Authors: Leslie Yu and Eduardo Benitez (District 96)
Laurie Hernandez, the Olympian gymnast currently on Dancing with the Stars, was interviewed about her experience being the first US born Hispanic athlete since 1984. Her responses to the interview questions show a side of her that we may not notice from the surface, specifically regarding her background. She mentioned that because she doesn’t speak Spanish, she isn’t considered Hispanic “enough,” even being labeled ‘fake Puerto Rican.’ The interviewer also mentions Carlos Gomez, a Dominican baseball player who was criticized for not speaking “perfect” English. I sure know that my English is nowhere near perfect, and as a white woman, I rarely get called out for my English mistakes. The writer pointed out the observation “So you’ve got two athletes: Gomez- not speaking English makes him less America; and Hernandez- speaking English makes her less Hispanic. You can’t win. Either you’ve integrated yourself too much or not enough.”
Recently, this idea of multiculturalism has been making news and gaining airtime on various media outlets. As many of you have been aware of, athletes of African American descent have been scrutinized because of their ability or inability to “fit in” or be “American”. Gabby Douglas, an American Gymnastic Olympic medalist, was ridiculed and demoralized because of her action of not putting her hand over her heart when the National Anthem was played. Her name and her reputation was destroyed this past Summer because of this and she was mutilated via social media. According to her inner circle, there were extremely harsh critiques and comments mentioned towards her and even threats on her life because of this misstep.
Many of our star athletes have been speaking up recently because of their desire to create change and bring attention to the senseless murders. Colin Kaepernick, quarterback for the San Francisco received death threats because of his decision to stand up to social injustices. However, Serena Williams, probably one of the greatest tennis stars in the world has been speaking up to these injustices for years, yet it took a Football player’s actions for people to finally start paying attention to a female athlete’s position. As you can see, this is a very complex issue that is not just a racial issue, but also a gender issue as well.
How can we connect this to Woodlawn? Eddie Benitez has experienced similar sentiments and has offered to share his experiences below. He actually was the one to share the article with Ryan and me.
My name is Eduardo Benitez and I am a 38 year old male of American, Mexican (mom) and Puerto Rican(dad) descent. I was born in Chicago and have lived in the Chicagoland area for my entire life. Growing up as a Mexirican in America has been a challenge with various struggles that have influenced many aspects of my personal self-image and identity. Growing up in an impoverished community on the North Northwest side of Chicago, I did not experience much differences in racial of social classes because everyone in my community did not look at or acknowledge these differences. We were all pretty much in the same socioeconomic group and the way we looked didn’t really matter to anyone as far as I remember. I grew up looking at people that look different then me as just people. It was not until I moved to Mundelein in the Summer of 1991 that I finally realized that in my new community I was thought of as being “different”.
My father worked his entire life to provide a better life then he had growing up in Puerto Rico. I didn’t see my father very much growing up. He worked 12-15 hours a day, usually 7 days a week. My memories of my father growing up was of him sleeping on the couch while the tv was on, or him sleeping at one of my baseball games that he was able to attend. All of his struggles to provide us with a “better” life in the suburbs only to realize that this better life would be filled with prejudice and racism. As a twelve year-old boy, I was now going to school with 135 8th graders, of which only 5 were of latin descent was eye opening. I didn’t even realize it at the time because again, I didn’t even acknowledge differences in people. My best friend growing up in Chicago was of Indian descent and I noticed his family ate different foods when we played at his house, spoke a different language, this parents dressed differently as well, but again it wasn’t really a big deal because I grew up my entire life with a variety of people and cultures.
My teachers and people who knew me well did not treat me any different. I was just another boy learning how to be a man and always trying to do the right thing. As an 8th grader in a new school, I made friends with a variety of people and did well in my classes. I was even awarded the citizenship award which is similar to the superintendent award to give to our Woodlawn Graduates for their excellence. It was not until I started high school that I really began to feel “different”. At Carl Sandburg Junior High I was just myself and no one really looked at me different. When I started High School, instead of 5 Hispanic students, there were over twenty percent of MHS students that were Hispanic. Again, I didn’t even notice the difference. It was others that I went to school with that pointed this out to me. I faced discrimination from my own people at first. Some students would say that I was a “coconut”. Brown on the outside, but white on the inside. When I asked why, they’d say because I don’t speak Spanish as well as them, I did very well in school and I was friend with other students that weren’t Hispanic. It was as if my cultural identity was based on an idea of what I should be, instead of what I felt I was as a person. I struggled for a while trying to fit in with the Hispanic kids and keeping my friendships with my other friends. It was as if I needed to be different people depending on whom I am with at the time. It was exhausting and I didn’t realize it at the time, but unnecessary and hurtful to my social development as an American.
Another issue that I faced as well was that during my transformation in High School other students really started to express themselves in ways that were very hurtful and racist towards me or towards others in my circle. There was a lot of name calling and other hurtful gestures that were displayed towards us. There is nothing like a racial slur to really show a person’s true colors. It just reminded me over and over again about how much they feel I I don’t fit into “their” world.
As a Mexican growing up in America it was challenging at time because I never really fit in. I had to be as American as I can be when I was with my white friends for fear of not fitting in, and as Hispanic as I can be with my Latin friends for fear of their acceptance. Yet when I would go to Mexico, I was viewed as a foreigner because I didn’t speak Spanish like them, dress, walk or carry myself as a typical Mexican. Moreover, when I went to Puerto Rico I wasn’t Rican enough for them either. I was viewed as an American in Mexico and Puerto Rico and when I was in America I was viewed as a foreigner. It was as if I was a man without a country and I never really had a place where I was accepted for who and what I am. It was a very lonely feeling and one that I still struggle with at times.
As a teenager I remember being racially profiled and pulled over on multiple occasions because I looked suspicious. I was pulled out of my car, searched and asked if my car and audio equipment was stolen. This was a normal part of my teenage years. I was even pulled over once in Lincolnshire with a friend of mine who was also Mexican and we were both dating two white girls at the time and the officer asked the girls if there were here on their own free will. Obviously implying that we either kidnapped them or were attempting to cause them harm.
Even today, it doesn’t matter that I am a school teacher with two master’s degrees. I am still looked upon as an immigrant even though I have lived here my whole life. I remember one time pulling up to the Royal Melbourne security office to go to a Woodlawn Holiday party and the security officer looked at me and said that landscaping hours had past and I could not enter. I wasn’t even driving a landscaping truck or carrying landscaping equipment with me. He just looked at my face and thought that I didn’t belong inside of a private gated community.
These types of things have shaped the way I view myself and where I travel. They have shaped the relationships that I have made and the friendships that I have. There is nothing I can do to change the way I look, I can only hope that my actions change the way others see me and people of my ethnicity. Every time I see a Hispanic man on the news getting arrested or committing a crime, I think to myself that this will continue the trend of how others will view me even though I did nothing wrong. The crime of others should not affect me, but it affects the perception of people and how they view Hispanics. I should not be punished for the crimes of others, yet the trend continues. Hopefully as a society we can begin to look deeper into a person’s soul and see the person they truly are and forget about the color of their skin. I only hope that my son who looks just like me will never have to experience the injustices that I have experienced.
Thanks, Eddie, for contributing to the blog! If you’re interested in helping us co-write any of these entries, we would welcome it! We’re excited to be able to learn from one another and share our experiences in order to ultimately help us better meet the needs of the students we serve.
Speaking of students, we recently sat down with a student who commented that he was upset when teachers always commented that “this was fine” or “don’t worry about it.” For him, in the culture he had grown up in, they were more direct and would say exactly what they felt. If a student was struggling, in his words, teachers would say “You’re dumb.” It was quite an eye-opening experience to hear his frustrations with cultural differences he was noticing and try to work together to meet him where he was, value his perspective, and try to open him up to the idea that there are multiple cultural views surrounding education. These are conversations that perhaps you have experienced before with students or parents, and like we stated above, we’d love to problem-solve with you whenever these issues arise or even have you contribute what you’ve learned in our blog.
Instead of seeing multi-culturalism as a disadvantage, as it’s portrayed in the reactions that Laurie Hernandez received because she didn’t speak Spanish, as a community, we need to see the value that being multi-cultural has for our students. It’s important that we understand the complicated nature of our students’ cultural identity: often times divided between multiple cultures of which all the students might feel like an outsider. Instead of perceiving a multicultural identity as divisive and confusing, we can think about multicultural as an advantage. Culturally diverse students literally can choose the best from multiple cultures to form their identity. What a great asset!
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