• Polydextrous@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Half of my family is spanish speaking. My mom grew up bilingual, speaking Spanish at home with my grandma. I lived in Spanish-speaking countries in my twenties for a while and learned to speak spanish myself.

    …I still never ever call myself Latino because I grew up in whitesville as a white kid. It never even occurred to me until I was older that I might technically be considered Latino. It just never really came up. The most I ever say is literally what I said in the first sentence. I really feel like deciding later in life to identify as Latino would be some weird kind of appropriation. I don’t look Latino, I didn’t experience anything like a Latino outside of visiting my family and being surrounded by Latinos.

    I’ve come across people in very similar situations to me, who do identify as Latin and they explained to me that they decided later in life to start saying it. It just feels…wrong to me. Can you find out after living a super white existence that you may get to qualify as a minority group (in the context of living in the US, that is.) I say no.

    • SomeoneElseM
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      1 year ago

      I have a similar experience to you. I’m British with an Irish father and a half-Iranian mother. I’m still British because I was born and live in the UK. My cousins would piss themselves laughing if I suddenly declared I was Irish!

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Yep. My father was British. I was born in the U.S. I don’t call myself British or English. That’s stupid. I could even get citizenship if I wanted, but if I did, the closest I would come to calling myself British would be ‘British subject.’ I’m American. Unless I do a fake accent, that’s quite clear.

        • SomeoneElseM
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          1 year ago

          “British subject” sounds very American! “Having British citizenship” sounds more, well, British. And I think you automatically have British citizenship because your dad was English. But don’t hold me to it.

    • Aesthesiaphilia@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Connecting with your heritage is a legitimate thing, as long as you actually do it and don’t just say it. And as long as you don’t get ridiculous about it.

      I’m in a smilar boat as you, my mom is a Mexican citizen but I grew up white af. I could start exploring my Mexican heritage more but I would always have to keep in mind that I grew up white and not pretend otherwise.