The origins of this article come from a debate between French Ambassador to the USA, @GerardAraud, and Daily Show Host @Trevornoah, in relation to the World Cup Winning French National Team. There is a lot of subtext to this debate, but this video does a decent job of summarizing what was said. While I don't think either one of them was completely right, I think there it's fair to bring up the issue because those players are Frenchmen of African descent, and both should be acknowledged.

Then their debate reminded me of this quote from the Selena movie:

"And we gotta prove to the Mexicans how Mexican we are, and we gotta prove to the Americans how American we are, we gotta be more Mexican than the Mexicans and more American than the Americans, both at the same time. It's exhausting. Damn. Nobody knows how tough it is to be a Mexican American."

For many Americans, it doesn't take all that long to think of the point in time when we were immigrants. I mean, the United States of America wasn't even a country 250 years ago, and while that may seem like a lot, for most of us that's less than 10 generations ago.

I feel that all that preface is needed to get to the point of we should be proud of who we are and where we are from.

While I don't have quite the same experience on the national scale of guys like Ambassador Araud and Trevor Noah, an American TV show host who was born in South Africa and grew up during Apartheid, I have seen those on a smaller scale as someone of mixed heritage and someone who has grown up in two different states.

First the mixed heritage part.

That Selena quote really resonates with me because it's an issue I've had to deal with my entire life, as I am one of, if not the only, member of my mother's family of Mexican descent, and I'm one of the only members of my dad's family who is white, to the point where I almost look lost at family reunions. That said, I listen to country music and have the Mexican flag hanging over my seat in the living room.

Still, I am an American, but to disregard my Mexican heritage is disrespectful to my family and ancestors. They are as much a part of who I am as apple pie, hot dogs, and bald eagles.

As for the moving states aspect of understanding dual-heritage, I grew up in California and moved to Texas as a pre-teen.

If you know anyone from Texas, you know there is a certain level of "chest-beating" that comes with being Texan, but I remember being told the old "steers and queers" line about Texas. There are also certain stereotypes with Californians to be either "surfer-dude" types or "Hollywood" types.

After having lived in both states for about a decade each, I beat my chest like a proud Texan and have certain "Hollywoodisms" that come out about as much as my Spanish accent. When people ask me where I'm from, however, my answers are some version of "I was born in Texas, I grew up in California, and then I moved back to Texas" because the combination of those two distinct cultures have made me who I am as much as being Mexican-American has.

Whether you are Mexican-American, Latin-American, French of African descent, German of Turkish descent, Austrian of Mongolian descent, a native of your own country, or anything else, take pride in who you are and where you're from, both physically and ancestrally.

We aren't just where we were born. We aren't just where our families are from. We are both, and that is one of the best things are the world we live in now.

We have families that span the entire globe because of how fast and how far we can travel. More so than any other point in history, we are one people connected across the globe and many of our ancestries reflect that.

At the end of the day, we are who we are.