Personal Narrative: My Growing Up In Mexico

You never have to abandon your culture if you don’t want to.
Hear
When I was growing up as a child I was always told stories from my parents of how growing up in Mexico was, I heard stories of family I never knew I had, and of a childhood I don’t even remember. I moved to the United States when I was 4 years old therefore I honestly don’t even remember what it was to be born in Mexico, to grow up there. I only remember the struggle of having to learn a new language for school and hating the fact that I had an accent and sometimes made fun of for it when I was young. When I was younger I only remember the stories that my mom told me of trips to zoo in Mexico, visiting the capitol, and even visiting an aunt in a village near a volcano. All these
stories seemed amazing to me, I wanted to know more and hear more stories of what Mexico was like the history, the culture, and the language. Even though I hated sounding funny when I spoke English little 5 to 8-year-old Vanessa loved the way Spanish sounded in song, in the stories my mom read to me and when I talked to my family in Mexico. I wanted to be a part of that world, of that culture, of the family I always talked to but never saw I loved the idea of being from somewhere different that I didn’t have in trouble being part of, I embraced the culture my parents raised me in. My parents were not the types of parents that let me forget my culture it was an everyday part of my life and I loved it, until I grew up and didn’t want it anymore.
Grow
The more friends I made in school, the better my English got, the less I wanted to hear the stories about Mexico.
I didn’t want to stand out from my friends, I didn’t want to be the weird kid with the accent. So I stopped speaking Spanish with my dad was mean to my mom because she couldn’t speak English like my dad. I firmly declared I wasn’t Mexican because I don’t even remember living there and being told stories wasn’t enough for me anymore, because why do I want to remember a different country and culture when I have a new one here. I got closer to my friends rather than my family, I spent time at friends’ houses rather than mine. My family disapproved of this it went against the family culture that Mexico has, but I could care less if they were unhappy, because I just wanted to fit in. Throughout elementary school I was still proud to say I was from Mexico that I spoke Spanish and happily came to school with the food my mom made me. However, once I was in Middle school it was the exact opposite I didn’t want my mom’s food anymore because it was weird and looked strange. I didn’t want to say I was from Mexico and I refused to speak Spanish unless I was forced to at home. The culture that my family celebrated I wanted nothing to do with because I thought it was stupid and silly. I had a friend who was just like me he came from Mexico but didn’t want to be and then one day I realized that he couldn’t speak Spanish anymore because he stopped speaking it a long time ago.
This shocked me because no matter how much I hated speaking Spanish anywhere near anyone who didn’t I still knew it and that’s when I changed.
Learn
The moment I realized that rejecting something that was such an important part of me, of my family was the moment that I began to learn back what I had forgotten. My Spanish was still good because of my parents constant nagging for me to speak it, was it the best no, but I could still speak it with the accent of my home country. The stories from my childhood and pictures I began to go over and ask my mom to not only tell me the stories but to my sisters. The little holiday traditions that we long stopped doing because I refused to do we started up again. My sisters learn about the three kings, the day of the dead and the importance of not forgetting your culture. I learned that I could balance two different culture if I tried hard enough because they are an important part of your life and if you reject them you reject a part of yourself.