My whole family is Mexican. I am Mexican, my parents are Mexican, my cousins are Mexican, my grandparents are Mexican, it goes on for a while. We\u2019re all pretty Mexican, yet we don\u2019t all look the same. I can look similar to some of my cousins, but sometimes I don\u2019t even<\/p>\n\n\n\n
look similar to my own sisters. We\u2019re all different, and this is just my experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For me, being Mexican means going out to eat and somehow always ending up at a Mexican restaurant. It\u2019ll probably be the same Mexican restaurant you always go to because your parents know what they like and where they want to spend their money, but you can\u2019t really blame them because you love the enchiladas there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For me, being Mexican means going to Mexico and spending the whole time with family. Even, and especially, if the trip is considered a \u2018vacation\u2019. You won\u2019t stop to take tours and pose in corny pictures with burnt white tourists, you\u2019ll visit family and spend hours inside their house instead. You\u2019ll be there for so long that if you hadn\u2019t already told one of your tias over<\/p>\n\n\n\n
WhatsApp that you\u2019re in town, she will have stopped by to chismear with the tia you\u2019re already visiting and see you then. She\u2019ll ask you the question everyone asks, \u201cy el novio?\u201d and you\u2019ll reply with, \u201cno ahorita,\u201d just to be nice and move the conversation along. Other times, if you really want to make your parents mad, you may even reply something like, \u201cno tengo novio, pero estoy buscando una novia,\u201d and see her gasp, \u201cay mija,\u201d while your mom rolls her eyes at you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Later your mom will tell you, \u201cyou know it\u2019s because she grew up in a different time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For me, being Mexican means going to church every Sunday and growing crushes on boys in church. You\u2019ll look back on it and realize it probably would have done you better to pay attention to the father than to have sat there thinking up a game plan in which you\u2019ll be able to shake hands with the cute boy near you during the sign of peace. Don\u2019t get confused though,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
your church crush and your youth group crush will be two different people. We all know the really cute ones never stay for youth group, and if they do then they show up with their girlfriend who brought them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For me, being Mexican means going on Instagram around the holidays and wondering what it would be like if you had a family the size of Courtney\u2019s from highschool. You\u2019ll see the pictures and wonder \u201cIs that really her whole family? She\u2019s gotta have more cousins than that,\u201d before being interrupted by your own family yelling \u201cFondo! Fondo! Fondo! Fondo!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For me, being Mexican means you went to see Coco <\/em>with your whole family and nothing was more special than all of you at that moment. You knew what you signed up for and you saw it coming, but you cried the hardest a movie has ever made you cry because it was real and it was you. The same people you sat and watched the movie with were the same people you saw on the screen. That was rare and it was special.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For me, being Mexican is a lot, but there\u2019s nothing I\u2019d want more than the family I have now. Everyone is loving. Everyone is funny. Everyone can dance. Everyone can sing. Everyone knows you and you know everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For me, being Mexican is something I will take pride in forever. I know who I am and I know where my family comes from, no one will take that away from me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","meta":[],"genre":[28,26],"year":[44],"class_list":["post-138","writing","type-writing","status-publish","hentry","genre-essays","genre-writing","year-44"],"acf":{"contributor":"Laura Hernandez","bio":"Laura Hernandez is currently studying as an English major. She was born and raised in San Diego, California. She spends her time doing schoolwork and trying to learn new skills. She primarily writes comical pieces centered around her own experiences growing up and has been published in HASH Journal.","text":"","contributor_page":null},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dekonstruktr.com\/tidepools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/writing\/138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dekonstruktr.com\/tidepools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/writing"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dekonstruktr.com\/tidepools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/writing"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dekonstruktr.com\/tidepools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"genre","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dekonstruktr.com\/tidepools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/genre?post=138"},{"taxonomy":"year","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dekonstruktr.com\/tidepools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/year?post=138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}