy and a girl. After months and months of trying to get all the paper work together, they finally were able to get a picture of my brother and me. My parents said they fell in love with us and they knew we were the ones. On October 21, 1998 we were brought to the United States.

One day I got a text message from my brother when I was in a middle of a lecture. I was not able to read the message but just to take a quick glance. On my iPod all I could read was police, pulled, and 5 cops. I started to freak out! My heart was beating so fast! I wanted to tell my teacher I wanted to leave the room but this lesson was the most import. I could not focus on the teaching. I got another text message from my brother and I pulled out my iPod and read the whole message “I was in our neighborhood and I was coming home from a walk and apparently I looked like a suspicious Latino man walking around.” I couldn’t believe this! It was our own neighborhood. Yes, we were in a Caucasian neighborhood, but my brother and I are the only ones who look that way and people know us. We have been living in the same old neighborhood since we got to the United States. How could someone call the cops on an innocent 8^th grade boy who did nothing wrong? The police got a report saying he looked like he was breaking into houses. Yes, we may look different from other people and that is okay. So why do people automatically judge colored people?

People cannot trust me just because the color of my skin. I can see when people stare at me and watch me walk around the store. I watch while you are following me around the mall. I can tell when the police watch my brother and I in the airports waiting for us like we are preys. Latinos are humans too. We do not judge you because you are white so why judge me because I am brown? I love being in the United States this is my home too! I have lived here almost my whole life so this is my country too!