Yo deseo... / I wish...

Cuando Ud. me conoce, yo parezco comó una güerita. Vivo en una población que tiene muchos güeros. Mis padres ganan suficiente baro, y nosotros vivimos una vida buena. Yo soy muy baja, con pelo rubio y ojos verdes, e yo parezco comó mi mamá. Sí, yo soy la güerita normal.

Pero yo soy chicana.

At first glance, I’m your typical white girl. I live in a small, mostly white town. My parents make enough money for us to live a comfortable lifestyle. I’m pretty short, with blonde hair and green eyes, and I look just like my momma. Yep, I’m your average American white girl…

…Except I’m Chicana.

¿Que es la diferencía de chicano y méxicano? Pues, yo aprendí que es un elección personal, pero personas me dijo que un chicano nació en los E.E.U.U., mientras un méxicano nació en México. Me llamo con ambas formas (e yo molesto mis amigos también).

What’s the difference between Chicano and Mexican? Well, what I’ve gathered is that it’s a personal choice, but I’ve also been told that Chicanos are born in the US, and Mexicans were born in México. Personally, I refer to myself both ways (which confuses the heck out of my friends, let me tell you).

Yo hablo español, pero yo he perdido fluidez. Yo aprendía con inglés, pero lo olvidé cuando me evejecí (mis clases me obligaron para recordarlo). Yo pienso de ambios idiomas son mis idiomas maternos.

No tuve un quinceañera ni un Sweet Sixteen.

I speak Spanish, but I’m not as fluent as I once was. I learned it right alongside English, but forgot it when I got older (thankfully, my Spanish classes are forcing me to remember). I consider both of them my native languages.

No, I didn’t have a quinceañera, but I also didn’t have a Sweet Sixteen.

Yo no soy chicana de raza (tengo sangre europea), y es el porqué de muchas personas están enfadadas conmigo. ¡Comó me atrivo algo que yo no soy! Nunca he inducí nadie a creerlo, y no lo haré.

I’m not 100% Chicana (I have European blood in me as well), and that makes a lot of people angry. How dare I claim to be something I’m “not”! I’ve never claimed to be totally Mexican, and I never will.

También, ha se pone de moda para ser latino, quiénes me reyeron ahora se acusan de una pose. Esto… Yo estoy la persona primera en mi grado que admitió a esé origen étnico. Yo pienso que está es ironico de los jovenes que lo se idenifican, hubieron el contrario. ¡No hay nada malo que ellos lo recuperan! Yo soló deseo que ellos entienden que no todos de las personas latinas no parecen comó el estereotipo.

Likewise, now that it’s fashionable to be Latino, those who laughed at me when I checked the “Hispanic” box on the questionnaires, call me a poser and accuse me of trying to be cool. Uh, I was the first person in my grade to openly accept my background. I find it ironic that a majority of the kids at my school who now identify themselves as Latino are the same people who said before that they weren’t at all. I have nothing against them accepting their roots; I actually applaud it. I just wish that they would realize that not every person who is Latino looks like the stereotype.

Pleaseohplease critique my Spanish! Like I said, I'm relearning, so it's much appreciated. I've littered Chicano slang throughout this though, like "baro" (money) and "güero" (white person), and a lot of my words come from my Spanish classes, which have tended to mesh together slangish words from the different Spanish-speaking countries.

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