Mask Essay
Miles Rivera
Different Heritage
I am biracial, when I say that you are probably thinking that I am black and white, or Asian and Hispanic, or that I at least look a little differently but I don’t. I am basically a normal white boy even though my dad is Hispanic and my mom is Irish. I live in a normal house, with two cars, and a decent amount of clothes and toys. So my point is how race has had not much effect on my life, and the effect it does have is not negative. But It could have affected me and I’m sure it does affect some people because they might look different or have a slight accent, which today, can cause problems for those people.
The only weird part for me is visiting my dad’s side of the family and having so many relatives. I’m sure most families are not this big. I don’t remember most of them but they remember me, and almost all of the can speak Spanish but I can’t because my dad can’t. He never learned Spanish because my grandparents didn’t teach him Spanish so he wouldn’t have an accent, and it would be easier for him to get a job. So really, my dad was Americanized, and the result is that he is an engineer and that I get to grow up middle class like most people.
My mom’s side of the family is the opposite of my dad’s. My mom had no aunts or uncles but two sisters. I am really close to my cousins on my mom’s side because it is so small so I actually know them well and see them quite a bit. So my mom and dad came from two very different families and I get the privilege to experience both.
I probably live an agent life, a life that the majority lives, instead of a target life, a life the minority lives, because I came out with more agent features, and most people wouldn’t even guess I’m biracial because I look Caucasian. When people see my dad or I tell them that I am biracial they are surprised. While I was revising this essay with my partner Rueben, he did not believe me and thought I was joking with him. But what if I didn’t end up with agent features? What if I ended up looking more Hispanic like my dad? Would my life be any different? To answer this question I will be interviewing another student who is also biracial but has more target features.
Trevin, an 11th grader at Animas, is also Hispanic and Caucasian but instead of looking Caucasian looks more Hispanic. I asked him if he thinks being biracial has affected him at all and he doesn’t really think so. The worst thing that has ever happened to him is being mistaken as Asian repeatedly. But just because it hasn’t affected Trevin does not mean it might not have affected me if I had more target features, and that it doesn’t affect other people.
Another big part in why I am not affected by being biracial and neither is Trevin is the time we live in and where we live. Durango is a very nice and friendly town and now all over the world races are mixing and not many people care. This shows that in some places race segregation and racial class is getting better, and will hopefully improve in the future. So I am not affected that my dad is Hispanic and my mom is Irish, but sixty or more years ago I might have been and other people still are today.
This also ties into the looking glass self, a perspective of how other people see me, how my family sees me and how I see myself. The looking glass self is the different ways you are seen by yourself and others. My Family and friends see me the way I am, being biracial, but probably never really think about it or notice it even though they know I am. People that don’t know me as well see me just being Caucasian and normal. I see myself as all of it, but most of the time I don’t even think about it unless I am talking about it because it is normal to me and how I was socialized.
My mask is the Colorado flag because I have grown up in Colorado and so did both my parents and most of my relatives. The left side of the mask has a picture of the mountains in the San Luis Valley, a place in southern Colorado, where my dad is from. The right side has a symbol that my grandpa would sign all his painting and notes with. The symbol means something in Chinese because he spent a couple years there during world war two. I personally just think of myself as Coloradoan instead of biracial or Hispanic or Caucasian. I plan on living here for a long time to stay close to family and have such a wide range of things to do. But overall I love my family and I think it is really cool that I am biracial.
Different Heritage
I am biracial, when I say that you are probably thinking that I am black and white, or Asian and Hispanic, or that I at least look a little differently but I don’t. I am basically a normal white boy even though my dad is Hispanic and my mom is Irish. I live in a normal house, with two cars, and a decent amount of clothes and toys. So my point is how race has had not much effect on my life, and the effect it does have is not negative. But It could have affected me and I’m sure it does affect some people because they might look different or have a slight accent, which today, can cause problems for those people.
The only weird part for me is visiting my dad’s side of the family and having so many relatives. I’m sure most families are not this big. I don’t remember most of them but they remember me, and almost all of the can speak Spanish but I can’t because my dad can’t. He never learned Spanish because my grandparents didn’t teach him Spanish so he wouldn’t have an accent, and it would be easier for him to get a job. So really, my dad was Americanized, and the result is that he is an engineer and that I get to grow up middle class like most people.
My mom’s side of the family is the opposite of my dad’s. My mom had no aunts or uncles but two sisters. I am really close to my cousins on my mom’s side because it is so small so I actually know them well and see them quite a bit. So my mom and dad came from two very different families and I get the privilege to experience both.
I probably live an agent life, a life that the majority lives, instead of a target life, a life the minority lives, because I came out with more agent features, and most people wouldn’t even guess I’m biracial because I look Caucasian. When people see my dad or I tell them that I am biracial they are surprised. While I was revising this essay with my partner Rueben, he did not believe me and thought I was joking with him. But what if I didn’t end up with agent features? What if I ended up looking more Hispanic like my dad? Would my life be any different? To answer this question I will be interviewing another student who is also biracial but has more target features.
Trevin, an 11th grader at Animas, is also Hispanic and Caucasian but instead of looking Caucasian looks more Hispanic. I asked him if he thinks being biracial has affected him at all and he doesn’t really think so. The worst thing that has ever happened to him is being mistaken as Asian repeatedly. But just because it hasn’t affected Trevin does not mean it might not have affected me if I had more target features, and that it doesn’t affect other people.
Another big part in why I am not affected by being biracial and neither is Trevin is the time we live in and where we live. Durango is a very nice and friendly town and now all over the world races are mixing and not many people care. This shows that in some places race segregation and racial class is getting better, and will hopefully improve in the future. So I am not affected that my dad is Hispanic and my mom is Irish, but sixty or more years ago I might have been and other people still are today.
This also ties into the looking glass self, a perspective of how other people see me, how my family sees me and how I see myself. The looking glass self is the different ways you are seen by yourself and others. My Family and friends see me the way I am, being biracial, but probably never really think about it or notice it even though they know I am. People that don’t know me as well see me just being Caucasian and normal. I see myself as all of it, but most of the time I don’t even think about it unless I am talking about it because it is normal to me and how I was socialized.
My mask is the Colorado flag because I have grown up in Colorado and so did both my parents and most of my relatives. The left side of the mask has a picture of the mountains in the San Luis Valley, a place in southern Colorado, where my dad is from. The right side has a symbol that my grandpa would sign all his painting and notes with. The symbol means something in Chinese because he spent a couple years there during world war two. I personally just think of myself as Coloradoan instead of biracial or Hispanic or Caucasian. I plan on living here for a long time to stay close to family and have such a wide range of things to do. But overall I love my family and I think it is really cool that I am biracial.