My Cultural Identity

My background, my culture plays a huge part of my identity, it is the part of me I cannot change nor do I ever want to. The love and patriotism I have for my country is undeniable. I am Haitian born in Haiti, raised in the USA. At some point, being Haitian was not “cool” nor was it acceptable. I remember being in third grade coming from Haiti, not speaking any English, not to mention I went to a dominantly white school with very few black or African American students. Being in Haiti, I never felt different, never knew what bullying was, never faced any hardship nor what it means to feel and look different, unlike many of my peers who came from Haiti, I did not suffer a hard life. My dad lived in the United States and at the time my mother

lived in Canada very often they would send whatever we needed and made sure I was taking care of, the only thing that was different about me is that I didn’t live with my parents but instead I lived with my grandparents they were very old so pretty much my nanny raised me. My life was pretty good, or until I came to the US I experienced those hardships.

I vividly remember third grade, I was mostly lonely, I didn’t have any friends; I remember one day crying and yelling pleading my dad to go back home, to my country because the kids never want to be around me, they always made fun of the way I dress, the food I brought for lunch and the way speaks English because I had an accent. By fourth grade, I can say I learned to speak and understand English and that’s when their words really began to hurt; they would say mean things like "Haitian eat cats", "Haitians are ugly"," Haitians are poor", "Haitians can't dress". Then when the earthquake happened on January 15, 2010, the bullying got so much worse, the kids would say stuff like did your tent go blown away and just mean thing for the first time in my life I am the fact I was Haitian. I hated being called Haitian, I hated speaking creole, I hated my accent, I hated the fact that I was dark skin, I hated the fact that I had kinky curly

hair. Later that same month my dad called me and asked me how did I feel about moving to Orland, at first I was so scared I thought it would be even worse, I remember my cousins telling me that if I move there, I would have the opportunity to start over and I cannot whoever I wanted to be.

When I moved to Orlando that’s when I for the first time since I moved to the US I was happy. When I started school because I did not speak good English, I was still in ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages), my new fourth-grade class had a lot of Haitians and it was fun it was it wasn't until I started middle school the for my country really started as you can. In my middle school, it seemed like it was cool to be Haitian, everyone would try to learn creole even then I still wasn't proud being Haitian. May 18 my counting took me to my first Haitian day festival, which at the time I didn't know they had when I have seen so many people with their Haitian flag regardless of their ethnicity. To me being Haitian mean being prideful, being strong, being determined. it was because of that determination It was the first black republic in the world and the first country in the Western hemisphere to abolish slavery

completely. I had first hand of that determination my dad gave up everything and risk his life coming to the united states with nothing. He worked hard, learned English without going to school, he studied hard he passed his citizenship test which is the reason why I am a citizen today, my Haitian culture means the whole to me. the food, the language, the music all is part of who I am, I wouldn't change that for anything in the world.