Bicultural Identity: Between Two Homelands

A person is a person. A country is a country. A color is a color. I was born and raised in the United States. My family though wasn’t. They were born and raised in a country south from the US. A country made up of people like any other country. They moved to the US like any other immigrant in hopes of living the American Dream. I grew up spending time in both of the places that I am from. I visit Mexico for the holidays and spend the rest of the year back home in the US. The way I feel in both places is completely different. In one I don’t feel like a fish in the desert. I look around and everyone looks like me, holds the same traditions and customs, and speaks the same. In the other I look different, hold different traditions and customs,

Sometimes we get questions like, “where do you live?” because many think that we live in what so many call the “hood”, when really if they had taken the time to notice they would have realized that we’re their neighbors. Then you receive those “oh really” facial expressions, and you automatically feel like that fish in the dessert. Or other times we get comments like, “I thought people in Mexico live in houses made out of newspapers.” And you just don’t know whether to go on with a rant explaining how not all Mexico is poor or whether to walk away silent feeling your blood boiling. Then I switch back to thinking that I really am different. And how even though in the bigger picture we are all people, in the smaller we distinguish every little thing. This is why I believe that looking at the bigger picture is more important than looking at the smaller. I believe that the smaller picture holds more differences than we can count only leading to those uncomfortable situations and unreasonable questions and comments. I believe that the bigger pictures provides everyone with a clearer one that everyone is a person and regardless of race, color, or language, we are all people who should be looked at and treated equally. Because in the end a person is a person, a country is a country, and a color is a