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