I’m half Brazilian and half Puerto Rican. But all my life, I’ve been told I’m not quite Latin enough — or white enough.
When someone says — based on the color of my skin or the fact that I don’t have an accent when speaking English — that I am not Latin or Hispanic enough, I always say, “What is your definition of what a Latinx person is supposed to be?” From Mexico to the Caribbean to Central and South America, the Hispanic and Latinx labels are so broad and encompass many in-betweens, but this doesn’t make us any less of a part of this community.
I am very proud of my heritage and background and I aim to educate as often as I can. We should never live with stereotypes. I will admit, as a Latina-raised woman born in Taiwan and having grown up all over the world, there was a time I wished to be blond and blue-eyed and often told l people I was born in California.
I was often asked why my mother had such a thick accent, which I never really noticed because it was the only accent I knew. Classmates called me racial slurs, jokingly, yet it was painful. That was the flip side of not being Latin enough: I was never quite white enough, either.It wasn’t until I moved back to the U.S. from Spain for my senior year in high school that I truly began to understand the importance of preserving my family’s heritage and our culture.
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