Where am I from? by Matt Antezana

 The question of where are you from, is a question that I am all too familiar with and that I'm sure we all have heard and will continue to hear in our lives. Whether I'm asked the question by somebody, answering it as part of some sort of application, or simply telling somebody my address; it seems to always come up. At times I'm even confused as to whether someone is asking where in the United States I live or why I look the way I look. There have been plenty of times where I became so used to saying that I'm latino that I actually overlooked the real question, which was simply where I lived, because I got so used to always having to tell somebody I'm latino.The question is the question I am most asked and at times I feel it even makes up part of who I am.

When I was really young, especially when I first started going to school, I had trouble answering the question. I remember it was one of the first questions I was asked at in kindergarten by a counselor and at first I responded with Springfield, VA but then she asked me where my parents where from. Of course, I responded with Bolivia but looking back now she was actually asking for my ethnicity. At times I find myself wondering why its such an important question in our society and why it seems to make up such a big part of who we are. For me, being latino and all, I feel that its a different experience because people expect me to talk about my ethnicity and in reality really just want to know why I look the way I do. I've never been ashamed of being latino and I've always embraced my heritage, but I do wonder why this question is so persistently asked.

While I've lived in Northern Virginia my entire life, I always been proud of being latino and of my latino culture. While at times I've felt a little ostracized because of the negative portrayal of latinos on the media and in other areas; I've never felt out of place because I'm from here. I can't really speak for my parents or other latinos who were raised and have lived a big part of their lives somewhere in Latinoamerica. Since a young age I've felt like it was almost an obligation for me to become fluent in spanish (which I am) and to at least embrace some aspects of Bolivian culture. But because of how and where I was raised that never really became a problem for me. Which leads me to believe that your environment and who you're around plays a major role in all of this.