The Pros And Cons Of Being Mexican

Improved Essays
All of my life, either as a joke or seriously, I was told one thing over and over again, "Por que no puedes ser una niña normal?" It translate in English to, "Why can't you just be a normal girl?" As a child I never thought I was different than any other 4 year old. But growing up, the realize came when my friends and family began to ask my about my culture and my relationships.
Growing Hispanic had its privileges and disadvantages. Looking back to my years in middle school, I distinctly remember, being ashamed of being Mexican. All my friends were either Asian or American, I was the only Hispanic. Kids would make fun of me because I spoke Spanish. They'd always ask if I was going to have a quinceñera or if my dad's name was Jose. (It is.) Not to mention the comments about my hair because I had decide to cut it short. The amount of times I was called Dora was ridiculous. My parents always taught me to be proud of it, but by being harassed because of it, I just hide it. Everyone called me Val. I dropped out of my Spanish class. I stopped speaking Spanish at school. Basically I was "Val The American" during middle school. But when I moved onto high school, everything changed. I had been put into Spanish 1, but was removed because "I knew too much." That's when I met Ms. Vieyra in Hispanohablantes 1. Spanish Speakers was the class that changed my view on my culture. The class was a class of mostly people who were Mexican and were of Mexican culture and spoke, read, and wrote in Spanish. At first it was very intimidating, but after I made some
…show more content…
In reality bring from where I am, being Hispanic was normal and being gay is okay. My culture and sexuality shaped my views on the world. I want to go and get my teaching degree to be able to tell children, "Hey, why would you hide you are, bring different is the best thing you can be now a days." But then again I'm not a normal

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Mexico Personal Narrative

    • 622 Words
    • 3 Pages

    During the summer between my junior and senior year of high school, I realized I am Mexican. On one side of my family my grandparents are completely white but on the other side my grandparents are 100% Mexican. I grew up making tamales at Christmas and I learned about my culture. My grandparents who were born in Mexico came to the United States by walking across the border. I admired my grandparents’ strength and courage and they helped me understand the idea of The American Dream.…

    • 622 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Being Hispanic means so much more than how I look , and how I act. To me being Hispanic is the orgullo that I have in myself and in my culture it defines my humbleness and where I came from ,Los Angeles . Growing up in East Los Angeles was certainly different from growing up in the wealthier city in the United State . I didn't have many opportunities as other children. And certainly didn't have luxuries and as a young girl, I struggled to learn English.…

    • 386 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Well, to put this into perspective being a Hispanic means dedication, toleration, and passion. Now you are probably asking yourself why have I carefully chosen these three words to truly describe what it means to be Hispanic in my mind. Well notably, these expressions contain a denotation comparable to no other because it can only be fully comprehended through the devoted lives of Latino’s all over the nation. As an illustration of how arduous our livelihood can be, imagine departing the country that birthed you do to the horrid adversities occurring in ones community to arrive in a new country without any help from society.…

    • 105 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Immigration has always been a big issue and a “hot topic” in the United States of America. For the past months it has been a major subject of discussion on the different political conferences. Americans have been fed with the idea of Most of the population believe that immigrants are a threat for the economy, society and for the country itself, therefore, there has been a growth in the rejection and hate against immigrants. On the Washington Times’ article published by John Engler, the idea of an immigration reform in the United States is introduced. According to Engler, America is in need of greater investment and growth, and this could be achieved by the creation of more jobs and opportunity for its citizens as a result of an immigration reform and the acceptance of migration masses to the United States.…

    • 1234 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Immigration Pros And Cons

    • 1302 Words
    • 5 Pages

    In the past decade, the United States has dealt with many social, political, economic, and security issues involving immigration. Millions of undocumented immigrants are living in the United States. Several actions have been taken by our government to address the problems with immigration, while aiming to look out for their well-being as well. Higher education for immigrant children has been an ongoing issue. In 2001, Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act, or the DREAM Act bill, was first introduced by both Republican and Democrats, but failed to pass in Congress (Olivares).…

    • 1302 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Yes I agree that illegal immigrants should become legal citizens. Put yourself in their shoes. What if you couldn’t do anything? Imagine not being able to get a good job, provide for your family, or have freedom of speech? It is very miserable and emotional, wouldn’t you like a chance to be a citizen?…

    • 399 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The only thing worst than being a new arriving immigrant in the first half of the 1800s in the United-States was being a slave or servant. No matter which part of the country you found yourself in whether it be the North, South or West, as an immigrant you would be subjected to job discrimination, residential segregation, limitations on civil and legal rights... However, if a choice had to be made, I would have probably chosen the North because the thought of living in a state that hadn't abolished slavery like in the Southern states wouldn't be conceivable to me. Moreover, I wouldn't have lived in the West since the states that were being created there would have been too recently become parts of the Union and I would have most likely considered them…

    • 748 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Being Hispanic to me means that I was naturally born blessed, but also cursed. I was born blessed because I was able to raised by parents who had an endless work ethic. They stopped at nothing from trying to keep food on the table and clothes on our backs. I remember growing up, both of my parents working endless hours of hard labour with minimal pay just to have enough for our family to survive. Even though we were struggling most of the time, my parents always woke me every morning to the same speech, "Son, I want you to succeed in life, I want you stay in school and earn a college degree so you will not have to struggle like us in the future.…

    • 484 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    While people have different opinions about immigrants, majority of the people believe immigrants steal their jobs, get free handouts and using taxpayer’s resources. However, immigrants are crucial to the economic growth for America, without these immigrants to give good qualities to the United States, the United States would not be so successful in developing technology and the technology issues would be far worse. That is not all; the immigrants bring in wealth of knowledge and the future scientists that enrich America. These immigrants also helps in job creation by bring with them new business contacts and give opportunities to the natives to move onto higher positions. One day, I had an interesting conversation with one of my coworkers…

    • 1270 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    The United States immigrant population stands at more than 43 million people out of the current population. Immigration, it is not a bad thing well unless they've come here for the wrong reasons. Immigrants from all over are being pulled to the United States, they have a better chance here, these immigrants come here either because of terrible conditions home or just because of our beneficial factors. Factors such as our religious and political freedoms, our country's great wealth and all around better life. However remember that these people have left their homes for a reason.…

    • 404 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Decent Essays

    When people ask me my ethnicity, I often say that I am Western European. This is a lie. I am much more than that. To avoid an awkward conversation, I leave out that I am part Korean. People do not seem to realize that you can be part of an ethnic group without looking the part.…

    • 492 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In Whaneta elementary school, I was the kid who knew how to speak Spanish, not English. My parents were born in Mexico and I had never heard them mutter a single English word at the time. When I was in school, I had no Idea what my teachers or classmates were talking…

    • 854 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    As time passes one tends to grow as a person, junior year allowed me to grow particularly in my spanish writing and speaking skills. Being part of a spanish speaking family allowed me to believe I was already great in spanish, however, to my surprise AP Spanish Language taught me I had much more to learn. Through the class, I was able to enhance my spanish speaking skills, that allowed me to be able to talk to my peers in spanish, which was something kinda new to me since most of the time I spoke to them in English. I became quite fluent and confident about speaking spanish outside of home. Not only did I become more fluent in spanish, but I saw a immense increase in my writing in spanish.…

    • 259 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Immigration has seemingly always been a major topic and controversial issue in political campaigns. There are a large array of considerations that must be taken into account when addressing this issue and forming a solution. With many people having different views on the matter it often times proves to be near impossible to come up with a solution that pleases everyone. However, with proper speculation and insight on the matter, there are ways in which the goal of having a stable immigration system can be achieved. With the origin of the United States revolving around immigration from Europe, essentially we are all immigrants to a certain extent.…

    • 796 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Classroom Motivations

    • 903 Words
    • 4 Pages

    When I got to grade 6, I immediately signed up for Spanish ALP, which is a course that you take after school twice a week. Although Spanish has some similarities with English, learning it was still quite challenging at first, considering it was a completely new language to me. There were a couple of times I considered dropping Spanish because it became too challenging, especially when I had to miss classes for about 3 months due to my horseback riding accident. However, I am glad I continue to persist as I was committed to the learning and it would be a pity to lose all my…

    • 903 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays