Everyone in high school knew my parents were crazy. it was just this understood thing that they were super-strict, no-nonsense and entrometidos (all up in my business) like you wouldn't believe. Everyone knew that dating was a no-no. Everyone knew that I wasn't allowed to go to my first sleepover until I was in fifth grade. Everyone knew that my curfew on a typical Saturday night was 10, that I wasn't allowed to run alone in the neighborhood with my Ipod on, and that I had to come STRAIGHT HOME OR ELSE after the homecoming dance.

What they didn't know was that my parents weren't crazy. They were just Puerto Rican.

My Island (Puerto Rico :)

http://www.tdgnews.it/en/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Puerto_Rico_map.jpg

I used to get mad, growing up. I remember specifically in sixth grade, when I went on a school field trip to Fiesta Texas and not only did my mother chaperone but I was not permitted to wear a two piece swimsuit. I mean, who does that? All I wanted to do was wear a bikini LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE IN THE WORLD. And oh, my god. Just last year one of my best friends had a birthday part at his house and my mother literally would not let me drive to his house until she had spoken to his parents and made sure they would be "watching". I was 18 years old, two weeks away from graduating. The ridiculosity of it still astounds me.

Yeah... there was no way my mom was letting me go here alone.

http://www.coasternews.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/six-flags-fiesta-texas-logo.jpg

Did I complain? To quote a certain Alaskan politician, you betcha'. I used to say things like "Everyone elses parents is letting them..." and "You guys are the only ones that..." No good. You know how in the reading by Alessandro Melendez, his mother's excuse for making him and his brother speak Spanish at home was that they were "[her] sons... and Latino" (anthology, 854)? My mom used to say "Well, you're not everyone else." What she really meant was that I was Puerto Rican.

But am I, really? Miguel Ramirez says that "being Mexican American meant that [he] wasn't really either one," that he was "somewhere in the middle" (anthology, 838). I remember in ninth grade, I took a class called Spanish for Spanish speakers. One day, we got into a discussion about whether we (the students in the class) felt like we were more American or Puerto Rican/Mexican/Chilean/ whatever country. I remember answering that I felt more Puerto Rican, but I think that what I should have answered was something like "In Texas I feel Puerto Rican, in Puerto Rico I feel American, and in every other state if I'm speaking Spanish I feel Puerto Rican and if I'm speaking English I feel Texan." People don't want to hear that, though. When you're filling out the census, you're ethnicity is a checkbox, not a spectrum.

A little confused about my ethnicity...

http://www.tru.ca/news/websites/subject_sites/hair_website/images/green_question_mark.jpg

I can totally sympathize with the government, though. It must be a nightmare trying to decide what labels to put next to the checkboxes. And I know it's not practical to have each person write out their ethnicity. I mean, you saw what my answer to the question would have been. The government doesn't have time to read the ethnic life-story of everyone living in the US. I do understand what Norma Andrade was saying, though, when she explained that "being latina dilutes the inherent differences among all of those who claim to be a part of this group." Every time I see Puerto Rican as a separate category on one of those things, I get really excited. And it's not just on surveys, either. I hate it when someone asks what ethnicity I am and, after I answer Puerto Rican, they get this AHA look on their face and say "Isn't that like... Mexican or something? They're both hispanic, right?" Well yeah, they're both hispanic. Just like Angelsharks and great white sharks are both sharks. Except one is harmless and the other is a fierce carnivorous predator. Good lord...

Great White

Angelshark

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/sharks/classroom/sharktemplates/Templatelist.shtml

So, good news. I seriously JUST got my census. It's a big white envelope what YOUR RESPONSE IS REQUIRED BY LAW printed on it. More good news: there's a box for Puerto Ricans. Yaysies!