Who We Are Part 1

After Chican@ Literature 100 First of all, you are not going to find this stuff at the mall, sitting on a shelf next to a t-shirt that says, “I only look illegal”. There is no magic potion from the curandera to help you speak in your Father’s native tongue so that Navidad isn’t awkward for your family while you unwrap your tamale in silence because eres una verguenza. But still, you knew, learning math was more important than saying “Gracias” and “si senor” because you could always learn that later. And no, la pinche vecina did not perform brujeria so that one day we would be brain-washed in the classrooms full of gringos and forget about our roots by graduation. And we worked twice as hard as them, and while mami and papi prayed to the Virgen de Guadalupe, we stapled our hearts to every test, every quiz, and every assignment till there was no more room on the paper for failure; and finally, finally, we received our American diploma en la mano.