I wasn’t really expecting that.
A supervisor kept asking me about my race/ethnicity, grossly inappropriate, I know. All I could say was that I wasn’t really sure. As the nation reckons with the (re)emergence of racism in 2020, I wanted to understand my roots better. I never really knew about my background.
Here is a little of what I was told as a child and what I knew:
- My grandfather had been adopted and apparently, the paperwork was lost, so no one really knew his origins.
- This man also committed suicide, so no one in my family talked much about our roots.
- My great-great-grandmother was supposedly Cherokee — super cool, I know.
- My maiden surname did indicate an English origin, so I expected a little bit.
Here is a little about my background:
- I grew up in South Texas, surrounded by Catholicism and the Tejano culture. In fact, Selena kissed my sister when she was a toddler. Her music reminds me of home.
- In appearance, with my brown hair and eyes and olive-tone skin, I always assumed I was a mix of white/Hispanic/Native American.
- My mother does have blond hair and blue eyes, a contrast to my father’s side of the family.
