10 Mixed Heritage People on What Being Latinx Means to Them
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“Go back to where you came from,” the older boy in my middle school gym class said to me one day. His offhand comment surprised me; I had been at my new school for a few months and we’d never really spoken before. Classes were small, there were maybe 100 kids in the whole school, and, up until that moment, no one had been rude to me. But I could count the non-white students on one hand, and the fact that I was one of them seemed to be what made me the target of that one white boy's insults.
This was the first time I realized I was Mexican.
I grew up in an unusual family setting. My mom is white and my dad is half-Mexican, half-French. For personal reasons, my father was not in my life and my mom remarried a Korean-American man and had two part Korean-American children. I spent nearly half a decade of my life being raised in Japan and have bounced around from California to Texas to Maine in a matter of years. You could say I’ve been identity-confused for a majority of my life. I wasn’t Korean-American, although I was raised with certain aspects of the culture and two Korean-American siblings. I didn’t fit in with the white kids because my dark features and almond-shaped eyes confused them. But, until that boy told me to go back to where I came from (which, to be honest, I thought he meant Texas at the time), I didn’t realize I was Mexican.
When I moved back to California, it was truly the first time I felt I had found Latinidad. When no one else would ask me to sit with them, the Mexican girls in my gym class opened their tables to me. Every day, we’d meet at the same five or so tables, piling our black book bags high and rushing off to stand in the lunch line. Spanish flew about and, although I couldn’t speak the language with them, they always made me feel like I belonged. They taught me about gold hoops and red lipstick, they inspired me to trade in my Converse for some black Doheny Vans. To this day, several of them are some of my closest friends. As we entered high school, they were patient with me when I asked questions, shared their favorite recipes, and invited me to family fiestas I didn’t know I needed to feel like I belonged.
Having grown up with little attachment to my identity as a mixed heritage Latinx person, it was these people who helped me rethink the lenses with which I viewed my connection to la raza. I didn’t need to speak Spanish to be considered Latinx. I didn’t need a love of Marc Anthony or Selena. I didn’t need gold hoops and red lipstick. I didn’t need a seasonal slathering of Vicks or chicken doused in Sazón Goya. None of that would make me Latinx.
As I’m still learning today, there’s no one way to be Latinx — and for mixed heritage people, defining what it means to be Latinx can take years to figure out. For some, being Latinx means preventing others from putting their culture in a box. For others, being Latinx means defining your own identity while honoring their multicultural backgrounds. Below, Teen Vogue spoke with 10 Latinx people on their definition of what it means to be Latinx as a mixed heritage person and how they came to define their identity for themselves.
Gabriella Lewis1/10Being Latinx means being proud of your background.
For Gabriella Lewis, being Latinx means being proud of her home country and all of Latin America, in addition to the African diaspora that has history in both the Americas and Lewis’s family itself. As a Brazilian-American, she tells Teen Vogue her hyphenated identification has pros and cons, but ultimately allows her to live at the intersection of a multitude of backgrounds, which she said provides her with a unique and invaluable perspective.
“Being Latinx means being proud of all parts of myself,” she said. "It means being aware of the hurdles and hardships my family overcame through generations. It means taking up space and sharing my experiences and perspectives with others, instead of minimizing myself to make others more comfortable. It means challenging others to redefine their idea of Latinx culture.”
She says one of her greatest struggles navigating life as a mixed race Latinx person is battling being perceived as non-white in America, while being perceived as an outsider in Brazil. “There is a strong lack of a sense of belonging to any one group, which at times can feel alienating for someone of mixed race heritage. It's easy to feel like you're not 'enough' of one thing or another to really belong.”
Joanna Rosario-Rocha2/10Having mixed heritage means defining your own culture.
For Vive Cosmetics co-founder Joanna Rosario-Rocha, growing up half-Mexican and half-Puerto Rican meant learning to create her own identity from two distinct cultures.
“My dad, who was Puerto Rican, passed away when I was seven months old, therefore I was raised in a predominantly Mexican culture,” she told Teen Vogue. “Although I was raised around Mexican traditions and values, I realized being a first-generation [American] also had significant impact and shaped my identity in many ways. Culture changes from generation to generation and I have grown to define my culture on my own terms and be myself unapologetically.”
As a first-generation American, Rosario-Rocha says she often felt in limbo between her Latinx culture and the American culture she was exposed to growing up. But, thanks to her parents, she says she is able to define her own culture and values. For her, being Latinx means embracing her culture and honoring her values and those in her life who helped shape them. Honoring her mixed heritage has involved forming some of her own traditions, but not without its challenges. Growing up with a distance from her Puerto Rican roots, she says the biggest obstacle to defining her identity has been dealing with the idea that she is “not Puerto Rican enough.”
“I was never exposed to my Puerto Rican traditions and culture, therefore I felt like I could not claim that side of me at all. I struggled with this side of me and as I got older, I realized I get to define my culture and what I stand for and I am as Puerto Rican as I want to be.”
Elaine Uzor3/10Defining culture as a Latinx person of mixed heritage isn’t always easy.
For Elaine Uzor, growing up with a Dominican mother and Nigerian father was, as she calls it, a blessing. She tells Teen Vogue that defining her culture isn’t easy, as it’s a beautiful mix of so much.
“One can only imagine how both cultures meshed in the household; [so] different yet ironically similar. I believe these things have shaped who I am today,” Uzor said. “Defining my culture in simpler words is: Living out loud, embracing all, and holding yourself to a level of respect.”
For Uzor, being Latinx means being rich — in mindset, love, diligence, and everything she does. She refers to it as a clash of all cultures worldwide and a “complete advantage.” Her biggest obstacle is similar to that of Rosario-Rocha in that sometimes she feels she is not “enough” for some people. She said she feels she is sometimes looked down upon and undervalued in society. But Uzor noted that this obstacle is just that, an obstacle that can be overcome.
Courtesy of Jessica Chia4/10Having mixed heritage means embracing yourself fully.
For Allure executive beauty editor Jessica Chia, being half-Latinx and half-Asian means embracing both aspects of her culture fully and not allowing anyone else to define her heritage for her — whether it’s based on DNA percentages, how well she speaks Spanish, or how “Latinx” she presents.
“I used to say I was half Latina, half Asian, but I'm not. My blood all courses through one venous system, and there is no end to one and beginning to the other. I consider myself fully Latina and fully Asian, all the time,” she told Teen Vogue. “Being Latina means I'm part of a rich heritage that's steeped in a love of life, food, story-telling, music, the Spanish language, and the one theme that is central to my professional identity as well: beauty.”
Claudia Lewis5/10There’s no shame in being proud of your mixed heritage.
“Latinx to me means being incredibly proud and appreciative of my background. With that, comes a lot of respect for the women who have raised me since the Latin roots stem from the maternal side of my family,” Teen Vogue’s visual designer Claudia Lewis said. “There is a sense of community that I feel when talking about my family roots. Being able to identify with that community has been a really grounding and important thing in my life.”
Lewis said that although her relationship to her identity has been complicated, her family’s strong connection to their Chilean roots is especially comforting.
“We have a ton of family who live in Santiago, and through traveling there and hosting them here in the U.S., it’s been really special to have that growing relationship,” she explained to *Teen Vogue*. “I don’t know that I can define entirely what Chilean culture means to me at this point in my life, but I am comforted knowing that there are small traditions that we practice as a family, that tie me to Chile. Whether it’s through my sharing my grandmother’s lapis and silver jewelry, or eating empanadas with my cousins, my Chilean culture appears in small but significant ways.”
As for growing up in a mixed heritage family, she says it’s easy for people to make assumptions about what kind of person fits the mold of a Latinx person, but she doesn’t intend to let this obstacle stop her from being 100% herself. “It comes down to how people think a Latinx person should look, talk, what they should do, or the things that they should like. Because I am of mixed heritage, I have found it difficult to define myself, often times because I wanted to be defined by other people. I’m coming to realize that having a mixed Latinx identity is uniquely my own, and something only I can determine for myself.”
Edölia Stroud6/10Honoring both cultures is an important.
“Being of mixed Latinx heritage, my culture has been an immense part of my identity,” photographer Edölia Stroud told Teen Vogue. “Growing up, I have practiced both Black and Spanish traditions, which has implanted the honor that I have for them both and also the confidence that I carry within myself.”
As Stroud described it, being Latnix with a mixed heritage background can be both frustrating and exhilarating. She said most of the frustration arises when other people are aware of your race but identify you with preconceived stereotypes. She explained that, for her, practicing certain traditions to “prove” you’re of a certain ethnicity is not a realistic approach to identity. For example, Stroud’s lack of Spanish fluency can cause a barrier between her and her Dominican community, but it doesn’t erase the fact that she is Latinx.
“Your bloodline automatically categorizes who you are, not the label society places on you,” she said. “Culture definitely influences personality, but it does not define it. Personal preferences defines an individual’s character, so you can prefer pasta over arroz con habichuela without extracting a cultural trait.”
Aryan Tehrani7/10Being of mixed heritage allows you to appreciate other people’s backgrounds.
“I think culture can really define who you are. Coming from two cultures that are so different (Cuban and Persian) has given me a real appreciation for other people's stories,” Aryan Tehrani told Teen Vogue. “It's allowed me to have a very open mind when listening to their ideas and connecting with them on a personal and professional level.”
Proud of his Cuban and Persian heritage, Tehrani says he was primarily raised with Cuban traditions, but began to learn more about his Persian roots as he grew older. Regardless, that didn’t make living as a mixed heritage person any easier.
“For the most part, I've been fortunate enough to be surrounded by people that have been open and receptive to cultural differences. It wasn't until I reached my late teens that I started to face some obstacles,” he explains. “I did face some challenges being of Middle Eastern decent, of course I heard some of the name calling in high school and definitely experienced racial profiling when it came to security checkpoints at times. It's never really phased me. I really do look at challenging scenarios as opportunities to educate and show others the great qualities that come with being Latinx and a person of mixed heritage. In the end it's all about being human and helping each other in times of need.”
Arielle Egozi8/10Sometimes, it takes time to create your own identity.
For Arielle Egozi,, being a Latinx person of mixed heritage has almost felt like a balancing act, trying to fit her identity into a nice, tidy, unrealistic box.
“My culture is arroz con pollo for Shabbat dinner. It's my olive skin painted with red lipstick and gold hoops. It's salsa music at my Bat-Mitzvah. My culture is Middle Eastern and Cuban and Guatemalan and Jewish. A mixture uniquely mine,” she told Teen Vogue. “As a Latinx Jew, it's always been hard for me to siphon off the pieces of my culture enough to fit into a box. None of it can be separated, even if others have always tried to do that for me.”
Growing up in a city populated by Latinx people and Jews, she says she never fit in with either community. “The first week of middle school I walked up to a group of students sharing in their background of being Cuban. They turned me away because I was Jewish.” It wasn’t until last year when she visited her abuelo’s grave in a cemetery filled with Sephardic Jews from Cuba that she felt there was a space for her.
“I feel such power and strength in being Latinx and Jewish. The fire in my spirit and the freedom in my body and the resilience of my mind has been cultivated through all the pieces of me that belong to the unique blend that I am. Warriors, survivors, community builders and ancestral brujas. That is my culture.”
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Andrew Ramsammy9/10Having a multicultural upbringing can be the best of both worlds.
To Kristy Ramsammy, to be Latinx means to be a part of a group that continues to redefine the notion of what both heritage and the future look like. Growing up with a Honduran mother and Guyanese father, the blend of these two cultures in her household have helped create Ramsammy’s cultural identity.
“I am both Latinx and West-Indian. This multicultural upbringing allowed me to experience the best of both worlds. I'm like a curry tamale,” she joked. “Being recognized as Latinx has been hard to navigate. I don't quite look Latinx. My physical features lean towards the West-Indian side of me and, while I mostly understand Spanish, I cannot fluently speak it.”
Since childhood, she said other people have placed her dismissed her multicultural heritage, with some assuming she would not understand Spanish and then speaking making remarks or assumptions based on her heritage in Spanish — to which she would respond in English. “The looks on their face with the realization that I understood what they were saying in Spanish would follow. Some of my responses were also met with the acknowledgement that too am one of them.”
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Dina Noureldin10/10You never have to explain yourself to others.
Amany Noureldin told Teen Vogue that her relationship to her “extremely opposite” cultures caused her to suffer an identity crisis growing up. Having a strong connection to her Catholic Latin, Muslim North African, and secular American roots, forming her own identity has taken decades.
“At 28, I am finally starting to understand that culture in itself is complex, to say the least — and there is nothing wrong with that,” she explained. “I often felt misunderstood. People didn’t understand my extremely conservative and strict upbringing and how [that] stemmed from my father’s culturally Arab upbringing and my mom’s religious upbringing.”
Reconciling how different her cultures are has been difficult for Noureldin, but she’s learning to accept that it’s okay and that she doesn’t need to explain her heritage to people. She said she feels “truly lucky” to be biracial as it’s allowed her to “ingest two incredibly breathtaking countries with beautiful cultures.”
“There aren't enough words to describe mi orgullo in being half Latin,” she explained. “I feel especially grateful to have indigenous Ecuadorian blood in me that spiritually connects me to the Universe. For me, the Latin community epitomizes everything that culture is about: family, music, food, being loud, art, poetry, dance, community, struggle, pain, diligence, sustainability, spirituality, and multiethnic appreciation, just to name a few things.”
