Sara Paxton

Sorry for the long paragraph, but I am already annoyed. I think a lot of people are confused of what being Mexican is. First of all, Mexican is not a race, it is a nationality. Mexico has many different ethnicities from all over the world. The term Mexico or Mexican did not exist until after Mexico’s independence. The name Mexico was given to the country as a tribute to the natives who went by the name mexica (me-shica) pronounced like that. However just because they adopted the name, it really has nothing to do with anything related to the indigenous culture, the mexica or others it’s just a name, because they could of easily called it Argentina. Besides, Mexica was change to a Spanish term by adding an o and a j where the x is now. But México changed the j to an x because it looked better that way, more exotic. I will admit that Mexicans the majority are tanner but it has to do with Mexican’s Mediterranean European roots not the Aztecs or Mayans however they could have some blood from them and plus México is geographically mountainous that they are way higher above sea level and get more sunrays and tan easier. I myself being Mexican American have thought people of a certain look are Mexican because that is what American media has brainwashed us to believe, to the point that we believe instead of what we know ourselves. I just looked at my family and friends and the people in my town in Texas where everyone is Mexican American, and everyone in my town does not look like the ones crossing the border, then I realized the ones crossing the borders are pure indigenous Mexican’s who are another type of brown color and shorter in stature. While the people in my town are light skin and some dark skin (tanned) in the sense of tanning but there facial features are not indigenous or black there European/white and are probably mestizos but predominantly European ancestry. Also it is known the more of one type of people (genes) washes out the other type of peoples genes race in other words or ethnicity. Another stereotypical way I thought people were Mexican was by their last name. If they have a Spanish last name, that was how I knew they were Mexican, however there were those who had different non Spanish last names, but who still considered themselves Mexican and it’s because they had different ancestry that was not just Spanish, but had Italian, German, French, Greek, English, Irish, Russian, and so on. Some were even pure Italian and pure German and not one ounce of Spanish ancestry but are still Mexican. So in my mind I thought they were white not Mexican or half white and half Mexican one of the other. Since I used to think Mexican’s or Mexican American’s were not white, once again thanks to the American media and people like George Lopez and activist. Then, they told me they did not considered themselves white, and growing up as Mexican American not being from México, there is an out of touch basis with what Mexican’s from México are taught and how they think compared to Mexican American’s of what we are taught and how we think. In other words we Mexican American’s are lost. Only knowing that has been passed down to us and out of touch from what is going on or what went on in México. We have been told not by our parents, but by hearing comedians like George Lopez who does not even look like me at all, and activists I guess the ones who picket who tend to speak for everyone and make us all believe their way. But I look at my skin and I am white, not like George Lopez who is more indigenous, so we get brainwashed by our own so called people. Then I find out I have Italian, German, Spanish and English and French. The fact is we are a melting pot, but do not know it. We are Mexican of all colors not just the so called brown color. My aunt is blonde and grandmother, my mom is a brunette and my hair is dirty blonde, but I speak Spanish and so does everyone in town. Even though I have all those ethnicities running through me and the same with everyone in my town and neighboring towns, even in México, we are all still Mexican’s and Mexican American’s. Where we speak Spanish not Italian or German so even though all those ethnicities are in us the one we hold most of all is the Mexican one. By the way the true meaning of La raza means uniting the Mexican people together under the Mexican flag, whether we are white, indigenous or black or Asian which do exist Mexican Asians and Mexican Africans. It’s like when the USA used to use the term the American race even though we all had different backgrounds. So don’t get brainwashed by our own ignorant Mexican American’s who probably have never stepped inside México and American media who are very bias.