Have you ever seen a fish out of the water? How it flips, flaps, wiggles and gasps for oxygen because it clearly doesn’t belong anywhere but the water? That’s how I felt in the fifth grade. I was born and raised in a very poor community in East Side, San Jose for it was all my dad could afford. No, I did not complain because to me it was like my Mexican castle and I was the queen. East Side, San Jose is known for its immense Latino population. Imagine a little Mexico in California well that’s East Side San Jose. I knew everyone around me: friends, family, the ice cream man and the sound of his bell that let the kids know that he was approaching, the churro man with his horn, the tamale lady, you get the point. Everyone there spoke dirty broken
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I knew in an instant that the neighbors didn’t want us there. “This is our new home” said my father. With eyes wide opened I sarcastically replied, “Great…” Things were great for a while until my neighbors started to make mine and my family’s life hell. Never in my life did I ever experience racism until I moved there. Before moving there, I thought racism was something that only happened to black people. I also believed that racism was something of the past, something only mentioned in the text books because didn’t Martin Luther King JR fight for that? Many incidents occurred there such as getting called racial slurs by our neighbors such as: Beaners, wetbacks, illegal aliens and we were constantly reminded that we did not belong in America, that our place was in Mexico. Out of all the things that happened there one of the things that impacted me the most was in the 5th grade. When I moved to Los Gatos, I was about to start the 5th grade. After the horrible experiences at home I hoped that school would be better. When I walked in and the teacher took attendance I remember being the only Latina. Everyone there had names such as Matthew Thompson, Morgan Simpson, and I was ALONDRA GUADALUPE ORDAZ MARQUEZ. The students looked at me like …show more content…
In class, when I would raise my hand, they would copy my accent to ridicule me in front of the entire class so I stopped participating. The bullying was verbal at first. They’d laugh at my skin color, my ethnicity, and throw out racist jokes. Then, it started being physical. At first, it was just 3 kids but then slowly, the whole class began to join. Kids would make dirty faces when I would pass by. They’d pull my chair so I would fall backwards, they’d throw balls at me, slam my head against the water fountain, lock me in bathrooms, and push me around. I finally had enough and I decided to tell my parents. I told them that I was getting bothered by kids at school so they did what any parent would do and took me to the principal’s office. The principal told me to ignore it because the best way to get rid of bullies is to ignore them but I thought to myself, “How do you ignore being punched and pushed around. How do you pretend it doesn’t exist?” With tears in my eyes, feeling like the smallest and weakest human in the entire universe on the principal’s office chair I nodded and agreed to ignore it although I knew it wouldn’t stop anything. From a very bright, smart child I became lonely and very
I knew in an instant that the neighbors didn’t want us there. “This is our new home” said my father. With eyes wide opened I sarcastically replied, “Great…” Things were great for a while until my neighbors started to make mine and my family’s life hell. Never in my life did I ever experience racism until I moved there. Before moving there, I thought racism was something that only happened to black people. I also believed that racism was something of the past, something only mentioned in the text books because didn’t Martin Luther King JR fight for that? Many incidents occurred there such as getting called racial slurs by our neighbors such as: Beaners, wetbacks, illegal aliens and we were constantly reminded that we did not belong in America, that our place was in Mexico. Out of all the things that happened there one of the things that impacted me the most was in the 5th grade. When I moved to Los Gatos, I was about to start the 5th grade. After the horrible experiences at home I hoped that school would be better. When I walked in and the teacher took attendance I remember being the only Latina. Everyone there had names such as Matthew Thompson, Morgan Simpson, and I was ALONDRA GUADALUPE ORDAZ MARQUEZ. The students looked at me like …show more content…
In class, when I would raise my hand, they would copy my accent to ridicule me in front of the entire class so I stopped participating. The bullying was verbal at first. They’d laugh at my skin color, my ethnicity, and throw out racist jokes. Then, it started being physical. At first, it was just 3 kids but then slowly, the whole class began to join. Kids would make dirty faces when I would pass by. They’d pull my chair so I would fall backwards, they’d throw balls at me, slam my head against the water fountain, lock me in bathrooms, and push me around. I finally had enough and I decided to tell my parents. I told them that I was getting bothered by kids at school so they did what any parent would do and took me to the principal’s office. The principal told me to ignore it because the best way to get rid of bullies is to ignore them but I thought to myself, “How do you ignore being punched and pushed around. How do you pretend it doesn’t exist?” With tears in my eyes, feeling like the smallest and weakest human in the entire universe on the principal’s office chair I nodded and agreed to ignore it although I knew it wouldn’t stop anything. From a very bright, smart child I became lonely and very