Personal Narrative: My Identity As A Mexican American

Growing up I excelled in every educational aspect of school. However the stereotype for someone of my skin color did not allow for me to be both Mexican and smart. My Hispanic peers began to exclude me; the most common way they did that was by taking away my identity as a Mexican. I heard “Diego you white” an uncountable number of times throughout my schooling. I noticed that my grades and vocabulary would trigger that comment so I began to change the way I acted in order to fit in. It was not until recently that I realized the fault in changing and found a peaceful merge between the two speech communities. My family comes from a poor rural farming community in the middle of Mexico. My mother has a fifth grade education and my father a sixth grade education. In 2001 a few weeks before my forth birthday my family moved from Mexico to the United States. All of my memories are here in the United States and
The first step in coming to that conclusion was realizing that there was no reason why being Mexican had to prevent me from being intelligent. A Mexican man can be just as intelligent if not more than a white man. When I realized that I stopped hiding my grades and academic accomplishments from my peers. I didn’t hide them but I also did not brag about the like I did in elementary school. This came from realizing the place I come from. My parents did not even finish elementary school so who am I to brag about my accomplishment or worse yet intentionally use large words around people in order to feel higher than them? There is nothing wrong with being proud of my accomplishments but I cannot and should not use them to make others feel less than me. Finally I realized that it was okay to have different ways of speaking. Talking to my friends one way then going to a classroom and using large words did not make me “fake,” it made me respectful and