Every morning I would wake up to the smell of scrambled eggs and tortillas straight from the burner on the stovetop. I never thought it was weird that we had jars and sour cream tubs of home-made salsa in our fridge, and that every meal required some degree of salsa. If my mom was working, my grandparents would take me to my private school, where the school provided all the school supplies we would need and I never spoke a word of Spanish.
I did not learn who Cesar Chavez was until I was 18-years-old, and I did not start learning Spanish until my first high school language course. Growing up, I never realized how different my school life and home life was, and I never realized I even had a cultural identity.
To my friends of other racial backgrounds, I was lightheartedly teased about my background and what they assumed my home life should be like, complete with a thick accent and sassy hand gestures. To my other Hispanic friends, who spoke Spanish to their parents and visited the country their parents were born in, I often felt like I was not “Hispanic enough”.
For anyone who is not fully Hispanic, I am sure you know the same exact feeling. In many ways, we are stuck in a cultural limbo.
But I have some news for you ladies, something I did not come to realize until my High School graduation. That secret of all secrets for any mixed Latina is this: no one else’s opinion on your “degree of Hispanic” matters. I am proud of who I am not because I know every piece of my heritage, but because of the family who came three hours early to my graduation ceremony to get front row seats to hear my speech. The very same group of people who helped me pluck chile peppers in the backyard and moved me into my dorm on the first day of college. The people who filled my head with fantastic dreams and taught me to fight for everything I deserve. I am proud of the family that raised me, and the proud Latina I became because of them.
We each have our own stories on how we came to be, but all that matters is that you own who are as your own vision of what a proud Latina looks like. Latinas come in every shape, size and, especially, color. So if you are a proud Hispanic woman, and might just have a dash of something else, be proud of who you are. Do not be afraid to practice a different language with a stranger, and jam out to the Spanish songs that you might not know every word to. Sé valiente mis amigas.
