by Iemi Hernandez-Kim
I was walking in the park when an Asian woman was walking towards me on her cell phone. She passed me, laughed loudly, and in perfect Spanish said, “¡Ay, guey estas bien loco!” I had to stop walking to look at her.
As my head turned to study this spectacle, I thought, “she’s Asian. How can she speak Spanish that well?” And this is when I had my great epiphany—is that what people think when they see my mom and I speak Spanish?
My mom is a born and bred Korean woman who speaks perfect Spanish. While there have been vast discussions on Spanglish and unity with Spanish , I’m still trying to see where my story fits in. My Spanish was taught to me by my Korean mother who has no connection to Mexican culture.
“No estoy orgullosa de mi Español.” (I’m not proud that I can speak Spanish) she says.
“¿Nada?” I always thought she felt something.
“Nada.” Nope. She tells me that this is something that allows her to speak to her children but at the same time she can’t fully communicate what she wants to say.
I´m very proud of my Spanish. It´s the one thing that allows me to connect to my family and culture in Mexico but I’m not Mexican. I’m Mexican-Korean.
The multi-ethnic community is a quiet one (if you find one at all), which can be detrimental to those still living with the self-hatred and confusion that comes with being mixed. However, once that negativity subsides, a great privilege emerges. We can take the cultures that have been given to us and morph them into our own culture.
I want to learn Korean because I identify myself equally as both. I have friends who vary in how they identify themselves based on how they grew up and their parents. My own brother identifies more with his Mexican side. Even though my brother and I think differently of our cultures, he is still the only person in my life that knows what it feels like to grow up in a house where three languages are constantly heard.
My Spanish and guilt about not knowing Korean is a great reflection of how a mixed person thinks. We constantly compare one set of customs to the other in an attempt to properly balance it all. For us, the experience of being a part of different cultures is much more poignant than the cultures themselves.
To learn more about Iemi, visit her vimeo page.
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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those
of the author and should not be understood to be shared by Being Latino, Inc.
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Wonderful Article….
thank you jesus!
Thanks Iemi! I can definitely relate and reading about your experience gave me a sense of relieve. There are so many just like us but keep the feelings and emotions to themselves. Thanks!!
my pleasure. When I openly talked about this experience with other people of mixed ethnicities- I finally felt as if I found my group of people!
This small document ( http://www.drmariaroot.com/doc/BillOfRights.pdf ) has helped me out so much, hope it does the same for you!
There is a restaurant in the Soundview area of the Bronx, the entire staff is Chinese (I believe), they serve delicious Latin food and they all speak Spanish fluently. You guys are definitely not alone!
Thank you, My family is totally mixed, I am the uncle to two very beautiful Korean nieces, 5 Black American nieces and nephews, And from latin America, 1 Dominican, 1 Nicaraguan and 4 Ecuadorian, even thought they are latino countries our cultures and languages do differ in smaller ways from our Puerto Rican mix.
I wish they would all learn both their cultures and languages, but the Koreans are learning english and Korean, their father my nephew does not speak spanish well and they live far from our family. All the others are all english speakers since their parents are not well verse in spanish.and live in the USA. The Black Americans when younger used to identified themselves as Puerto Rican but this is changing and I hear, “Black American” a bit more. I don’t mind, but stress that they also have Puerto Rican ancestors!!
Thank you!!!!
Buen articulo Iemi!!!! Aunque me toco nacer y crecer en una sola cultura, ahora que vivimos en EU por adopcion, dia a dia me cuestiono muchas cosas, desde el porque perder mi apellido Hernandez Rodriguez por solamente Diaz. hasta el tener que ser etiquetada como Hispanic en todos los tramites que hago en este pais. Estas situaciones no son intrascendentes ya que nos forman una imagen que proyectamos nos guste o no.
Interesante e ilustrativo articulo, querida Iemi. Tu experiencia es la de muchos ninios y jovenes que enfrentan esa dificil situacion de ser multiculturales/multilingues, sobre todo como resultado de la migracion. El ser multicultural implica muchos retos –como tu muy bien lo describes– pero puede ser altamente gratificante. Tengo unos amigos en Malasia que tienen una hijita de 4 anios que habla 4 idiomas. Ingles y Malayo, el Tamil que es el idioma de su papa, y otro idioma de India que es el que habla la mama. Esta ninia es otro buen ejemplo que se puede ser multilingue.
Felicidades y gracias por compartir tus excelentes articulos.