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Personal Narrative: Puerto Rican Identity

691 Words3 Pages

It was not until recently here at TC in this class that I thought about my African heritage, growing up my family identified with only two heritages Ecuadorian and Puerto Rican. One of the big roadblocks I have had when talking about our African background with my family is the discrepancy between how society sees me and my family sees me: society sees me as Black yet my family sees me as Puerto Rican only. It seems that my family is only comfortable recognizing our complex racial composition until you get to Africa then we go no further. Some of the elders in my family have even had hostility in their voice when I have tried to talk about this subject, “We’re Puerto Rican, not some ugly Nego!” or “I’m no dirty Black!” is the common response. …show more content…

Yet, I believe that it’s not really a color issue, but more of a culture and xenophobia issue. When I visited Puerto Rico for the first time, I was treated differently compared to other darker skinned people with immediate family from Africa. Being a black-Puerto Rican, I was treated like other people in the town, but my friend who had immediate family from South was treated them differently, often to a racist/xenophobic level in some of the smaller towns. It is unfortunate to see that even today there are Puerto Ricans out there who truly believe themselves better than other Puerto Ricans because of their lighter skin color. When I have kids, I will teach as much of the rich history of our family mixed races so that my children are knowledgeable and can make their own choice on to what they identify with. In the classroom and with conversations with my family, we kids were given lip service of our African past and nothing more. Now I proudly identify I am of African descent, I am of Puerto Rican descent, I am of Ecuadorian descent, and I am an American with no identity overshadowing the

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