I have grown up with a Hispanic father and a white mother.

I have tan skin, brown hair, brown eyes and freckles. I am a mix of both my parents.

I am just as much white as I am Mexican.

White people only see that I'm Hispanic and Hispanics only see that I'm white. I have never felt like I could be both at the same time. I felt like I had to choose one that I identify with more, so I turned against my Hispanic heritage and rejected any part of my life that linked me to it. It was less embarrassing that way.

Because that's the culture I grew up in, where it was better to be white than to be Hispanic. So when people would make rude jokes about Mexicans I would laugh with them, pretending like it didn't hurt me.

I would pretend like they weren't making fun of me too.

No one ever asked me to act this way and no one ever told me to deny my ethnicity, but I always felt like I had to in order to fit in.
I can't help but feel like this election has shed light on this issue I have been dealing with my whole life. There is nothing wrong with being Mexican, but I've always felt like there was some sort of shame that went with claiming that. The racial slurs coming from Mr. Trump during his campaign has confirmed all of my insecurities about being Mexican. I was born in America, just like my parents and my grandparents and I am as American as all my friends, but Mr. Trump has classified my family as a separate type of American.

My great-grandfather crossed the border from Mexico into America and worked on the railroads his entire life. He didn't do it for the money, he did it so is sons and daughters could grow up in a better place with privileges he was never offered. His story represents to me what America used to be and has lost. It should represent opportunity and community and freedom. We should want everyone to have the opportunities we have especially if they are willing to work for it like my great-grandfather was.

I am proud to have the family that I do, a family that understands the alternative and knows how privileged we all truly are.

I am proud to come from a family of "hombres" and no, we are not "bad hombres".

We are more than a generalization about our Mexican heritage. We are not criminals. And I know I'm not alone in this.

I take extreme offense to what Mr. Trump has said about my family and other families in America. Good families, too. But with this offense I have never felt more proud to be part Mexican. Because I am not what Mr. Trump says I am, I am so much more, and so much better. And the best part is I have a vote.