Alicia Washington\u2019s article<\/a> from last year, and I thought to myself, \u201cYep, uh-huh, oh me, too!\u201d\u2014particularly the parts where she shared how she felt like she didn\u2019t belong at a certain point in her professional career.<\/p>\nThere have been many events where I look around and think, \u201cDang, I\u2019m the only Hispanic here.\u201d It\u2019s something I just pick up on the moment I enter a room, and at some events, it feels like I\u2019m the only minority altogether.<\/p>\n
That said, I still live a pretty normal American life. I was born here. I speak perfect English (although I do sometimes trip myself up on words that sound similar in Spanish). My favorite show is \u201cThe Office.\u201d And my day-to-day life is probably no different than yours.<\/p>\n
But I still am (and look) Hispanic, and I\u2019ve had a fair share of comments made to me. Some of those include:<\/p>\n
\u201cThey need to hurry up and build that wall!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe workers here don\u2019t speak any English, WTF!\u201d<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t really take offense to it\u2014ignorance is ignorance\u2014but I often think about my mom and what she endured to ensure I lived an American life. So, I\u2019ll share my mother\u2019s story instead; and don\u2019t worry, I\u2019ll address those two comments above.<\/p>\n
My mother is from El Salvador and grew up dirt poor. Poor as in when I visited El Salvador as a child and into my teens, the bath was a bucket of (cold) water, and the toilet was good ole Mother Earth. She would tell me stories about how when they got new (or new to them) clothes for the beginning of the school year, they made sure it was a white or light shirt.<\/p>\n
Her brothers would rotate their shirts and her sisters would rotate theirs\u2014not so<\/em> crazy, right? Well, once that shirt got a bit too dirty, they would dye it darker and darker to get as many uses from that shirt as possible.<\/p>\nShe also constantly shares that the only food they had growing up was beans, rice, Salvadorian cheese, and tortillas. A McDonalds Big Mac is considered fancy by her standards.<\/p>\n
Now that I\u2019ve shared a little about my mother and her childhood experiences, it\u2019s time to address those comments I\u2019ve heard time and time again.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey need to hurry up and build that wall!\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\nMy mother did come to the U.S. illegally 35+ years ago and crossed that border. She did so to escape the El Salvador Civil War, which lasted from 1979 to 1992. One of her ten siblings crossed first, got a job in the U.S., and worked their butts off to send money back to the others. The rest of her siblings then came in waves as the previous wave made money to send back for the next wave. So, yeah, she crossed that border and has since become a U.S. citizen and never stopped working her butt off.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe workers here don\u2019t speak any English, WTF!\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\nMy mother also, for as long as I can remember, worked two jobs to support me and my brother. I specifically recall she would come home around 4-5 p.m. to cook for us, and then she was gone again for the night shift. She never had the time to learn English. And she tried and failed many, many times. I recall the Ingl\u00e9s Sin Barreras<\/em> (English Without Barriers) VHS tapes she would try to pick up on, but work and bills always got in the way.<\/p>\nSo, yes, if you run into my mom and speak English, she will understand some, but she can\u2019t speak it very well. That\u2019s the case for many Hispanics. I often think to myself, \u201cWell, if I knew I was moving to France and had to live there the rest of my life, I would learn French.\u201d While that\u2019s true for me and most of my friends and cousins, we only have that privilege because of our parents\u2019 sacrifices. They crossed so we could flourish in this country.<\/p>\n
Some people you run into may have similar stories. They may have never worked in an English-speaking setting or had to jump into a labor gig immediately because those are the jobs most people don\u2019t want\u2014or the only ones they can find since they\u2019re entirely new to the country. I ask that you give some grace. Because the grace you give may be to someone\u2019s mother, like mine, or someone\u2019s father, sister, or brother. Or it simply may be someone who might turn into a new friend one day.<\/p>\n
In closing, I\u2019ll lighten the mood and leave you with a challenge\u2014and it involves food. Pupusas are THE Salvadorian dish. You probably wouldn\u2019t believe me, but I had pupusas two nights in a row while writing this.<\/p>\n
I challenge you to find a local pupusa spot, try a few (my limit is around six) with the red tomato sauce and curtido (pronounced kr\u00b7tee\u00b7dow)\u2014no need to look that up, just ask for it when you get there. And please make sure it\u2019s a small business and owned by Hispanics, because it really does make a difference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u2019m a Hispanic male, but I often find myself forgetting that. I was reading Alicia Washington\u2019s article from last year, and I thought to myself, \u201cYep, uh-huh, oh me, too!\u201d\u2014particularly the parts where she shared how she felt like she didn\u2019t belong at a certain point in her professional career. There have been many events […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41465,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[675],"tags":[663,382,718,719],"class_list":["post-34199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-from-the-staff","tag-dei","tag-diversity","tag-julio-santos","tag-national-hispanic-american-heritage-month"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smps.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smps.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smps.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smps.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smps.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/smps.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34199\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smps.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smps.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smps.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smps.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"They](\"https:\/\/smps.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/SMPVoices-JSantos-1280x570-1.png\")
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