Maria Vargas’s Reviews > You Sound Like a White Girl: The Case for Rejecting Assimilation > Status Update

Race is not biological. It is political and personal.

Latino is defined as a person whose origins are in Latin America, or who have ancestors from Latin America. The linguistic roots of the word aside, Latino was a term invented in the United States.

The weight isn’t a burden, but it is a heavy load to carry. I want to take care of my mom. I want to help my family. But family is supposed to be a mutual support system. When one person becomes an ATM for the entire family, when the help they expect is always financial, then beautiful values devolve into open wounds.

Why don’t you speak English? Why don’t you speak Spanish? Being Latino in America means the answer to both of these questions holds us to an impossible standard to prove we’re both sufficiently American and authentically Latino.

It is not against the law to speak Spanish. In fact, it is not the law to speak English, as the United States does not have an official language.

The volume of my voice offended just as much as my manner of speech. After my boss told me I was too loud, I learned to tame my laughter. This was a reminder that taking up space will make others uncomfortable because they only want to see us quiet and thankful.

Papers do not define undocumented people, but the lack of them certainly outlines much of our lives—what we can and cannot do, what we do anyway. I didn’t remain undocumented because I wanted to—no one does.

A white person today can simply say, “I am white; therefore I am American,” but a Mexican with centuries of history in this land must explain where we are really from.

“There is nothing more potentially hostile than the indigenous ego interpreting the laws of his conqueror upon his own people.”

I love us. I believe in us. We don’t need the kindness of the white gaze to celebrate ourselves. We don’t need our stories to be translated so white people can see us as human. They are not our saviors. We are.