When a person sees me, they see a 19 year old African American woman. Yes, I am an African American woman but I am also part Honduran. I never really embrace this heritage because I don't really know much about it or am a fluent Spanish speaker. (by the way Spanish is not that easy to learn).
My parents split up when I was really young and all I really remember is my grandfather on my dad's side teaching me my colors in Spanish before he passed away. I also grew every envious of my family of my dad's side with their native Spanish accents and ability to roll their "r's".
I always felt like it just wasn't fair to be the only one without the good stuff. I also resented my last name because it wasn't the same as my father's Guerrero. I thought it was so cool that my dad's last name meant "warrior" in Spanish. How cool is that?
I even argued with my mom a few times to get my last name changed to my dad's but there was no way she was gonna let that happen, so I gave up fighting for the cool last name. I also tried to learn Spanish in middle school and finished my third year of Spanish my freshman year of high school at Lake Taylor High School in Norfolk, Virginia, but I only did okay in the classes.
Over the past few years, I been wanting to learn more and more about my Spanish heritage so I decided I would try and learn Spanish from scratch at VWC and maybe travel abroad somewhere to a Spanish speaking country.
Also not only in the end would I be bilingual and have better range of job opportunities but I would feel more close to my dad's family and make them very proud of me. Additionally, I think about the people in the United States who are not very good at speaking English, so I want to be able to help them in different situations because you never know.
One day I could be in the position to help translate to someone who isn't very good at English.
So I will make it my primary goal to only graduate college but to accomplish learning more and more about my Spanish heritage and learning how to speak, write and read in Spanish because it is a part of my life and a part of who I am and a vital part in my future.
And I know when I accomplished this goal in my life, my family will be even more proud of me as well as my granddad looking down upon me smiling.
