Personal Narrative: I Am Puerto Rican

I am Puerto Rican, or, as my family constantly reminds me, "boriqua". As a result, I grew up learning two languages; English and Spanish. However, ever since I have attended school I have lost much of my Spanish. Unlike the other kids who cried and clung to their moms, I was very enthusiastic about starting school. I think the enthusiasm came from my parent's encouragement to learn, as well as their assurance that they'd be there at the end of the day to pick me up and take me back home.

Being Hispanic hasn't affected my life much, but there are still things that I tend to notice more and have come across because I am Hispanic. For instance; dealing with ignorance. Just because I am tan, have dark eyes and hair, I am automatically classified
as Mexican. Once in my school there was an orientation where someone came to talk to our school--what about, I didn't care to know--and there's a good reason why. When speaking about race--because that is always a topic that speakers tend to touch upon--the speaker ran through the different races. She mentioned whites, blacks, Asians, and--you guessed it-- "Mexicans". It was as if other Hispanic cultures didn't matter, or didn't even exist for how many times they've been overlooked. It's not that I have anything against Mexicans, because I don't. I just have a problem when ignorant people classify me as something I'm not. Just like Asians like to say "We're not all Chinese.", I say, "We're not all Mexican."