Cultural assumptions misleading

HERE’S OUR SPANISH lesson for the day: “Pocho” is a derogatory term used by “true” Mexicans to classify their more Americanized, English-speaking Mexican counterparts.

I am, therefore, a “pocho.” However, I am not in the least bit ashamed of it.

To say that I am an Americanized Mexican would actually be a fallacy. The truth is much more simple: I am an American, born and raised right here in the United States. Just like my father and my grandfather.

My great-grandfather? Now he was an Americanized Mexican, a man who came to this country and so fell in love with its ideologies that he risked his life in World War II in order to ensure that his descendants could forever proclaim themselves as Americans.

Considering the state of Mexico today. It’s safe to say that I am forever indebted to him.

I’m not going to pretend to ignore the fact that I must be an easy target to Mexicans looking to point their fingers at a “pocho.” I mean, let’s do the math, shall we?

I am an English major, I received a B in Spanish 1A, I enjoy watching British sitcoms and my only visit to Mexico was a tequila-fueled night in Tijuana at the age of 19.

Doesn’t exactly scream, “Hecho en Mexico,” does it?

Don’t just assume, though, that my family has completely lost touch with its Mexican roots. We eat pan Mexicano every Sunday morning, our conversations are peppered with Spanish phrases and my father’s house is covered with Diego Rivera paintings.

Does that somehow substantiate our Mexican-ness? No.

But, is that what we’re trying to accomplish? Of course not.

We have nothing to prove to anybody. We’re simply living our lives the only way we know how, which is as Americans who are of Mexican heritage.

We would be poseurs if we consciously behaved in unnatural ways in an attempt to tip the scale in either the “more Mexican” or “more American” direction.

As a fourth generation Mexican-American, then, I exist as some sort of ethnic anomaly.

Other Mexicans have a tendency to label me as a “sellout,” somebody who is embarrassed by his culture, while “red-blooded” Americans will have the tendency to view me as “another Mexican” and will therefore prejudge me according to any stereotypes they may have.

Here is my two-weeks notice: I hereby quit any future efforts to simultaneously please both parties.

This is the heart of the matter; I would never turn my back on my family’s roots and I will never be ashamed of the fact that my ancestors came from Mexico.

However, I’m also not going to be ashamed of the fact that I am an American. This is the country where I was born, it is the country that has provided me with an education and it is the country that allows me to control my own destiny.

Yeah, I’ve taken a couple of shots at President Bush in some of my previous articles, but don’t think for a second that I don’t appreciate the fact that I have the right to do so.

Mexican-American, “typical” Mexican, “pocho” — call me what you’d like. I know exactly who I am, and I’m not embarrassed about any of it.

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