Demographics, demographics, demographics! Deciding on a college to go to wasn’t that difficult for me. I chose the school that offered my major and gave me the best financial aid package. After I visited Susquehanna University twice and fell in love with the campus, it felt right. However, what I did not realize would happen, is that I would be around few Latinos. I am Mexican-American. My parents were both born and raised in Mexico, so I woke up, day and night, surrounded by my Mexican family and our culture. My high school was also extremely diverse with a large Latino population. I spent a lot of my time with my cousin who lived down the street. I was constantly around people who looked like me, people who ate the same food as me and people who also spoke Spanish. We shared a culture that made us different. I’m not saying that I would have chosen a different school if I knew that there were few Latinos. I just wish that I’d thought to check the demographics so I wouldn’t have been so surprised when I starting going to school – it was culture shock. Don’t get me wrong, there are Latinos – but the small size of this population makes school a little harder to get through than usual – here’s why.
The Food
Cafeteria food is already agonizing to begin with. Constantly having the same fries, chicken tenders, and grilled cheese available EVERY. DAY. can make you miss your mother’s cooking tenfold. Not to mention the fact that the food almost never has any seasoning. There’s only so much salt and pepper that you can add to your pasta before you feel like rage quitting and flipping a table over. You might be thinking, “this seems like the normal struggle of any student,” and you would be right. But this is why it’s different for latinos – The cafeteria will never have authentic Hispanic food. The closest attempt I’ve witnessed was SU’s Buenos Nachos Night to celebrate The Day of the Dead. Yeah, nachos are Mexican, but it’s not a meal that most Mexicans will serve on a regular basis, or even a special basis for that matter. The cafeteria can try to make Mexican food, however, they’ll only ever get close to Tex-Mex which, if you don’t know already, IS NOT MEXICAN FOOD. It’s American. It’s a struggle because I can’t walk into the cafeteria and select enchiladas, tortas, tostadas, chile rellenos, tacos, or dare I say it, even caldo. I can’t eat my frijoles with a tortilla de maiz because the only tortillas that the school has are flour tortillas – which are used for wraps. THEY’RE NOT EVEN TOASTED! It’s difficult to change your pallet from homemade ethic food to the limitations of cafeteria American food.
The Parties
Parties are another struggle for two reasons: the music and the dancing.The music is always in English (they might throw in Despacito or Danza Kuduro). There isn’t anything wrong with that, but that doesn’t change the disappointment when you want to throw it down to Romeo Santos and dance the night away to bachata. You can’t sing your throat out to a Jenni Rivera song because your peers don’t even know who she is. Also, usually, when you’re Latino, you already know that when you hear the word “party,” your mind will automatically think of a baile. That means that there are a variety of songs from Cumbia, Corridos, Bachata, Reggeton, and I can’t forget the DJ who doesn’t know when to stop talking. It’s nice because there is variety. The genres are all different and they’re all danced differently. Unfortunately, that’s not the case with college parties. Whether the music playing is rap, R&B, pop, or even country, the dancing is all pretty much the same. The parties can get dull, fast.
Humor
This was something that shocked me when I first noticed. There are jokes that non-Latinos won’t understand, simply because they did not grow up with them. It’s not major, but it would be nice to be able to joke around with someone about why I think Latino mothers are secretly trying to take out their families every time they decide to make chile.
The food, parties, and jokes aren’t tremendous things that need to change. It’s just different. It’s difficult to go to an environment where your culture is not easily accessible. I find that I speak to myself in Spanish and listen to Latino music more than I had at home, almost like a way to keep myself in touch with the culture that I left at home. It’s a struggle, but that doesn’t mean that this new experience is bad for me. This is an experience with tons of opportunities to meet other people and share their culture as well as share mine.