Mestizaje

It was the Mestizaje of natives, Africans, and Spanish that created the new race entitled Mexican, but all I saw when I looked into the mirror was a young Mexican girl. I thought being Mexican was my one and only ethnicity. Going to a predominantly white elementary school never let me forget that. As a fourth grader at Feather Flower Elementary, I was constantly teased for being ugly. “Ha! You like Stephanie!” my white classmates would say as they pointed at their friend and then to me. I felt my cheeks burning from embarrassment.