Let’s think. What’s the first thought that comes to your mind when you think of Hispanic culture? Is it the food? Is it the language? Or even is it the Hispanic activist movement?Â
In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month coming to a close, I want to highlight why my personal Hispanic Heritage is important.
Growing up, I’ve always been uncertain with my identity. Part of this stems from my being mixed, as my Father is Hispanic and Indigenous, and my Mother is White.
Let’s take a step back. I’m sitting in a classroom full of other Hispanic students, and it feels nice to see others that look just like me. It’s time for the whole class to take the first standardized test of the year, and the teacher is going through the instructions for the assessment. First step: check off what race and nationality you identify with. Thinking back to my 10-year old self, I wonder what box I should check off.
As a little girl, thinking about how to identify oneself within the context of race and ethnicity is difficult to think about as at this age you aren’t thinking about how you identify yourself.
Growing up Hispanic has its benefits, like being able to be comfortable in your culture, but it also brings the stereotypes that are involved with being Hispanic. Being of Hispanic descent has always been a part of my identity, but there are times where my identity is nevertheless questioned.
Periodically, I receive criticism from the Hispanic community, as I’m not fluent in Spanish. Over my lifetime I’ve received comments like: “You’re not really Hispanic. You don’t speak any Spanish. You’re a fake Mexican.” These certain comments can make you feel that you shouldn’t identify yourself with being Hispanic— that isn’t true. There’s nothing wrong with not knowing Spanish, but when your background comes from Spanish Heritage, of course you’ll want to identify with that part of you.
The hardest part is knowing that you’re missing an aspect of your Hispanic identity because of the language barrier. There have been times when other people start having a full-blown conversation with me in Spanish. Not having the ability to translate what they’re saying is very hard for me, since the way I present leads people to think I speak the language, but in reality I don’t. After telling people I don’t speak Spanish can be disappointing because they always seem very disappointed. “You look like you speak Spanish, sorry.”Â
These comments can negatively impact a person, as it brings ideas that you shouldn’t identify yourself with something if you can’t communicate properly with your culture. This isn’t necessarily true, because defining yourself with a culture doesn’t come from the languages you speak— it comes from what beliefs you have that resonate with a particular culture.
My ancestry is what helps guide me what I identify with, like knowing that my heritage stems from a variety of different ethnicities such as Native American and Mexican-American. Ancestry is a major part of how many different people identify with what type of culture they identify with.Â
Culture has always been a central part of my life as my family values traditions and celebrating where we come from. Being able to be confident of my heritage is a crucial part of cultural identity, especially being Hispanic in the white-dominated world we live in.