Frontlines and Borders

I personally do not feel that being Hispanic while attending Cal State Fullerton has brought any negative experiences. Many of my peers and teacher look like me and have had the same struggles as I have, so I do not feel alienated from them. However, during my educational path I have experienced discrimination. When I was eight years old, the whole family moved to Omaha Nebraska. I attended an upper-middle class elementary school. Living in Nebraska was difficult there were no children like me. I was probably the only Hispanic student in my class. There was little diversity; there were maybe one or two Asian students and myself that were different. The teachers did not look like me, nor did we share any customs or practices, even my ESL teacher was Caucasian. Many times I heard whispers and experienced name-calling from other students, because I was not like them.

Unlike the women in from the reading, Frontlines and Borders: Identity Thresholds for Latinas and Arab American Women, I did not use my traditions and customs to overcome the overwhelming feeling of being an outsider. Instead I cooped by assimilating and becoming like them. I suppose that because I was so young that was my way dealing with the fact that there was no one like me. I many times felt alienated and many times withdrew myself from class. My mother even took me to the Dr. and asked him if I was depressed. After a couple of years we moved from there. Those years in Nebraska were the hardest and most lonely years of my childhood. I never really felt like I belonged there.