Being “Latino” enough

Each semester in my Latino Family Studies class, there is at least one student who shares that they don’t feel Latino enough. They share that they feel “whitewashed” and disconnected from their ancestral culture. This always strikes me. I wonder what it means to be “enough” of a culture and also how understandable it is to be influenced by the place in which we live.

And it makes me think too of how painful it sometimes feels for people who don’t have the choice to visit where their parents/grandparents/family are from, given reasons such as documentation and money. And systemic reasons why there might be a feeling of disconnection.

I wonder if in addition to changing broader systems such as our immigration policies (which keep people physically separate from loved ones and ancestral homes), if we can be enough just how we are. And if we can find ways to be connected to different parts of our family and cultures, even from afar. And if we feel separate from our cultures, if we can have a sense of curiosity about where that sense of separation came from (ex: sometimes immigrant parents have told my students-their kids- that they can only speak English in order to assimilate) and seek out our own ways to feel close.

I hope that folks like my students, can ground in a sense of pride about where our families are from while also leaving room for ourselves to be influenced by the present context around us. And if we can relish in being able to decide what to keep from our families and broader cultures, and what to leave behind.