Being attacked between two cultures

[Grecia Sanchez]

I have just finished to read an article from NBC News talking about the life of Kristian Ramos, a Mexican-American who had suffered from prejudices before he even was born, as he claims at this article. 

"From a young age some family members called me a coconut, brown on the outside, white on the inside due to my lack of skill in speaking Spanish. In school my non-Latino friends called me beaner or wetback. Despite my protests, my friends persisted; they felt their words were harmless.", said the pocho who didn't talk or know Spanish at all. This young man had it hard for his identity to be found because he was constantly struggling between Mexican culture and US culture. 

From the Mexico's perspective, he was a white man with all the same privileges of the US citizens meanwhile for USA, he could be as well a rapist or a recent immigrant. Who knows girls? One culture sees you as the traitor and the other one as the intrusor.


"My parents grew up in deeply conservative Texas when there were signs in restaurants that read, 'No dogs, Negroes or Mexicans allowed.' In the first grade, my mother was not allowed to eat her lunch in the cafeteria because she spoke Spanish", said Ramos. Girls, unbelievable to notice these signs were put outside of restaurants! We were alienated like if we were pets! Like if we were property! I can't believe it chicas, to even imagine all the stuff black Americans had suffered we did as well, it is an overwhelming feeling.

One appreciated and important person in my life once said to me: there is nothing we can do about the history, it is past, it is gone; all we have is our perceptions of it. Girls, we really have to think about the weight of all this information at Kristian's testimony, we have to realize we can change this pespective and these stereotypes can be erased by our actions at embracing our culture and where we come from.

"To my fellow pochos I say that everyday we are confronted with a choice of being who we are versus who people think we should be."

I leave you with the link of the complete article: