Mercurial

About the race issue:
The thing with race is that Latinos are being forced around here to “adopt” a race, so as better to fit into the usual black-white scheme of things. At the DMV we are asked race, at the INS when filing papers, at the Census – everywhere people are being confronted with that artificial segregation.
Worse, both black and white communities take umbrage in seeing a Latino going out of their “place” (at least here) and oh so shocking, I have been told twice that I am neither white enough nor black enough to go out on a date.
So, it is an issue. My father has blond hair and green ayes, and my mother had dark brown eyes, and that Latina complexion: Upon arriving here, I became “White”. No, thanks, I do have unique racial and cultural identity.
The Latinamerican mentality is different and much more varied than commonly understood, even by Latinos themselves. Nineteen nationalities, countless regions, a multitude of different ethnic origins and a thorough mixing makes the culture of the Latinos a melting pot much more complicated than that of the USA.