i am still working on "Mrs. Noggle #5".......i will finish it by friday! but here is a little taste!! this is....
M is for "MEXICAN"
i am half mexican. my mom is white. & my dad was mexican. he was born in texas but his parents were from mexico....when i was growing up in union city,indiana --there really weren't that many hispanic people living there. but now they make up about 1/3 of the population in that little town! when i was a kid the only other mexican kids that i had any contact with were the migrants at school. they'd only be there for half the school year. they could always tell that i was latin even tho i had my mom's pale white skin. they'd alway ask me if i spoke spanish & i'd say,"no." they'd say, "oh." & walk away disappointed. i dunno why that was--i dunno why they wouldn't talk to me after that.but that's just how it was. i never learned spanish. & the only spanish that i do know now is what i learned my freshman year in high school. i still swear that i will learn it someday. me & my 2 brothers were alienated by my dad's side of the family at family gatherings just becos we didn't know how to speak spanish. our older cousins would make fun of us & laugh & speak spanish at us to taunt us & talk about us in spanish to each other becos we couldn't understand them. my dad tried to teach us a few times but i think we just lost interest.
my classmates knew i was mexican but i was never really teased about it at school. there were 2 different kids at 2 different times that saw my dad & saw his dark skin & thought he was black so they called me "nigger." this really soft spoken kid in 1st grade told me i was a nigger--i couldn't believe such an ignorant thing came out of his mouth! he was a quiet kid.all i did was state: no i'm not. i'm mexican." then in 3rd grade there was this big pig-nosed girl that would pick on me. (she never liked me all thru school i dunno what the fuck her problem was!!). one day the class was looking at a map of Niger. she thought it said "Nigger "so she told this other kid that i was a "nigger." i said matter of factly "i'm not black. i'm a mexican." she looked at me like i was stupid & said ,"i saw yer dad. he's black." so i looked at her like she was stupid & said."No he's Mexican." some people are so stupid....
when i was 9 a few neighborhood kids were not allowed to play with me & my brothers cos their parents told them we were "dirty mexicans." my mom raised hell & got into arguements/fights with several mothers in the neighborhood. we were hated my all that summer. it was like the whole neighborhood was against us just becos my mom defended us.she shouldn't have had to do that. those kids didn't know any better they learned it from their fucking parents. we got called "taco","beaner", &"tomato pickers." it was so stupid.that's some great parenting from those kids' racist parents.
as i got older i was happy to see more & more mexican kids at my school. mostly 1/2 mexican just like me. (some of these 1/2 mexican kids i met at school --the purdins! are now related to me! my husband's uncle is their dad! as a matter of fact i am going to one of the purdin boys wedding this weekend!!) when i was in junior high this girl that was always a bitch to me (another girl that was always mean to me for no reason. just didn't like me i'll never know why!) asked me if i was a "wetback." i just told her,"no i was born in winchester." (the next town over) for some reason she thought that was so funny. i heard her telling the story to a group of kids in math class later that day. but as i recall...she was the only one who laughed.(it's funny cos now i am related to her by marriage!!) by the time i was in high school there were so many migrant workers from mexico & their families living in union city...& they stopped going back to mexico after the summer. they always came up for the summer & leave in the fall. eventually they all just stayed up here.my family used to have to drive to other towns to find mexican stores. in the mid 90s union city finally opened a mexican store. my dad was delighted!! after awhile the local grocery stores started stocking mexican food & made a "latin foods" section in the store! WOW!
i have ALWAYS been proud to be Mexcian. it's a part of who i am. no matter how much shit i heard growing up--i was never ashamed. no one ever made me feel bad about my race. it's part of the reason that i hypennated my name when i got married.
i am proud to be a NUNEZ!!!!!!!
