If you're mixed and proud put your hand up!

In this day an age there are so many mixed race kiddies running around but it's still a topic that I don't hear many people talk about.  For me growing up mixed has been great but there are also some things that bother about it. 

My father is a white Jewish guy from Pittsburgh, PA and my mother hailing from Colombia, South America.  They met on the subway in NYC and to my dad's Jewish mother's dismay it was LOVE and 30 years later they're still married with 3 grown children. 

I'm not sure how other mixed race people feel and I can't speak for them, but for me I don't feel like I'm "white" or "Hispanic"...I just feel like I'm ME.  I certainly have a connection with both my Jewish and Colombian sides of the family which I am thankful for however sometimes I don't feel "Jewish" or "Latin" enough to fit in completely with either side. 

I fortunately was fluent in Spanish for the first 10 years of my life but unfortunately we stopped speaking Spanish in the house and English became the primary language for us...slowly being able to speak Spanish fluently faded away for me.  As an adult I wish I knew how to speak fluently because it is something I'd want to pass onto my children however with my husband being a caucasian Jewish man just like my father, and then sprinkle me in with my now broken Spanish...the likely hood of my kids learning it from us is slim to none. 

Also the older I get the more important it is for me to connect with family and because I don't speak Spanish I do feel a disconnect with some of my mother's side of the family.  I'm thankful that everyone accepts us the way we are however it does bother me to a degree that we don't speak the language.  I also hate feeling like I'm being silently judged because people think I "should" know how to speak Spanish. 

On my Jewish side everyone is very accepting as well but even with then I feel as though I'm not "Jewish" enough and wonder if my in-laws secretly hope I will start practicing Judism with our future children. 

My whole life people would always try to guess my ethnicity and even though sometimes being "mysterious" can be fun, it can also get highly annoying.  "What are you? Dominican and black? Puerto Rican and black? half black half white? Indian? Egyptian?"  It's interesting the things that people come up with. 

We've been lucky not to really ever experience much negativity about being mixed however you will find ignorant people from time to time.  I remember distinctly when we were little we had a white family live across the street from us in Little Ferry, NJ and when we went on vacation their teenage daughter came and threw all our mail out onto the ground.   She would call us Oreo cookies and I don't think I knew what it meant at the time but I remember not feeling good about it.  Not sure what kind of person she grew up to be but I'm glad to be mixed because I feel that by default it has made me an open person, one that does not judge others easily...I'm thankful to my parents for growing up a loving, open, and honest person. 

I've never discussed it with my siblings but it's interesting because in all of our dating lives we've gravitated toward different races.  I've mainly dated white guys, my brother spanish girls, and my sister used to gravitate toward black men but now she's expanded her horizons.  Wonder if what they say is true...you tend to be with people similar to your father or mother. 

Even though I can have confused emotions about being mixed at times I wouldn't change who I am for anything.  I love that we have two different cultures to celebrate and be a part of and the fact that I can like Matzo and Empanadas in the same household is great! 

No matter what you are, embrace it. 


Here's an old article from New York Times circa 2008 if you're interested...."Contemplations on Being of Mixed Race in America" - http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/11/opinion/11mon4.html