My Cultural Background

I come from a Venezuelan and Spanish family. I was born in Caracas, Venezuela to a Venezuelan father and a Spanish mother. I lived in Venezuela until I was 6 years old, and that is when I moved to the United States. All my life, I grew up with Venezuelan and Spanish culture. I speak Spanish to my parents and family members other than my brother and cousins. The majority of my meals were homemade and typical Venezuelan and Spanish dishes. Instead of mac and cheese, chicken nuggets, and hot dogs, I grew up with arepas, pabellón criollo, and cachapas. All throughout my life, I was not ashamed of saying I was from Venezuela because it made me unique from everyone else. However, unless I say that I am from Venezuela and they hear me speak Spanish, people wouldn't know that I was Hispanic because I have light brown hair, blue-green eyes, am not really dark skinned, and don't have an accent when I speak English. This gave me the opportunity of being a part of both the dominant group and the minority group. Having this opportunity helps me understand what both groups are thinking and what their perspectives are. Also because of this, I have not experienced as much prejudice and discrimination as people who are noticeably Hispanic. When people first hear I'm Hispanic or hear me speak Spanish, the first thing they say is "are you Mexican?" This always bugs me because it says to me how ignorant Americans are about the world and culture. Out of the many Spanish speaking countries there are, the one they always think of is the one that is right underneath the US and in North America. Instead of them assuming that someone who is Hispanic is Mexican, they can ask "what is your heritage?" to be more conscious of other heritages. When I was younger, I would make the same mistake and assume that if someone looked Asian, they were Chinese because it is the most popular Asian country. But now, because of my experience, I try to be conscious of other heritages when I ask what their cultural background is instead of assuming because I know how it feels when people categorize you to a specific country just because it is the most common one. I hope that people will also be more aware of other cultures and that there are other countries out there than just America, Mexico, and China. My culture is a huge part of me and I have learned to embrace it even more than I did when I was younger because if I'm not proud of it, than what does that make me? My culture makes me who I am, and I am so thankful for that and would not trade it for anything.