I'm sure that you have come to realize that Americans have an obsession with finding out others' ethnicities. Something about finding out the personal details about "someone's roots" seems to resonate within all of us. Every aspect of your life has been affected by ethnicity/race, whether it was reflected positively or negatively.

I have been trying to figure out for all my life what box to check when filling out that dreaded ethnicity box. However, I doubt that it's meant to be a difficult thing to figure out.

My grandmother was born in Mexico and has Hispanic roots in Mexico as well as Puerto Rico. She came to this country while extremely young with her two older sisters and her parents who barely spoke any English. Spanish was her first language and English shortly followed. Her name on her birth certificate alone can show that she was raised Hispanic. She came to this country during a period of high migration for Hispanics into this country and lived in the area that is now known as "Spanish Harlem." She fell in love with my American grandfather when she was twelve years old and she always said that their love story reflected the popular musical "West Side Story."

Now, after reading this, let's skip two generations to yours truly. What does that make me?

I don't look Hispanic even remotely, although I have my grandmother's big brown eyes. However, saying that, I have embraced the Hispanic culture with open-arms to learn more about her. Spanish is my second language in which I am able to communicate with my family in Puerto Rico. I have not only learned to dance Salsa, Bachata, and Merengue, but I am now also able to teach it. I have taken many classes to learn about Hispanic culture in the United States as well as in Latin American countries. Most of my friends at my college are of Hispanic descent.

What does that make me?

You can bet your bottom dollar that I always check the box that says Hispanic. For many individuals who are clearly more Hispanic then myself, I am a "gringa." That means someone who is trying to be Hispanic, but who doesn't have to deal with the hardships and struggles that have come with the negative associations of being Hispanic.

I can recall one day in tenth-grade specifically. A boy who I was sitting at with lunch told me that my grandmother was nothing but "a dirty border-hopper." The troubling part of what this individual had to say was that he was Hispanic as well. I don't know when there became a problem between other Hispanic cultures, but it's extremely bothersome that so many Hispanics are all under the same stereotypical associations of other ethnicities, yet still have to deal with the barriers between their countries of decent.

That box can mean absolutely nothing or it can mean everything. We are a part of a society where the place that you come from has to mean something. I, personally, find that to be foolish. If your culture matters to you, what is the cause of concern for other cultures to make comparisons? Any race that isn't white has really come under fire when, at one point in time, Europeans were the people who were trying to assimilate into American culture.

To the boy who told me that my Mima was nothing but "a dirty border-hopper," my grandmother came to this country, the land of opportunity, to better her life with her family. She assimilated into American culture so much that she married an American man. She makes me proud to mark the Hispanic box.

Embrace your roots.