An entire summer has gone by and once again, no posts from yours truly. Though fear not, for I have plenty of material to produce a few of these entries. But for now, a quick one for ya'll...
I was born in this great U. S of A and my parentals are Cuban. Raised on black beans, rice and platanitos maduros, I never really went around singing the Cuban national anthem (even though I know most of the words to it) but I do answer, when asked, that I'm American, specifically Cuban-American. It has come to my attention that if I'm not spewing Spanish all the time, including in my text messages, I'm considered too white (or gringa).
Yes people, this curly hair, brown eyed, Spanish speaking, bean loving gal is too white according to TWO guys I recently met. The first one was on a date. To make a long story short, the guy wouldn't stop speaking in Spanish and when I replied in English, he said I sounded "very white". He then asked how strong the force was with me. At this point I'm thinking he's referring to Star Wars. I ask, "the force? What force?". Of course, he was referring to how strong was my Cuban force, how much I identified with Cuba. I guess my answer lead him to really just believe I'm the biggest gringa ever.
The second case was another guy I met at happy hour. Once again, the Spanish talk begins and I reply in English (mostly because I feel more comfortable with it). He asked where I was from, blah blah, the entire explanation again, he starts to talk about his trips to Cuba (which I have no interest in) and there he goes, "Wow! You're so white, like a cracker. You're Cuban, you should be happy speaking in Spanish." At that moment, even though he was cute, I was totally over talking to Mr. Cubanaso.
Don't get me wrong, I am proud of where my family came from and I will bust out with my Spanish every so often, but if I'm talking to you in English it's because I feel more comfortable speaking English. The only acceptable time to say I'm white is when you're referring to my lack of a tan!
