"On becoming a Chicano"

After reading “On Becoming a Chicano” by Richard Rodriguez I went to sleep. When I awoke this morning I looked in the mirror and asked myself who am I. What do I call myself? I didn’t come up with my own answer so I called my mother and asked her what she thought of me… her reply was “you’re my daughter, quiet, strong, stubborn, meek, gentle, and sweet.” I thought about it but I wasn’t sure if I agreed so I called my sister and she replied “you’re smart, funny, easy going, strong willed, perfectionist, my sister, your loving, too nice, and easy to get along with.” I still wasn’t sure if that’s what I was because my family has known me forever so I asked my newest friends Erika and Melanie and they’re reply was “ nice, good friend, trustworthy, loyal, strong, shy, stubborn, and very content.”


So after evaluating everything they said I did a self evaluation. I never look at myself in the way of race because I am so many things I am Samoan, Mexican, African American, and Caucasian. I never really talk about my race much because there are so many parts about it that still confuse me.

So when I look at me I see a woman who is strong because she has been through so much, an independent person, smart educated person, sweet but sometimes way too nice, and I see that I can be stubborn.

In my life I have faced many struggles which include issues with the languages in California.

My issue per say wasn’t with learning English it was learning Spanish. Most of my friends in California are Mexican, Latin, or Chicano. They had trouble with English and I had trouble understanding them. So I developed this, so I thought, unfaultable plan to learn Spanish. I was a quick learn at sixteen, and I went just about everywhere with them we would walk into small stores and people would turn their noses up at us because they would speak Spanish and I would be trying to understand and respond back in Spanish.

I also had African American friends who would call me the trader because I would try to learn Spanish, they would talk about me calling me a phony, they called me names like, Senorita Fernandez, all because I want to better my understand.

As a nineteen year old woman who now lives in Missouri I look back on those days in California and wish that I had learned more from my Spanish speaking friends. I can say causal greetings in Spanish and start a conversation, and understand just about anything but I can never form the words to reply in Spanish. I think that “On Becoming a Chicano” is an eye opener for me because even though Rodriguez faced ridicule he still became a man who he today still respects.