Working for a Latino Ministry has brought up so much stuff about me being Hispanic....it got me thinking a lot about my ethnic identity and who I am in this world. I at first never really thought about my "skin color" or my last night name until I went to college. I grew up in a Hispanic community and in college I went to a school where the culture was majority white. I knew I stood out! But I made myself fit in. I went out to the events they had for freshmen and tried making new friends. I totally assimilated to the dominate culture just to fit in and make friends. I knew I was different from them because of my culture but I wanted friends and to fit in. In college I had more white friends then I did hispanic friends until I became involved with Destino. Then that is when it hit, and the fact that my family was making fun of me because of how I would say tacos or enchilladas. My mom once said " crees que eres un gringa." I knew I had to get back in touch with my roots. But I never left my white friends. Through out college I continued having two sets of friends but never did it hit me to now that I played a very unique role then and now. I saw that I was a bridge builder this whole time. Well people explained to me that I play this role in my life. I had a unique role to bring two cultures together :). So now I think back and see that God has made me so unique in the fact that I can be the same person in two cultures and understand people. But what is hard about this is that it can get tiring.....jumping culture to culture. Just my random thoughts as I continue to search about who God had created me.
