Label me American |
The Massachusetts Daily Collegian
University of Massachusetts
2008-03-24
John Gruenenfelder
I come to you today as the son of a mixed race couple, of a white father and a Hispanic mother. And yet, I feel allegiance to neither. I look at my father and say, yes, he is white. And I look upon my mother and say, yes, she is Hispanic.
Yet I, the child of both, am neither. I am not white, nor am I Hispanic. I am both. I am not a Mexican-American, nor a white-American. Rather, I am just an American.
This is, I believe, something rather unique to our nation. If I had to assign a label, I suppose I would be a Mexican-American, but that does not begin to tell the whole truth…
…To be honest, I have never felt like an outcast. Though my last name of Gruenenfelder might lead you to think otherwise, I am indeed half Hispanic, or Mexican, or Latino or whatever. I look at my father and he is most definitely white. I look at my mother and she is most definitely Hispanic. Yet I am neither.
Of course, I grew up and spent my first 25 years in the Southwest. Surely this will color my opinion. Arizona has, especially of late, not looked fondly at its mixed heritage, but it is there nonetheless.
I do not feel put off by this. Rather, I consider myself an American. I am a product of those who came before me. I read the Constitution and wholeheartedly believe that our forefathers had remarkably forward thinking ideals – ideals which I believe in and wish to uphold.
I am not white, nor am I Hispanic. I am both, and I am an American. A wholly unique demographic shared by those people who are children of this land, half native, half immigrant or otherwise. I feel no less American than those who have lived here for five generations. Indeed, my Hispanic grandmother has just become a great-great grandmother. Is she no less American than I?…
Read the entire opinion piece here.
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